slider anxiety

[Jim Andrew]

I have a Hammer K3 winner on order, couldn't resist the Christmas sale, and have no experience with sliders, so stopped by my friends cabinet shop the other day, and Jerry said he would be cutting out a kitchen the next day, so I got my chores done and went there after lunch. They have a plywood rack right behind the slider, and he made every cut using the sliding table. Would pull out a sheet of ply, edge the long side, to square the sheet, then using the rip fence to adjust the width of cut, cut the sheet long ways to width. He had the fence pulled back so it was about at the edge of the front side of the blade, to eliminate any chance of pinching the sheet between blade and fence, then would rotate the sheet and take about 1/2" off the end, and then use the crosscut fence to size the length of the cut and cut the piece to length. I felt really limited, as I don't have room for 8' between the wall and the blade, or have the 10'plus length of stroke of their slider, to be able to cut sheets of ply long ways. Told Jerry that, and he said I will have to "adapt". Anyway, interesting afternoon. The real horror story was when he explained their problem with their saw, it has a digital gauge which is broken, and a power fence. He said you used to be able to set the size on the digital gauge, then the fence went to that measurement, automatically, and now they just have to push the buttons to adjust the fence to the scale. I asked why they don't get repairs to fix it, and he said they tried, but SCMI would not sell them the repair parts, but would only send a technician to repair it, and they had to stand the costs of flying him in along with the other charges. So would have run a couple thousand, so they chose just to not fix it. Hope Felder does not have a similar policy with these hobbyist saws.

[Peter Quinn]

They do take a lot of room to operate to their full potential, no doubt about that. I wouldn't call them "space savers" in any regard. But you can accomplish most tasks in the same space as a cabinet saw. Ripping an 8' sheet along its length will take almost 20LF regardless of machine, so if you can't do it on a slider you couldn't do it on a cabinet saw either. You can do the cross cut first, so you only have 5' give or take to the left of the blade, then turn the sheet to split the 4' width into to parts, then go back and cut to final height while getting rid of the factory edge. More cuts, less space. On a smaller slider it may be easier to rip sheets in half like a traditional cabinet saw, though you will suffer the same inaccuracies associated with following a factory edge. You could use a skill saw or track saw to waste all the factory edges, then rip off the fence to split sheets, then cross cut….in short, you will have to "adjust" you r methods to your saw and your space. One thing I am certain of…you will love using a slider! So don't be anxious, enjoy!

[David Kumm]

Sounds weird. I've talked to Pete at Parts pronto a bunch of times with machine problems and he has talked me through diagnosis and repair. I do try to avoid electronics if possible but I am a hobby guy and prefer heavy old used to lighter duty new. Electronic rip fence is pretty rare. I've seen more Tiger Stop fences retrofitted than stock ones. Dave

[Erik Loza]

Jim, I obviously have no firsthand knowledge of your friend's particular situation, so cannot comment on it but I will tell you that is apples and oranges to compare the "possible issues" of a small, hobby-type slider like the one you are getting to that "possible issues" of a big motorized SCMi saw, just like it would be to compare the possible issues of the Hammer to the possible issues of a big Felder Kappa 40, for example.

You are correct: It is generally expected that the owner will provide the first line of support at this level of machine and in, fact even up a few levels. That being said however, this level of machine is fairly straightforward to to work repair or work on, so the expectation is realistic IMO. One thing I will tell you is that commonly, with big electronic machines, the owner will purchase some type of setup or commisioning service from the dealer he purchased the machine from. I can tell you that if a customer purchases a large SCMi Class slider from me, they are for sure going to be paying for a tech to come out and do the setup, training, and install and when I was with Felder, it was the exact same deal for the shop that purchased a big Kappa slider. In other words, that level of machine typically requires a factory tech to perform the work.

Again, I have zero knowledege of your friend's particular situation except to say that it is possible that SCM Group parts did want to warranty the parts unless they were installed by a certified tech, which would be the case with any brand of industrial machinery like this. But again, I could not comment with any accuracy about his particular situation.

Getting back to your machine, if you can work on a Unisaw or PM66, then you will have no problem with the a small slider like that. Best of luck with it.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[C Scott McDonald]

I have a Hammer with a shorter slider. When doing sheet stuff I break it down with my dewalt track saw to more manageable size then square on the slider. I find it easier then trying to wrestle a whole sheet around by myself anyway.

Feldar will sell you the parts not sure why they wouldnt.

[Jim Andrew]

Thanks for the replies! Did some measuring today, and only need to move the new saw about 5" to the right to get 8' to the left of the blade. Already planned to move the new saw ahead to clear my miter station, as with the new room I added a opening in the wall which I centered on the blade of the saw to increase the length of rip capacity. Things are lookin up!

[johnny means]

The guys at Felder have always been very helpful to me. I haven't even purchased a machine from them. They once got me a discontinued part that took a little doing to get. Like mentioned earlier, coaching through a repair seems to be something they don't mind doing. Granted, they can be a little slow when you do need something, but aside from that they are very helpful and will do whatever is reasonable to address any issues.