Hi,
There's plenty of 18mm wood everywhere but in our house the floorboards are 16mm thick. I found a local timber merchant who will plane the wood at no extra charge but he doesn't always have what I want in stock. For example, they have run out of 2.7m and 3.0m lengths and will have no more for another fortnight, meaning I would have to buy 3.3m lengths instead. It seems silly to pay for an extra 30cm that will only get cut off and thrown away. And then there's "bank holiday emergencies" when the merchants are closed and there's only B&Q. So I was wondering is it worth getting a budget thicknesser, so I could buy
5x1 wood from anyone who had it and then plane it to 16mm myself?I have googled and found woodworkers who have £600 machines. I am sure these are wonderful but I was looking more at the cheap Erbaurer and Macallister levels of machine. I also keep getting invitations to VAT free weekends at Machine Mart. So are the £100ish machines any good?
What width is most useful? For floorboards a 6" machine would be plenty but once I had a thicknesser, would I find other uses for it and would I need a wider table?
TIA