New Tools Arrived!!!!

[John Harden]

It took four months, but they arrived safe and sound on Friday!!! Had me a bit worried as they had to change trucks twice on their way to California from Delaware offering two opportunities for accidental damage. Trucking company came through though as they arrived without a scratch despite the box with the slider showing some signs of damage.

Two, 4'X8' pallets, a third one with the power feeder and other accessories, and a fourth with the sliding table.

Forklift with large pneumatic tires was a good choice for my suburban street and concrete drive way.

Delivery service does a lot of these in SoCal and it shows. He was well prepared and knew what he was doing. No way I could have done this on my own. Saw/Shaper weighs 1800 pounds and the Jointer/Planer another 1200. Ouch!!!!

[John Harden]

Jointer/Planer was next off the truck.

We had to hoist it up to install the mobility kit. This was a royal pain and took over an hour. Excellent design as it'll easily support the weight, but very difficult to work your hands into the small cavities in the back to thread a nut onto the bolts. That's my only complaint. Once it was done, it was very easy to roll into position.

[John Harden]

That primed us for tackling the saw. Much easier to install the mobility kit as there was easy access underneath once we blocked it up high enough to get our hands under it. Still kind of unnerving to have your hands under that much dead weight. Having the forklift with straps still attached made me a lot more comfortable.

Next up was installing the slider and the beginning of the calibration. This took awhile, in part because I was sick and moving kind of slow.

Wound up having to recalibrate the slider, but this wasn't too bad. It now runs true (flat without rise and fall) to .004" over it's complete, 9 foot path of travel past the dial indicators. I'll live with that!!!!!

[Steve Roxberg]

I'm speechless, and green with envy.

Wow! Nice equipment.

[John Harden]

Jointer calbration will be a lot simpler. Tables are dead flat side to side and on the diagonals. I need to make a few minor adjustments to pull down the front of the right table, but that's an easy one I'll do tomorrow.

Plug heads are installed on both units and they fire up just fine. Still need to modify the dust collection to reach each of them. That 4" pipe behind the J/P was for a router table that's been moved. A new, 6" line will drop straight down from the ceiling and will be reduced to a 5" hose that fits over the port.

Saw/Shaper is a little more involved. It has four ports. Main port for the saw, a large port for the shaper fence (it'll share the hose for the saw), smaller third one for the shaper and a fourth that attaches to the blade guard/riving knife. That last one will need to drop down from the overhead.

I'll need to work on that this week and next weekend.

I also still need to check and possibly calibrate the crosscut and outrigger on the saw and to install the power feeder and Big Lift device to make lifting the power feeder manageable.

All in all, I"m very happy with them!!!!!!

Hope you enjoy the photos!!!

Regards,

John

[gary Zimmel]

Now those are a couple of heavy duty machines...

Congrats John!

[Mike Palmowski]

WOWSERS!!! Congrats on the purchase! Is this a hobby or are you running a buisness?

[Joe Leigh]

WOWSERS!!! Congrats on the purchase! Is this a hobby or are you running a buisness?

My thoughts exactly! That is some heavy artillery for a home shop! NICE!!

[Rod Sheridan]

Very nice John, have fun.

Did you purchase the slot mortiser for the planer?

On another subject, what's the motorcycle in the background?

Regards, Rod.

P.S. Nice packaging, my Hammer came with the same heavy duty pallets including the steel beams, and 6 billion staples on the plastic. I swear the guy in the shipping department at Felder gets paid by the kilogram of staples used.

I noticed that just like Sep, you opted for power drive and the Euro comfort guard. Glad to see that you were paying attention during the videos :-)

[John Harden]

WOWSERS!!! Congrats on the purchase! Is this a hobby or are you running a buisness?

Its a home shop. WW is a hobby. I went through a progression. Home Depot benchtop saw, Sears Contractors saw, then in 1997 a PM-66 that I just sold last month.

Regards,

John

[Rod Sheridan]

Its a home shop. WW is a hobby. I went through a progression. Home Depot benchtop saw, Sears Contractors saw, then in 1997 a PM-66 that I just sold last month.

