Hammer Combination Jointer/Planer -- Questions

[Gary Curtis]

Anyone have comments on this equipment?

Gary Curtis

[Jamie Buxton]

The Hammer A3-31 is discussed fairly often on this forum. You can find many threads about it by using SMC's Search function.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

There are several owners here. It gets great reviews, and I bet one of those guys will stop by soon. Any specific questions that you have?

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Gary, is there anything specific you want to know?

I have an A3-31 and couldn't be more pleased with it.

It replaces a General 8 inch jointer and 14 inch planer.

The Hammer has the quick change/no adjustment required knives, taking a total of 5 minutes to change all three knives. The knives are double edged, and the cost for the premium knives is aproximately the same as having my old planer knives sharpened twice.

The machine works great, the wood has zero snipe, surface finish ie excellent and the machine is capable of taking large cuts in hardwood.

Fit and finish are excellent, the machine was delivered to my house on a pallet that would make a mechanical engineer proud, and was completely adjusted and tested prior to delivery both in Austria and in Canada.

I couldn't say enough positive things about the machine.

The A3-31 gave me increased jointer capacity, saved shop space, gives better planer performance than my previous high end planer, and cost less than my previous planer

My only complaint was that the mobility kit moves the machine across the long axis, which wasn't suitable for my shop, so I made a mobile base for it myself. You can do a search on this forum for my post that includes photographs.

Regards, Rod.

[Ed Calkins]

Gary, I did extensive research (too much) on jointers and some on planers and a lot on the companies that make them. Much discussion on cutter width, bed length, combo vs. unique machines, etc. etc. The result: I have an A3-31 on order and should have it in early May. Recently, the demand seems to exceed the short-term supply which is another good indication. Felder seems to be an excellent company to deal with and they know how to manage quality with a great long-term history. From my perspective it would be a low-risk decision. :) Ed

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I have their 12" J/P.
It's a great piece of equipment. Proof that you really do get what you pay for.

And you can hand sharpen (hone really) your own blades on any diamond stone. The blades are HSS. You can grind it with regular stones but, it takes so very long you really will want a diamond.

[Gary Curtis]

Some of my specific questions:

a) will I regret having to switch back and forth from planer to jointer modes?
(I've worked a Felder combo, and know that it requires 80 turns of the crank handle to transition the cutter from the full low position to high position)
Never had either a jointer or a planer. I know that a person has to organize workflow in a shop. And that a woodworker goes to a jointer much more often than a to a planer. What happens when you ruin piece and have to make a replacement and switch modes?

b) Does the Hammer have a mortising attachment on the side?

c) Will a 1.5hp 4" dust collector handle the chips?

Gary Curtis

[Wes Grass]

"I've worked a Felder combo, and know that it requires 80 turns of the crank handle to transition the cutter from the full low position to high position"

Which is why you order the Power Drive option ;-)

[Don Abele]

Gary, I have the Hammer J/P and absolutely love it. No negative comments what so ever. It is a dream to work with.

Switching from jointer to planer mode does take a serious number of turns on the handle (I think it's actually 75) but it doesn't take more than about a minute or so and is not strenuous. If you need to replane a piece it's easy to get back to the same thickness with the addition of the accessory digital dial face (though it's not really digitial). It is EXTREMEMLY accurate giving the planer no-fuss repeatability.

There is an option for a slot mortiser on the front of the machine. Don't have so can't comment on it.

The dust port is metric (exact size escapes me right now) so you'll need to either buy or fabricate a fitting to go from it to either a standard four or six inch port. Mine was hooked to a four inch hose running to my Jet 1 1/2 HP DC. No problems what so ever. Jointers and Planers mostly produce chips (and yes, some small amount of fine dust) so a 4" line to a 1 1/2 HP DC works. I've never had any problems with clogging. When I upgraded to a six inch hose, I changed the adapter and it still works fine (go figure). No noticable improvment though (the increase was for the tablesaw).

Be well,

Doc

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

a) will I regret having to switch back and forth from planer to jointer modes?
Nope. It's easy. There will always be times when you would like to have the Jointer when it's set to planing but Se La vie. Tain't nuthin a jack plane can't do lickety solit.




(I've worked a Felder combo, and know that it requires 80 turns of the crank handle to transition the cutter from the full low position to high position)

It happens fast. I don't count turns I count seconds.
It's pretty much a non issue.



b) Does the Hammer have a mortising attachment on the side?

Mine doesn't but you can order it that way.


c) Will a 1.5hp 4" dust collector handle the chips?
I use my Riged shop Vac and it's great. Noisy but great. I had to make an adapter to transition from the Rigid hose to the Hammer. I used a poly bottle that just happened to be a tight fit for both.

And as an aside you gotta use some form of DC or shop vac with the planer mode cause the Austrian engineers just took it for granted that EVERYBODY has a DC and didn't engineer chip ejection into the thing.
Must be a law on point in Europe or sumpin.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I do have the slot mortiser attachment for my Felder combo, and I think it is the same as the Hammer. It works very well, is easy to set, and really speeds up mortising. It is very heavy, so you will probably want a cart to wheel it around. I built mine, but you can also buy the cart from Felder. It attaches via a pretty slick quick attach system. Good stuff, and no regrets from me.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Does anyone have the bigger A3-41 unit? It's on my wish list because I work with wood 13-15" wide. Unfortunately, the price is double. :mad: