Felder Slider Questions / Info Sources

[Dan Schmidt]

Well I did it. Committed to a new K700S slider the other day & am looking forward to the arrival (it will be ~14 wks). I now want to learn as much as I can while I wait.... Is there a recommend / best place to go?
* People refer to David Best's book "Felder Survival Guide", but it is now out of print. Rumors of a possible 2nd edition. I emailed David from his site, but email address was rejected. In the meantime, if anyone has the current edition for sale let me know.
* People refer to the yahoo group "Felder Users Group". It's a restricted group and moderator is MIA. I've requested access a few times to no avail. :-(
* New site "Hammer Felder Owners Group" looks promising but just a handful of people in there now and no real archive of knowledge (yet)
* Anyone have a link to user manual? I've been unable to locate so far...

I've been through every K700 and other Felder slider posts on this site. So far SC is the the best (once again!) source of info for me.

[David Kumm]

The Felder site is alive and well. Might take a few days to get approved. Felder recently redid their 700 line so advice will be anecdotal as few have the new style. Shouldn't be any real differences in the X roll slider mechanism. The guy who moderates the site makes some very nice dial indicators on bases that are similar to the Oneway design. They are very helpful in checking the alignment of the slider to the table and blade. Take some time to use the machine and get familiar with it. Then learn how the mechanics of the machine work and you will be able to tweak it yourself. It is always good to learn how machines work so you don't need to rely totally on service techs. Hammer is a lighter build with a different bearing system so the details will be different even if the concepts are the same. Dave

[Jim Becker]

Congrats! In addition to exploring the Felder specific resources you mention, be sure to ask questions here...there are a lot of us who use sliding table saws these days and we have all gone through the "learning curve" and developed techniques to do things on the slider where you have to do them differently than on a traditional North American table saw. Jigging up for things like parallel ripping make for great small projects, too.

[Dan Schmidt]

Thanks Jim - will do. I've learned a LOT from your posts already - your journey with the Minimax was a big part of my decision making. Like most things I'll need to start cutting wood on it before I know what I don't know.

[Wakahisa Shinta]

Dan,

If you submitted request to the Yahoo! Group named "FelderUsers," then that is the wrong group. I did the same 2 years ago, no answers after multiple attempts. The group's name is "felder-woodworking" and it is not searchable. It is located here (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/felder-woodworking/info). It is active and very much alive!

I've had no luck trying to find the PDF of the Felder machine manuals; have been looking for more than a year. The Hammer ones are easy to find. I wonder why?

Felder has a bunch of video on Youtube!. I watched these while I waited for my K3:

CF 741 S - THE WINNING COMBINATION (ENG) (http://CF 741 S - THE WINNING COMBINATION (ENG))
FELDER 500 Series with Frank Klausz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj7H7oVWe6s)
Felder Panel Saw Cutting Melamine Board for Kithen Manufacturing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWMpw3FBgBg)
Ein Tiroler ZIRBENBETT, produziert mit FELDER® Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUNdV5BUtXk)
FELDER® woodworking - how to use the sliding table
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtCTRKxzlbU)
This website (link (http://www.solowoodworker.com/mm/slider.html)).

Fritz and Franz
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqzVglze9Nk)
SMC thread with pictures of jigs (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?205646-Format-Sliding-Saw-Outrigger-function-and-use)

Enjoy!

[Jim Becker]

Dan, here is one of the absolutely BEST things with a slider relative to working with solid stock...you are no longer constrained to the "sawyer's edge" when a piece of stock will be much more attractive following a different edge-line. It's so much easier to make nearly invisible joints in panels through grain and color match this way and in the case of this photo, to get ride of some damaged wood without sacrificing a whole board. This piece ended up yielding a 5.5" wide board after I did the parallel rip and it will be useful in the project I started today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/IMG_6779_zpspuphc00q.jpg

[Dan Schmidt]

Jim, that is really sweet. Never even thought of that.... I've done this before on the bandsaw, but it's more wasteful and certainly not as easy.