Regards,

John

Strangely familiar, contractor saw, General 650, Hammer B3 Winner.

Wish I had room for your Felder........Rod.

[John Harden]

Very nice John, have fun.

Did you purchase the slot mortiser for the planer?

On another subject, what's the motorcycle in the background?

Regards, Rod.

P.S. Nice packaging, my Hammer came with the same heavy duty pallets including the steel beams, and 6 billion staples on the plastic. I swear the guy in the shipping department at Felder gets paid by the kilogram of staples used.

I noticed that just like Sep, you opted for power drive and the Euro comfort guard. Glad to see that you were paying attention during the videos :-)

LOL!!!!! Yeah, must have been the same guy who applied the plastic sheeting to mine. So many staples that my neighbor didn't even want them to burn in his fire pit. I just Sawzall'd them up and tossed them.

No, I didn't get the mortiser for the J/P. Just don't think I'd ever use it. I took a WW class awhile back where we used a MultiRouter quite a lot, which is an awesome machine. Even with that, I still prefer my Leigh FMT for repetitive M&T work. Door makers really like the mortising machines I hear, which makes sense. You can cantilever heavy timbers off the table while mortising them. Can't do that with an FMT.

Yeah, I got the Power Drive on both units. Very nice to just turn a dial, particularly when switching from saw to shaper and back. You can raise one blade while lowering another. Very nice on the J/P too when raising or lowering the planer bed.

Bike is a BMW, GS Adventure. Lot's of fun!!!

Regards,

John

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks John, as you can tell from my avatar I like BMW's.

I have an R90/6, Diann has an R60/7.

Have fun with the new machinery........Rod.

[Kent A Bathurst]

John - that's cold, man. COLD. You post photos of a truckload of brand-new Felder equipment arriving at your house??

What did I ever do to you? Whatever it was, I apologize. Uncle.

:)

[Doug Shepard]

Sweet. That's some awfully nice hobby horsies in your stable. Enjoy.

[Don Bullock]

WOW!!!!:eek: That's a beautiful sight! Congratulations.:D

[John Harden]

Thanks John, as you can tell from my avatar I like BMW's.

I have an R90/6, Diann has an R60/7.

Have fun with the new machinery........Rod.

Those are nice bikes. Quality certainly comes at a price, no?

Regards,

John

[Rod Sheridan]

Those are nice bikes. Quality certainly comes at a price, no?

Regards,

John
Yes, first R90/6 was a 1974, in 2002 I was rear ended by an SUV whose driver was on the phone. Bike destroyed at 500,000Km.

I could have cried, my ambition was to see 1,000,000 Km on it before I got too old to ride.

Took almost a year to find another old bike, presently working on my next 500,000Km.

P.S. Diann's R60 was apart this summer for a re bore at 280,000Km, it was halfway to the bore limit, however once I had it apart I decided to go ahead, it would have been fine with new rings and honing.

Yes, you get what you pay for, per Km the BMW is a bargain.

kind of like a Felder per hour.........Rod.

[John Harden]

John - that's cold, man. COLD. You post photos of a truckload of brand-new Felder equipment arriving at your house??

What did I ever do to you? Whatever it was, I apologize. Uncle.

:)

Sorry to be so mean. :D

Here's a close up of the control panel. I have to say, one of my favorite things about the saw/shaper so far are the 5hp variable speed motors. No belts to change on the shaper and I can dial down the saw blade tip speed as needed for what I'm cutting. It really helps with the noise level. There's really no need to spin that noisy 12" blade at full speed for most applicatons.

The motors are actually 3 phase (with single phase input), and the saw has a built in Variable Frequency Drive. The converter gives off a constant low hum when the main power switch is on. Pretty cool as it reminds me that it is on. My 18 month old daughter has already taken a liking to the "pretty lights". Good thing the main power switch has a lock out.

Regards,

John

[John Harden]

Strangely familiar, contractor saw, General 650, Hammer B3 Winner.

Wish I had room for your Felder........Rod.

Yup, seems like a natural progression.

