Ryobi 2000W 318mm Thicknesser AP13AK

Good for softwoods, not so good for hardwoods – I've owned this machine for over 5 years now, thicknessing mainly pine down to size for chair / table manufacturing and occasionally recycled timber boards. I've also used it occasionally on recycled hardwood flooring. Dust extraction is defintely a must for prolonged use to avoid the machine clogging up on long runs. Bearing in mind that this… Read more

is in fact a handyman machine, not an industrial floor-mounted machine intended for heavy production use, the following are my own opinions:

Pros :

- It works. For what's it's worth, $450 essentially allows you to size timber down to whatever thickness / width you want within the given size constraints of the machine, something no other type of woodworking machine can allow you to do (not with a planed / dressed finish).

- Changing blades - changing blades, although tedious, is made easier through the use of an included alignment tool to ensure the correct depth is set. The required spanner is included and spare blades are only $50 from Bunnings. The blades are double-sided too, allowing prolonged use.

- Portable - I have mine mounted on a home-made trolley which can be wheeled around the shed whenever I need to use it. Rubber feet are provided, but I've used the bolt holes situated in the four corners to bolt it on.

- Accessible parts - spare parts can be ordered and received within 1-2 weeks from Bunnings.

Cons :

- Rubber rollers - Unfortunately, all domestic machines like this have them, regardless of brand. They wear out over time and need replacing. The rubber gets abraded as timber is continuously passed into the feed rollers and they can be quite expensive to replace ($80 for one). For hardwood use, the dust which settles on the rollers can prevent them from gripping the timber, requiring constant cleaning with a damp rag also. I constantly have timber feed problems, although my machine is several years past its warranty so is definitely beyond its intended lifecyle. The rollers can also leave "burn" marks on the timber (easily sanded away though) and I have not found them to work very well on hardwoods (they are just too slippery).

- Loud - This machine is very loud due to the nature of motor used. I've found my motor to start wirring after several years of use too, even though I've replaced brushes, so I'm not sure how much life that has in it either.

- Snipe - I get about 50mm snipe each end of timber which is inevitably wasted. This is the nature of any thicknesser which has the two threaded rods in the middle of the cutter / motor assembly. This causes the assembly to rock back and forth as timber enters and leaves the machine, thereby raising and lowering the cutterhead. The only way around this is to use a thicknesser with a four-post threaded rod assembly, which unfortunately is limited to industrial $1000+ thicknessers.