Hammer A3-31 Helical Head Streaks

[Matt Przybylski]

Hello,
I purchased my A3-31 in early winter end of 2014 but didn't actually take delivery until April 2015 as I had my second child last November and with winter and the second baby I knew there would be no time for woodworking so I held off. It turns out that even after it was delivered I didn't get much time until now since the baby is 1 and I have a bit more free time in the shop. I'm now starting to put the machine through its paces and really getting a feel for it.

I was jointing some wide (8"+) stock today and noticed some streaks/peaks being left in my wood. I thought maybe something is wrong with the jointer table because there was absolutely no visible wear on any of the cutters in the spiral head so I tried to plane the wood. Same result, streaks in the wood. I've attached an image showing what I'm talking about (the lines are straight because this came from the planer mode where the wood stays pretty much in the same spot going through. From the jointer they were wavy because of the nature of jointing and moving the stock around by natural human movement). Every piece of wood, jointed and then planed, is showing these streaks.

I've looked up and down the cutterhead and see absolutely nothing that looks like it would be causing this. There are no chips anywhere on any of the cutters or anything of that sort.

What am I missing? Is it possible that they didn't torque down the cutters properly at the factory or they got loose somehow or something else? I wouldn't even know how to check that properly or what the best way to fix it would be even if it were the case. Any suggestions on that would be wonderful if the line of thinking is that this is the case.

I have no clue at this point.

[Andrew Hughes]

I will take a guess from a thousand miles away.If they are scratchs below the surface of the wood then I would look for a burr on the table lips.
If they are proud of the surface then it's the edge of the inserts in head.Check again with raking light and a magnifier.You can also run your finger nail along the edge and feel dents.
dont forget to unplug!

[Mike Hollingsworth]

My byrd head does the same every half inch. Takes minimal sanding to remove. I think it's expected.

[Matt Przybylski]

@Andrew Hughes: They are proud of the surface, I can run my hand over them and feel them go above the rest of the wood.

@Mike Hollingsworth: That's both good to hear and kind of terrible. For the amount you pay for these things you'd expect them to not have this issue... I kind of figured I can easily sand them off which is why I just continued to joint/plane away without thinking much about it until I got back in the house to post this but it's a bit disappointing to say the least.

[Ben Rivel]

Just for fun send the image and ask Hammer's customer service and see what they say. Ive often wondered about this with helical heads as I have read quite a few people around the net say they get streaks with them. Kinda makes me want to stick with standard blades when I finally order a Hammer J/P.

[Matt Przybylski]

@Ben Rivel: One step ahead of you, I sent this exact message to them through email when I posted this so I'll report back with what they say when I get that response. :)

[Matt Przybylski]

I guess one thing to add is that these are the only 3 lines that appear on the whole 8" width of the board, concentrated in a mostly middle, maybe off to the side a bit area. The rest of the board is flawless.

[Andrew Hughes]

The surface that the HH heads leave are differant than what I see in your photo.They are very low wavey rows maybe a few thousand up and down.
I used to have a jointer with a HH but I didn't like the edge joints I got.I do have one in my planer your line look like inserts that are nicked.
why not just rotate the inserts in that area only takes a few minutes.When you have them out you can look at them carefully.

[Patrick Walsh]

If its only the three lines and they only repeat when you run the board over the same section of the tables then i would think something is up with a cutter or cutters or a burr on a table. Hard to say though.

Otherwise the spiral head does leave a surface that requires a very light sand or finish with a hand plane or card scraper. I work with mostly figured wood and the near zero tearout makes the spiral head worth it to me. Now for someone elsethe tersa knife might be a better choice?

Dont ever expect that any any jointer or planer will leave a perfectly finished surface on very species of board everytime. The reality though is that the spiral cutter does leave a distinct pattern on the wood.

[Matt Przybylski]

Thanks everyone. I spoke with the Felder rep on the phone and he confirmed what some have stated regarding removing, cleaning, and reseating the cutters in line with the marks. I ordered a 5nM torque driver on Amazon and will be getting it in a few days so hopefully I can get this all fixed up by the weekend.

Appreciate everyone's help!

[Yoav Gortzak]

Hey Matt,

I just got my A3-31, and am in the process of setting it up. I'm having similar results to yours, and I'm wondering whether cleaning and reseating the cutter inserts fixed your problem?
Thanks,

Yoav

[Matt Przybylski]

Hey Yoav,
I went ahead and removed all the cutters, cleaned them with Boeshield bit and blade cleaner and reseated them with a 5nm torque wrench I purchased on Amazon for around $30 and everything works great now. Let me know if you need any more details or feel free to shoot me a message.

[Bill Sutherland]

I'm in the market for a combo machine and Hammer is on the short list but this isn't very comforting.

[Matt Przybylski]

I'm in the market for a combo machine and Hammer is on the short list but this isn't very comforting.

Bill, aside from some initial setup woes (and not really woes but just stuff I didn't know I was getting into with buying a helical machine), the machine is FANTASTIC in performance. The changeover is extremely quick and in general I'm very pleased with it thus far.

[Susumu Mori]

My A331 didn't have that problem.

[Yoav Gortzak]

Hey Matt,

I'm really sorry, somehow I didn't see your reply until now. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. As it turns out, I had some more issues going on with my machine, but was lucky that Felder had a tech in my area on the day that I called them (I'm in the Pacific Northwest). He came out, and spent a couple of hours with the machine, going through and adjusting everything. It works great now, but I don't think that I would have been able to get it to this point without him. It was definitely a good experience looking over his shoulder, while he was adjusting the machine.

Yoav

[Marty Schlosser]

Yoav,

What exactly did the tech do that seemed to make such a difference? Based on what Matt stated, and what I'd guessed was the problem, I'm going to assume it was a few of the cutters being improperly set. But that shouldn't have taken a couple of hours, so it must have been something else.


Hey Matt,

I'm really sorry, somehow I didn't see your reply until now. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. As it turns out, I had some more issues going on with my machine, but was lucky that Felder had a tech in my area on the day that I called them (I'm in the Pacific Northwest). He came out, and spent a couple of hours with the machine, going through and adjusting everything. It works great now, but I don't think that I would have been able to get it to this point without him. It was definitely a good experience looking over his shoulder, while he was adjusting the machine.

Yoav

[Jacob Haiduk]

How are the glue joint when edge jointing a board with the HH cutter?

[Craig Behnke]

I'm in the market for a combo machine and Hammer is on the short list but this isn't very comforting.

Bill, I had an A3-31 JP combo and it exceeded my very high expectations as a hobby woodworker. From my experience, it was easy to set up, it held its settings, and in my humble opinion it represented a great value option in the euro, high-end woodworking segment. If Hammer is on your list, I would urge you to not let something like this thread trouble you.