I toyed with placement for two days before settling on a front to back arrangement. At first I was thinking about crossways, but it took up too much room. Its a four car garage, but I have two columns to contend with.

After moving it about 5 or 6 times, I discovered that by placing it where it is, I can do 90% of my work without having to open the garage door. The short crosscut fence will clear the blade with about 6 inches to spare between the slider and garage door. I have just enough room to retract the 9 foot slider all the way for blade changes.

If I need to use the slider with the shaper, I'll need to use either the outrigger fence or if I use the short crosscut fence, I'll need to open the garage door. The shaper is pretty quiet compared to the saw.

I'm afraid that large rolling assembly cart with drawers will have to go. Too bad as I just made it about 6 months ago. Oh well.

I may just CL it here locally.

Regards,

John

[Zach England]

I suppose it will work as a starter set...

[Gary Herrmann]

Seeing as no one else has said it...

You suck!

[Scot Ferraro]

Hi John,

Congrats on your new toys -- that is a great set-up! If I had the room I would love to have your set-up too. I am sure you will enjoy a few years of good use out of these machines until you decide to upgrade to the Format line (the next logical progression) :)!

Congratulations again!

Scot

[John Harden]

Hi John,

Congrats on your new toys -- that is a great set-up! If I had the room I would love to have your set-up too. I am sure you will enjoy a few years of good use out of these machines until you decide to upgrade to the Format line (the next logical progression) :)!

Congratulations again!

Scot

If I "upgrage" again, I'm going to need to find a place to recuperate as the wife would knock me over the head with a wrench. :eek:

She already likes to point out that "there was nothing wrong with the old tools!!!!!".......

Geez, wives just don't understand things very clearly do they??? :D

Regards,

John

[Dennis McGarry]

Nice tools!

<-----Green with envy, and if that is a hobby, I have to quote a great line...

What do you do? and How do I get in on it?

Beautiful pieces!

[Jeff Monson]

WOW, those are some beutiful pieces of equipment, I'm glad there are no felder showrooms close to me. Makes my hammer a3/31 look like a fisher price toy compared to those babies!!!


Congrats on the gloat.

[jason margeson]

Congratulations on the top notch gear!

I only hope someday that i have the skill, and means to have such equipment.

[Steve Rowe]

Sorry to be so mean. :D

Here's a close up of the control panel. I have to say, one of my favorite things about the saw/shaper so far are the 5hp variable speed motors. No belts to change on the shaper and I can dial down the saw blade tip speed as needed for what I'm cutting. It really helps with the noise level. There's really no need to spin that noisy 12" blade at full speed for most applicatons.

The motors are actually 3 phase (with single phase input), and the saw has a built in Variable Frequency Drive. The converter gives off a constant low hum when the main power switch is on. Pretty cool as it reminds me that it is on. My 18 month old daughter has already taken a liking to the "pretty lights". Good thing the main power switch has a lock out.

Regards,

John

Congratulations John.
Nice machines and you even opted for the power drive on the saw and shaper. I really like the variable speed option on the saw and shaper but especially the shaper. If I recall correctly, you can crank the spindle speed on a router spindle up to over 15000 rpm making router bits pretty effective in the machine. That is a feat that most shapers cannot accomplish which gives you a superb router table.
Steve

[John Harden]

Congratulations John.
Nice machines and you even opted for the power drive on the saw and shaper. I really like the variable speed option on the saw and shaper but especially the shaper. If I recall correctly, you can crank the spindle speed on a router spindle up to over 15000 rpm making router bits pretty effective in the machine. That is a feat that most shapers cannot accomplish which gives you a superb router table.
Steve

Steve, thanks. I'm told that with the VS option it will actually spin the router spindle up to nearly 22,000 if you turn the dial all the way. Not sure if that's true, but Felder technicians recommend not exceeding 19,000 due to the risk to the spindle bearings. Honestly, none of my large 1/2" router bits need to spin over 12K so I just don't know if I'll go that high. For small profile router bits, I think it'd be easier to just use the router table which is nearby.

The router spindle for this thing is not cheap and I mainly got it to leverage some of my large, profile bits for picture frames, etc. We'll see how it goes over time.

