Scheppach Plana 3.0

[ross.willow]

Just a quick run down of the Scheppach Plana 3.0 Jointer/Thicknesser having had this in the workshop for little over a month now I've been able to give it a bit of a workout, so I thought I'd share.

I picked the machine up at Hare & Forbes just before the end of July, so take home price was $1590 inc. I had a BP430 bandsaw and single bag dust extractor on the back of the ute too, they all fitted in well, though the bandsaw was second hand and already assembled, so there might have been an issue had the bandsaw come in its original cartons. The main carton weighted 140kg or there about, so either a forklift, or a couple of extra hands are needed at the end of the journey.

The assembly is not a huge operation, but if your the type of person who needs instructions... The Scheppach manual is more or less good for little else than starting a fire. That being said its a a pretty simple machine and from memory all that needs to go together is the base (2 sides & 2 ends bolted together) the guards need attaching and the fence needs a couple of bolts installing. Then you're pretty much right to run the squares over it and make sure everything lines up. Which in my case everything from straight and true from the box.

At this point all I had noted was the build quality and the feel of the product. Aluminium fences are too light in my opinion, they would be fine for a smaller workshop using lighter timbers but I'm on occasion running old horse stud fence rails through the machine... which I would prefer to have a heavier set up for, but for the price I paid for the machine I really can't fault the build quality at this point. Its all pressed and folded sheet metal, bar the cast tables, but it's heavy enough and gives a solid stance when all put together and installed on the base.

Dust extraction is ok, not brilliant, but the bulk of the material and more importantly the dust escapes the machine and find its way to the bag, leaving a small amount of larger chip debris either under the machine or under the table.

Changing from jointer to thicknesser is quite quick, one side table, and the dust extraction hood flips up. Though the thicknesser table does need to be dropped all the way down to 155mm to allow the hood to flip over to the top of the machine, not a huge deal, but annoying when you're trying to get things down too quickly!

The quality of the finish with sharp blades actually surprised me, cursory touch with a sanding pad and its pretty much ready to go, I ran 40m of heavy ironbark/stringybark/red gum through the machine to begin its life and it's stood up to the challenge, though I've installed a weekly blade sharpening regime to keep things all up to scratch. A rotation of a couple of sets of blades does the job, next machine will have a spiral head on it though, and a bit of extra width.

I have had one issue with the machine, just this week the uni joint at the end of the shaft that allows the user to lift and lower the thicknesser table separated. The part in my opinion just too light to to the job its meant for, a worm drive would have been a better option than the double uni joint they have used, but H&F came to the party, couldn't justify sending a tech all the way to Muswellbrook, but they did send me a new part and some blades to account for the hassle, which was good. Had it been out of warranty I would've just fixed it myself anyway.

All in all considering the price, the machine is well worth the money. For everyday use on hardwoods the machine is probably too light, but I haven't yet been able to hassle the 3hp motor. the reduced footprint of the jointer thicknesser is a Godsend in my shed and the time to convert from one machine to the other is about 30 seconds. Anyone looking for a jointer thicknesser combo under $2000 this machine is definitely worth the $$$.

[ross.willow]

After having the machine for a while now... while i still believe for a hobbyist this would be a great economical machine, for me it just doesn't cut the mustard. Having just separated the uni joint for a second time, which is a little annoying.. just bad engineering to be honest, it should have had a small right angle gearbox, which even if if added $100 cost to the piece of machinery would have paid for itself after the first breakdown. Power isn't a problem if you keep the blades up to spec and take your time, for the sake of understanding the boundaries of the machine... it stalls at about cuts in oak at around 2.5mm ( 200mm width). The table lift system is in my opinion all round too light, and the aluminium fence is too light for long or heavy stock.

I'm currently on the look out for a cast iron older unit, with a spiral head.