Michael Koons
10-15-2012, 10:25 AM
I recently came to this group for help with a purchasing decision for a table saw and wanted to follow up with where I landed and my experiences with Felder/Hammer and MiniMax. I know I agonized over this decision so I hope this post helps anyone doing the same in the future.
The Decision:
I started out looking for a conventional cabinet saw to upgrade my 20 year old contractor's saw. I was in a very fortunate position to have a bit of a financial windfall, so my budget was larger than I had originally expected. I think this is a VERY important point because the advice I received on the forum kept pushing the limits of my original budget. I quickly moved to considering the Hammer K3 line and the MiniMax SC3W. Dado capability was an extremely important function for me, so I informed the MiniMax rep that I was going to go with the Hammer since that would have fit my budget of $5,000. (Which I considered excessive at the time.) He informed me that the Dado function was only available on the SC4 which was in the $8000 range. I'm simply not used to paying that kind of money for tools and had to think long and hard about what I wanted to do. I called the Hammer rep and asked him about the Felder line since I was now upping my budget yet again. He dismissed my notion and steered me back towards the K3. That was his crucial mistake as I had now positioned the Hammer as the "cheaper version" in my mind. The other difference was that the MiniMax was available immediately and I would not have received the Hammer/Felder for at least 2 months. So I placed the order for the MiniMax SC4 Elite with the 5.5' slider. Shop space was a key limiter for me, so the 5.5' slider was the biggest I could easily accommodate. It was shipped out the day I placed my order. I'm very happy with my decision but I guarantee, that if my budget had remained $5,000, I would have been EXTREMELY happy with the Hammer K3.
The Delivery:
Getting large tools delivered to a basement shop is always a challenge. I have a walkout basement shop with street access that's at the same level as my basement doors. In this aspect, I'm extremely lucky. MiniMax did a great job of keeping me informed about the shipping. I called the freight company, scheduled a delivery time and made sure that the truck had a lift gate and pallet truck. All-in, the tool weighted 1200 lbs. The driver was very helpful and worked hard to get the saw off the truck and onto my back porch. With his pallet truck, we walked the saw over plywood through the back yard and he positioned it right next to my back door. Below is a picture of the saw on the pallet at the threshold of the back door. You can see the particle board at the bottom that was used to get it over the door jamb.
243281
At this point, I used rolling car jacks to jack up the saw and put 3, 1000 lb. furniture dollis underneath so I could roll it through the basement, and into the shop. I had to roll it through about 50' of finished basement. The narrowest door was 44" and we made it past that with tons of clearance. I got the saw into position and then used the car jack to lift the saw, remove the dollies and set it in place. It was very easy to move the 900 lb. saw with two people using this method. Overall, it took us about 30 minutes to unload the box, uncrate it, remove all the components and roll it into the shop.
Setup and Experience:
The next day, I got around to setting the whole thing up. Overall it was straight forward, but involved. The instructions are pretty good. You can tell the manual was translated to english but it was complete enough. It took about 4 hours to get the whole thing set up. Another 2 - 3 hours to calibrate fences and ruler tapes. It took about an hour to install the 240 v 30 amp circuit. I didn't realize I'd need to build my own cord but that was pretty easy as well. Overall, between playing around and set up, it took a day to get it up and running.
My first experiences with the saw are very positive. It will be a long learning curve for me and I will be watching a lot of YouTube videos on sliding table saws. I can see why people recommend these sliders. With the miter fence options, cross-cutting is a breeze and extremely accurate. I wonder if I'll ever use my compound miter saw again. The rip fence assembly is massive and similar to the Unifence. I actually like this style better since I found myself sliding my old Unifence all the time for different cuts. So far, moving the rip fence is a bit cumbersome. The thing is very heavy and seems to stagger across the support bar from time to time. It's minor gripe but I wish the movement was smoother. I'll continue to work on this to see if I can improve it.
I am very happy with the 5.5' slider. I know others say go as big as you possibly can. I don't expect to have to rip an 8' sheet of plywood and ripping it across the 4' dimension is very easy for me on this saw. So I think I got the perfect size for my needs.
Overall, it's a great experience. If anyone has questions about the saw, moving large equipment around yourself or anything else, don't hesitate to ask via post or PM.
Thanks to everyone for your help on this.