I just got the dust collection to the saw hooked up tonight and realized I forgot to install a Y for the small hose that connects to the cabinet for the shaper. Oh well. Time to cut into the DC pipe and put in the Y.

Regards,

John

[Dave Sepucha]

And I was happy about the new hand sander I just picked up.

[Dana Vogel]

Beautiful machinery, I really believe combo machines are the way to go, much less space required.

Enjoy your new equipment, Dana

[John Harden]

Beautiful machinery, I really believe combo machines are the way to go, much less space required.

Enjoy your new equipment, Dana

Thanks. At first, I was looking to get a full combo, but didn't want the J/P always hanging out there on the right side. Having two seperate combos is the best of both worlds, as you can place them side by side if you want, or keep them seperated, as mine are. Technically, you can seperate Felder full combos by unbolting the J/P, but it is clunky as you still have an "umbilical" back to the saw and the main power switch. Folks do it, but Felder recommend seperate units over this approach.

Finally got the dust piping hooked up. 6" main lines drop to 5" at the machines. Fired off the planer and it planed down a 14" wide, 8/4 mahogany plank buttery smooth with no snipe.

Switched to the jointer and it jointed an amazingly nice, sharply convex curve onto an already flat board. Scratched my head and figured it needed calibration. As I walked away the light bulb came on. Went back, locked down the tables with the ratcheting handles and tried again. Nice and straight. Doh!!!!!!:o

Regards,

John

[Chris Tsutsui]

Wow John, you have better hobby equipment than most small business professionals.

Each weekend I visit the inlaws and they are a stone throw away from the speedway. I can hear the race cars if I go outside.

Now I know that if I go outside it might not be the race cars, it might be you woodworking... jk

I agree with you that two 2-1 combos is better than a single 4-1 combo, though I know the machines arn't that much different so do you think it's possible to separate the J/P from the slider/shaper if they got the 4-1 combo? Then you can have separates or decide later to combine the machines? That would be pretty versatile if Felder designed them that way.

[John Harden]

Wow John, you have better hobby equipment than most small business professionals.

Each weekend I visit the inlaws and they are a stone throw away from the speedway. I can hear the race cars if I go outside.

Now I know that if I go outside it might not be the race cars, it might be you woodworking... jk

I agree with you that two 2-1 combos is better than a single 4-1 combo, though I know the machines arn't that much different so do you think it's possible to separate the J/P from the slider/shaper if they got the 4-1 combo? Then you can have separates or decide later to combine the machines? That would be pretty versatile if Felder designed them that way.

Chris, you're welcome to come by and check them out next time you're out my way. I'm only a few miles from the Speedway. The J/P isn't any noiser than any other I've heard. The saw, however is pretty noisy with the 12" blade at full height and full speed. I'm using the Felder industrial combo blade. May switch to a WWII or a Tenryu. FOG folks who have both say they're much quieter.

I wouldn't necessarily say two seperates are better, only different. For a shop with limited space and only one woodworker a 4:1 would be far better.

From what I understand, you can unbolt the J/P from the full 741 combo. However, you need to have an electrical connection back to the main cabinet as this is where the main control panel is. Essentially, when you turn the main selector/power switch on the saw cabinet to the J/P position, it has to have some way to talk to the J/P and tell it to fire up its motor. Make sense?

There are other differences as well. Rip fence on saw/shaper is very different than combo and is off the monster 900 series Felder. Very nice. On the full combo, the saw and J/P share a fence so you have to move the heavy thing back and forth. Easy if you're Sep from the Felder video, not so much if you're 5'9" me. Jointer tables are longer on seperates too. Mine are 78" without extensions. I think the combo ones are 68" or so. Can't remember for sure, though this really isn't an issue as the extensions are incredibly easy to install and very robust.

On the downside, the seperates cost a lot more.

Regards,

John

[Rod Sheridan]

Switched to the jointer and it jointed an amazingly nice, sharply convex curve onto an already flat board. Scratched my head and figured it needed calibration. As I walked away the light bulb came on. Went back, locked down the tables with the ratcheting handles and tried again. Nice and straight. Doh!!!!!!:o

Regards,

John

It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who has done that!.

