Thought I would share my first impressions of the 10" combination planer /thicknesser I purchased recently.
My first requirement was for a thicknesser to dress boards that were produced from re-sawing 7 1/2" x 2" pine planks. ( still have about 50.) This would give me two 7 1/2" x 7/8 boards or three 1/2" x 7 1/2". (Approx) Secondly, I have limited space in the workshop, - about 500 sq. ft. - and wanted a small machine footprint. Thirdly, my usage would be minimal and intermittent, so I didn't want to spend any more than necessary to achieve the above.
I opted for a Chinese manufactured dual purpose machine with a three blade cutterhead and serrated steel feed roller, purchased from a local machinery outlet with a good reputation. Cost: AUD$1300, with three years warranty. Delivered promptly, craned off the back of the truck on to a mobile base I'd made for the purpose and wheeled into the workshop.
Read the assembly instructions, all required parts were there. The assembly/operating instructions were written in good clear English, however, they lacked sufficient detail in my opinion. Spent the first part of the day checking capscrews and fittings, found a couple that needed tightening.
On checking table alignments, I found both the top infeed and outfeed tables were slightly off alignment with the cutterhead and they were not precisely co-planar. Adjustment was simple, and I cycled the height adjustment for both infeed and outfeed several times and found the integrity of the alignment was maintained. Everything else seemed fine.
Hooked up the dust collection and selected a piece of 3" x 3" with a significant bow to try on the jointer. Worked perfectly. Four passes on the jointer on the concave side and the bow was gone. No sign of taper. Then flipped the jointer tables away, turned the extractor hood over and set up for thickness planing. Four passes removed the convex. The feed rate seemed well matched to the cutter. Ran a few other different sized pieces through, with excellent results each time.
Finish was far better than I had anticipated. No snipe at all. Noise level was far less than I had thought it would be. Chip extraction worked well. Jointer fence is adequate, but nothing to write home about.
Conversion from jointer to thicknesser mode, or the reverse, takes less than
15 seconds. The tables are secured by simple and effective cam locks. Table rise and fall seems precise, with no movement from set position.So far, I am well pleased.
Tomorrow, I will remove the side covers and check out the integrity of the chains, sprockets and bearings. - now, having said I'm happy with the machine, sod's law dictates that I'll find a sprocket starting to chew out or some other disaster. : )
Pics on web page.