Have you ever wished you bought smaller J/T combo?

[Albert Lee]

I am about to put down a deposit for either a Felder AD951 or a AD941 (both with silent spiral cutter block and digi drive)

Originally I only wanted a AD941, as my current thicknesser is 16" wide and I use the full 16" already, my current thicknesser is part of my Robland NX410 combination machine, it has Tersa blade but its very very loud when I thickness wide hardwood. The Tersa is great but the noise is just too much as I am doing this in my garage, sometimes I hesitate to thickness the hardwood because the noise is just too great.

Hence the upgrade to Felder with their silent spiral cutter block

The 951 is huge, 95" long, 36" wide and 65" tall.
the 941 is a tad smaller, 92" long, 32" wide and 60" tall.

Do I really need the 20" capacity? 16" yes, but 20"? then again I thought to myself, I am only buying this once, I will not be selling it in 3-5 years to ugprade. The price difference is $2000 USD between the two here in New Zealand. Affordability is not a major issue its just the shear size of it. My garage is only 30' x 20'

so, any regret for machine thats too big?

[Jim Becker]

Smaller boards will always cross a bigger tool, but you just can't shrink a board to fit a smaller tool and be happy with the result. But you have to consider the number of times that you might work with stock wider than 16", need to skew something toward that wider width or take an irregular shaped workpiece across the jointer knives. Aside from the obvious...the width...there is the weight of the larger stock, especially if it's thick. That's why most folks who work with slabs setup a router-based flattening system.

That said, you're talking "only" 3" longer and 4" wider. Height doesn't count for much, IMHO, relative to your dilemma. Those are not major changes for that extra capacity if you 1) have the space and 2) feel you'll leverage that extra capacity enough.

My regret is not going larger. I have 13.68" capacity and wish it was 16" sometimes... ;)

[John TenEyck]

I'm with Jim, almost exactly, I have the same capacity currently and often wish for at least 16", especially for planing. A 20" planer would be great, even with a 8" or 12" jointer. Only you know your needs, but if I had the $'s and could get that beast into my basement shop, I'd go big. Your shop situation would make the decision much easier.

John

[Patrick Walsh]

I have the newers version of the AD941.

If i could had fit the 951 through my door i would gotten it and still would.

Now that i have a 16" machine i realise a couple things.

First 16" jointer is way better than 8" a 12" so forth and so on. You will find you constantly use the extra width.

As for planer well i have a couple thoughts. Mind you i dont have a 20" machine. I would think it hard to joint one side flat of a 19" board. I would also think if the board had much twist you could be talking about removing a lot of material to get a flat workpiece.

Case in point i was gluing up a 37"x22" 1/2" thick panel with 6" bread board ends fort He dashboard of a 1900 Panhard last week. I can remember thinking if only i had the AD951 i could "almost" sent it over the jointer then throught the planer one last time amd gotten it perfectly flat again after the glue up. The reality is i would had been 2" to big anyhow.

I think at some point we will all encounter a reason or task that might make us wish for a larger machine. The fact is just how often do you need the additional capacity. You also have to consider there is more than one way to skin a cat. In my case i resorted to a hand plane. It took all of 20minutes to make 100% flat again after glue up and i got to feel like i had kinda made something by hand ;)

I would get the 951. Consider setuning up big jointer tables like that. Also consider getting them to hold adjustment on a combo.

[Robert LaPlaca]

I am a bad person to ask, I have a 16" wide jointer/planer combo, I would love to have a 20" wide j/p. Use the full capacity of the machine quite often. Not too sure there are many woodworkers who wish they bought a smaller machine..

[James Baker SD]

I have an AD741. Never wished for a smaller machine. Have yet to need a bigger one. So far I am happy.

[Frank Martin]

I have a 12" combo and if I had the space would have gone with the 16". For you, the size difference should not be an issue given your shop size. I would definitely go with the larger in your case. Good luck.

[mreza Salav]

I have a 14" J/P, I have wished more than a few times it was wider. There was a 20" SCM J/P once on an auction within 3 hours of me that went for $800US!!! It was a very bad time for me and couldn't go after it (in the middle of a move). If I had the option to upgrade from 14" to 20" I would.

[Erik Loza]

The biggest factor in that decision, according to most of my customers, is the price tag, not the capacity.

Erik

[Albert Lee]

Thanks guys for the feed back!

I went to the Felder agent to have a look at the AD941 they have on display, bloody nice machine they are.

I will put down my deposit on the AD951 once I've gone through the negotiation with the sales.

The delivery will take place 6 months from date of deposit is made. Yes, 6 months! we are a bit far from the rest of the world...

[Andy Giddings]

And I thought 3 months was a long time to wait for a Felder. You must be a very patient man :-)

[Rich Riddle]

In a word, no.

[Nick Stokes]

Have you ever wished you bought smaller J/T combo? (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?244542-Have-you-ever-wished-you-bought-smaller-J-T-combo)

Blasphemer...