Regards, Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

[QUOTE=Chris Tsutsui;1258916]Wow John, you have better hobby equipment than most small business professionals.

Says the guy who recently became the owner of an A3-31.

Have you had it running yet Chris?


Regards, Rod.

[John Harden]

It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who has done that!.

Regards, Rod.

You know the upside is that if we ever have to make long clamping cauls or some such thing, we have a reliably fast way to form a smooth, convex shape!!!! :D

[Chris Tsutsui]

[QUOTE=Chris Tsutsui;1258916]Wow John, you have better hobby equipment than most small business professionals.

Says the guy who recently became the owner of an A3-31.

Have you had it running yet Chris?


Regards, Rod.

Sorry for the late reply, I left work Friday evening before I had read this.

Anyways, the A3 31 is up and running. Thanks John for the email on setting it up.

I've got it setup perfect right now so time will tell if it stays dialed in.

With an 8/4 hard maple board as a test sample, I jointed it 2 sides, checked it with a machinist square and it was perfect. (While the unjointed version was not square of course)

Then I ran it through the planer with 3 passes removing about a half MM removed with each pass.

The result was that I took two calipers, one mitutoyo dial caliper that has been calibrated and accurate to 0.0001". I checked all four corners and several other places and each measurement of thickness was within a tolerance of +/- 0.0001"

This is far more accurate than I expected.

The blades are indeed truly quick swap for without adjustment, all of the blades were level.

The adjustments I had to make to get the machine dialed in perfect was I had to make the fence 90 degrees to the bed, then I had to adjust the infeed table so it was level with the blades. The blades were already level with the outfeed table so that was nice.

The A3 31 powered through a 6" wide board without bogging down at all unlike my 6" delta deluxe jointer which you can feel the motor slightly decrease in RPM.

The cut quality with the STOCK chrome steel blades seemed ok and similar to the delta. I'm just glad there was no snipe at all and I can't wait to get some longer lasting cobalt blades.

Overall I'm very impressed with the dust collection, even if it's mated to abudget HF 2hp DC that sucked all of the chips and dust perfectly fine catching probably almost 99% of the chips and dust.

[Brian Peters]

Wow.. jealous. Love the machinery. I won't dare ask how much you paid for it but would you mind spilling how much the freight was for something like that? :o I have a new tool coming and now it won't be as exciting after seeing this thread.

[Rod Sheridan]

Sounds good Chris, I replaced the stock blades with the cobalt models as well.

It is the first planer I've used that has zero snipe, what a treat.

I normally take a roughing pass of 1 to 1.5mm and it does that without effort on hardwoods about 10" in width.

I just have to remember to hold the start button until the planer is up to speed, I guess it's the Felder/Hammer secret handshake for single phase machines.:D

regards, Rod.

[John Harden]

Wow.. jealous. Love the machinery. I won't dare ask how much you paid for it but would you mind spilling how much the freight was for something like that? :o I have a new tool coming and now it won't be as exciting after seeing this thread.

Brian, I think shipping was about $1200 from Austria. Not bad for four pallets. I also paid $450 to a local trucking company to go pick them up and deliver them to my house. That was a bargain as he spent about three hours at my house helping me unbolt them from the pallets, installing the mobility kits and nudging them up into my garage. He definitely earned his money that day.

Regards,

John

[Chris Tsutsui]

It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who has done that!.

Regards, Rod.

Rod and John,

Here's a tip for my machine.

When I first setup the outfeed table, I rotated the cutter blade so it was out of the way and leveled the infeed with the outfeed table by using a straight edge. Now both infeed and outfeed table should be level with eachother and you should NOT have tightened the tables down.

If you find that after tightening down the knobs LOWERS the infeed side of the table, then you could use some adjustment on the "two round head bolts" that the infeed jointer table lands on when it swings down on the hinges.