Wakahisa, thank you very much --- you are absolutely correct, I was attempting to join the wrong group! I would have given up if you haven't told me --- thanks again!

[Joe Jensen]

Congrats Dan, I love mine. The addition of air clamps is and upgrade that I really love. I ordered the Felder cam clamp but I find that it shifts the wood. Tons to learn but it's so versatile.

[Ryan Mooney]

Congrats Dan, I love mine. The addition of air clamps is and upgrade that I really love. I ordered the Felder cam clamp but I find that it shifts the wood. Tons to learn but it's so versatile.

Its not as bad in that regard once I put a piece of leather on the bottom of it.. The other trick (I'm pretty sure someone here pointed out) was to have a piece of scrap that is the right offset for the the cam action to make setting the height easier.

I mean, yes the air clamps would certainly be fantastic but budget is what the budget is :D

[Jim Becker]

Jim, that is really sweet. Never even thought of that.... I've done this before on the bandsaw, but it's more wasteful and certainly not as easy.

That's also a glue-up ready rip if you're using a quality blade and your stock was properly flattened and thicknessed. I pretty much NEVER edge joint at this point. That's also the reason I tend to rip critical pieces that are at least 3" wide with a parallel jig rather than the rip fence. Your cut is stable, straight and perfectly perpendicular to the faces. A little more setup time, but less operations.

On cam-clamps, I tend to use a scrap piece of wood as a pad, but the leather idea mentioned by Ryan is very worthy!

[Jeremy Williams]

Dan, here is one of the absolutely BEST things with a slider relative to working with solid stock...you are no longer constrained to the "sawyer's edge" when a piece of stock will be much more attractive following a different edge-line. It's so much easier to make nearly invisible joints in panels through grain and color match this way and in the case of this photo, to get ride of some damaged wood without sacrificing a whole board. This piece ended up yielding a 5.5" wide board after I did the parallel rip and it will be useful in the project I started today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/IMG_6779_zpspuphc00q.jpg

Would love to see this missing image if it’s available

[Jim Becker]

I gave Phootbucket the heave-ho a long time ago. Apparently, they kept the images up but blurred them to advertise their service. I did find the original photo.

https://06ptea.bn.files.1drv.com/y4mkESSZtXwdrPEXe8jqEQG_ZPdX4zg1URm8Q_Ad4IPNRlXCdL-wk-YcR45a9N8RMtwNL5de5KJv-DJiNnxEb4Ex81_bI0ThfRfQ3Vr0k0D_J9qkC1GQJo2GJznIiWo ukw4Hl6DGoBi2Wx0uQG_07y04B7ls2SCeaLspe0ojmYBg6bJwW G40DlmrJk9QVe-FR6kmxrbkDqsxowBvjeL5IPt1w?width=660&height=660&cropmode=none

[Mike King]

I second the recommendation for the air clamps. Brian Lamb, who is the authorizer of the Felder Owners Group, also makes parallel guides and a large square that are quite useful. The parallel guides are great for ripping, and the square is a much more precise, and less frustrating, instrument to use in getting your fence to square.

Mike

[Mark e Kessler]

Perfect, I just received my k700s this is not my first slider the k700s is a pretty nice entry slider and I wouldn’t want anything less. Once you get access to the Felder group you will want to post your specific Felder slider questions there. The unofficial guide is out of print but post the question there and David might contact you directly about it.

You will want to make a few things right off the bat, a fritz and franz jig, a “nose” for the crosscut fence and a zero clearance insert (photos attached, sorry for the sideways photos...).

Also the absolute best thing you can add would be airclamps, I was skeptical being a 30 year veteran of woodworking but now that I have some I don’t know how I got by without them, the safety aspect and really for me the cut quality is amazing and the ability to clamp the wood anywhere/anyway is awesome. With some compromise they can be made for about 1/2 even less if you can do some machining but I can tell you without a doubt the “airtight” clamps are built to the highest standard with no expense/detail spared.

Mark
https://www.instagram.com/kessler_woodworks/



Mark416574416576416575416577416578

[Jeff Bartley]

Great mods Mark!