UPDATE - For those of you who noticed the blade guard and riving knife were not attached, they are on the saw now. The reason they were off for the picture was because I had a thin kerf blade in there which didn't fit the knife. I know have a 1/8" thick blade in and both are now attached as should be.
The Decision:
I started out looking for a conventional cabinet saw to upgrade my 20 year old contractor's saw. I was in a very fortunate position to have a bit of a financial windfall, so my budget was larger than I had originally expected. I think this is a VERY important point because the advice I received on the forum kept pushing the limits of my original budget. I quickly moved to considering the Hammer K3 line and the MiniMax SC3W. Dado capability was an extremely important function for me, so I informed the MiniMax rep that I was going to go with the Hammer since that would have fit my budget of $5,000. (Which I considered excessive at the time.) He informed me that the Dado function was only available on the SC4 which was in the $8000 range. I'm simply not used to paying that kind of money for tools and had to think long and hard about what I wanted to do. I called the Hammer rep and asked him about the Felder line since I was now upping my budget yet again. He dismissed my notion and steered me back towards the K3. That was his crucial mistake as I had now positioned the Hammer as the "cheaper version" in my mind. The other difference was that the MiniMax was available immediately and I would not have received the Hammer/Felder for at least 2 months. So I placed the order for the MiniMax SC4 Elite with the 5.5' slider. Shop space was a key limiter for me, so the 5.5' slider was the biggest I could easily accommodate. It was shipped out the day I placed my order. I'm very happy with my decision but I guarantee, that if my budget had remained $5,000, I would have been EXTREMELY happy with the Hammer K3.
The Delivery:
Getting large tools delivered to a basement shop is always a challenge. I have a walkout basement shop with street access that's at the same level as my basement doors. In this aspect, I'm extremely lucky. MiniMax did a great job of keeping me informed about the shipping. I called the freight company, scheduled a delivery time and made sure that the truck had a lift gate and pallet truck. All-in, the tool weighted 1200 lbs. The driver was very helpful and worked hard to get the saw off the truck and onto my back porch. With his pallet truck, we walked the saw over plywood through the back yard and he positioned it right next to my back door. Below is a picture of the saw on the pallet at the threshold of the back door. You can see the particle board at the bottom that was used to get it over the door jamb.
243281
At this point, I used rolling car jacks to jack up the saw and put 3, 1000 lb. furniture dollis underneath so I could roll it through the basement, and into the shop. I had to roll it through about 50' of finished basement. The narrowest door was 44" and we made it past that with tons of clearance. I got the saw into position and then used the car jack to lift the saw, remove the dollies and set it in place. It was very easy to move the 900 lb. saw with two people using this method. Overall, it took us about 30 minutes to unload the box, uncrate it, remove all the components and roll it into the shop.
Setup and Experience:
The next day, I got around to setting the whole thing up. Overall it was straight forward, but involved. The instructions are pretty good. You can tell the manual was translated to english but it was complete enough. It took about 4 hours to get the whole thing set up. Another 2 - 3 hours to calibrate fences and ruler tapes. It took about an hour to install the 240 v 30 amp circuit. I didn't realize I'd need to build my own cord but that was pretty easy as well. Overall, between playing around and set up, it took a day to get it up and running.
My first experiences with the saw are very positive. It will be a long learning curve for me and I will be watching a lot of YouTube videos on sliding table saws. I can see why people recommend these sliders. With the miter fence options, cross-cutting is a breeze and extremely accurate. I wonder if I'll ever use my compound miter saw again. The rip fence assembly is massive and similar to the Unifence. I actually like this style better since I found myself sliding my old Unifence all the time for different cuts. So far, moving the rip fence is a bit cumbersome. The thing is very heavy and seems to stagger across the support bar from time to time. It's minor gripe but I wish the movement was smoother. I'll continue to work on this to see if I can improve it.
I am very happy with the 5.5' slider. I know others say go as big as you possibly can. I don't expect to have to rip an 8' sheet of plywood and ripping it across the 4' dimension is very easy for me on this saw. So I think I got the perfect size for my needs.
Overall, it's a great experience. If anyone has questions about the saw, moving large equipment around yourself or anything else, don't hesitate to ask via post or PM.
Thanks to everyone for your help on this.
UPDATE - For those of you who noticed the blade guard and riving knife were not attached, they are on the saw now. The reason they were off for the picture was because I had a thin kerf blade in there which didn't fit the knife. I know have a 1/8" thick blade in and both are now attached as should be.