Drop the infeed table down and from underneath the table, use a feeler gauge and measure the gap above each of the two round head bolt stops when the infeed table is down. Make sure the table is NOT tightened down when you measure. (If you don't have a feeler gauge you can use a thin piece of paper)

Then lift the outfeed table again and adjust the bolt height that was too low. Drop the table down again and measure again until both sides are exactly the same.

NOW that these two stops have been adjusted to touch the outfeed table equally, you can tighten down the table and it doens't affect the outfeed table's height giving you more consistenncy no matter HOW hard you tighten the tables down.

Hence, if you forget to tighten the table down, you should still get a true cut. heh

[Stephen Edwards]

Congratulations on your new machines! Here's wishing you many years of enjoyable service from your fine machines.

Best Regards,

[Rod Sheridan]

Rod and John,

Here's a tip for my machine.




Chris, thanks for taking the trouble to post that, however that wasn't the cause of my problem.

I had a wood chip lodged on the table.........The fix was pretty easy:D

Regards, Rod.

[Jeff Monson]

Chris, Thats a great tip, my a3-31 infeed table moves slightly when I tighten down the lock handle, sounds like an easy fix!!!

[John Harden]

[QUOTE=Rod Sheridan;1258953]

Sorry for the late reply, I left work Friday evening before I had read this.

Anyways, the A3 31 is up and running. Thanks John for the email on setting it up.

I've got it setup perfect right now so time will tell if it stays dialed in.

With an 8/4 hard maple board as a test sample, I jointed it 2 sides, checked it with a machinist square and it was perfect. (While the unjointed version was not square of course)

Then I ran it through the planer with 3 passes removing about a half MM removed with each pass.

The result was that I took two calipers, one mitutoyo dial caliper that has been calibrated and accurate to 0.0001". I checked all four corners and several other places and each measurement of thickness was within a tolerance of +/- 0.0001"

This is far more accurate than I expected.

The blades are indeed truly quick swap for without adjustment, all of the blades were level.

The adjustments I had to make to get the machine dialed in perfect was I had to make the fence 90 degrees to the bed, then I had to adjust the infeed table so it was level with the blades. The blades were already level with the outfeed table so that was nice.

The A3 31 powered through a 6" wide board without bogging down at all unlike my 6" delta deluxe jointer which you can feel the motor slightly decrease in RPM.

The cut quality with the STOCK chrome steel blades seemed ok and similar to the delta. I'm just glad there was no snipe at all and I can't wait to get some longer lasting cobalt blades.

Overall I'm very impressed with the dust collection, even if it's mated to abudget HF 2hp DC that sucked all of the chips and dust perfectly fine catching probably almost 99% of the chips and dust.

Chris, yeah this is good information on how you set yours up.

Thanks!!!!

Regards,

John

[guy knight]

i am jealous not only do you have a 4 car garage but it only has 2 pillars

seriously very nice saw and jointer

[Chris Tsutsui]

Chris, thanks for taking the trouble to post that, however that wasn't the cause of my problem.

I had a wood chip lodged on the table.........The fix was pretty easy:D

Regards, Rod.

That reminds me that I want to run air compressor lines around so I can dangle one of those coiled hoses with a blower on the end near the tool I'm using. A quick puff of compressed air and your tool is clear and ready! You can even use compressed air to clear small pieces of wood away from a moving saw blade... heh

John, Eventually I'll have to email you about asking to check out your new toys. I've never used a slider like that before.

[lou sansone]

nice machines. Felder is really making some great machines. I made the move to a slider a few years ago ( Italian stuff ) and would never go back. it will take a little getting used to, but you will love it. best wishes and make some sawdust

Lou

[John Harden]

That reminds me that I want to run air compressor lines around so I can dangle one of those coiled hoses with a blower on the end near the tool I'm using. A quick puff of compressed air and your tool is clear and ready! You can even use compressed air to clear small pieces of wood away from a moving saw blade... heh

John, Eventually I'll have to email you about asking to check out your new toys. I've never used a slider like that before.

Chris, you're welcome to visit and see the toys. Just shoot me a PM and I'll send you my phone number. I'm just off the 15 and Summit, North of the 210 freeway.

Regards,

John