Goodbye Rigid 6" Jointer & Dewalt DW735 Planer

[Joe Hollis]

I want to thank everyone here that responded to my post a few months ago about a combination machine vs. separate planer and jointer. I have made my inquiries, received my quotation and will be ordering a Felder AD741 with Power Drive this coming week. The machine will apparently arrive in late June.

I pity my soon to be assaulted credit line, but look forward to my new shop upgrade!

Regards,

Joe

[julian abram]

Congratulations on the new combo, that will be quite a shop upgrade. Christmas for you in June!

[Jim Becker]

congratulations!!

[Sean Troy]

Nice! You are going to love it.

[Chris Hachet]

congratulations!!Agreed, I am highly jealous!

[Patrick Lesher]

Congrats! I look forward to seeing how you like it. Keep us updated if you don't mind.

[Rod Sheridan]

You're going to love having a combination machine............Rod.

[Dave Lehnert]

congratulations!

What does a machine like that sell for ?

[Dan Hahr]

Well, I just looked up the Felder. I've seen combination machines in use, but wasn't sure on the model #. I am very curious how one would get used to the constant swapping back and forth between applications.

I think it would be great to have 16" jointing ability, but there are so many times that I would run a board across my jointer (6") and immediately run it right through the planer next to it, then joint the edge and plane the opposite edge and have a perfectly 4 square board. That would take at least 10 times as long on the above machine.

Also, it seems that the aluminum fence was extremely flexible in the videos I watched. How do they fair against a wide board on edge?

Other than the greater capacity, what is the big attraction to the combo machines?

Not knocking your new toy; it looks like a very nice piece of machinery, but I think I would hold onto the Dewalt for sure.....

Dan

[John TenEyck]

I've had a combo machine for about 30 years, first a 10-1/4" Inca and now a 14" MiniMax for the past 18 months or so. I've also had a stand alone planer during that time. There's no question separate machines make life easier, but adapting to a combo only set up is not hard. All it takes is a slight shift in mind set. Rather than running one board, you group them, simple as that. Of course there are occasions when you will have to face joint a single board, then switch over to plane it, then back to edge joint it, but those situations are not that frequent if you plan your work, make an extra piece of stock or two, and just think ahead a little.

A combo machine saves some space over two separate machines and reduces some wiring and dust collection ducting. Having that big wide jointer is pure luxury and can be a real upgrade to your work. I just finished making some exterior door panels about 13" wide from a single piece of stock. It's also easier to upgrade to a segmented head on a combo machine because you are only buying one. At this point in the game, I'd never be happy with an 8" jointer, nor anything less than what I now have.

My MiniMax takes less than a minute to switch from jointing to planing. Not much of a penalty but it would be unacceptable in a production environment. Happily, that ain't me. FWIW, the fence on my MM is a massive lump of cast iron with zero flex. Sure is heavy though.

John

[Jim Becker]

Well, I just looked up the Felder. I've seen combination machines in use, but wasn't sure on the model #. I am very curious how one would get used to the constant swapping back and forth between applications.

I think it would be great to have 16" jointing ability, but there are so many times that I would run a board across my jointer (6") and immediately run it right through the planer next to it, then joint the edge and plane the opposite edge and have a perfectly 4 square board. That would take at least 10 times as long on the above machine.
It's a different way to work, but the planning of workflow has advantages, too. Many of us have spoken about that in many threads about combo use. I rarely edge joint....almost never now...since I have a slider. I flatten and thickness in batches and then straight-line rip on the slider with a perfectly perpendicular edge thats ready to glue up. Jointing is faces only for me now.

[Adam Herman]

nice upgrade. did you like the 6 in rigid? i see them around here fairly cheap.

[Patrick Kane]

That is one of the more substantial upgrade leaps ive heard of. Most people progress through machines a bit. You went right from A to Z in one move! You will surely love the jointer capacity. 16" machine is where i hope to end up one day. My 12" covers 90% of the material i work with, but it sucks when I have to stop to remove the guard or some other work around for 13"+ boards.

Adam, I had a 6" rigid for my first jointer and thought it was a great entry machine.

[Curt Harms]

I only have a jointer/planer combo. A digital readout on the planer saves some grief if you need 4 pieces, plane 4 pieces and screw one up. It's a lot quicker and easier to set the planer for a repeat thickness with a digital readout than with the scale and pointer that is common. Aside from that, rethinking workflow as mentioned above helps. To make a 4 square board I face joint, edge joint, plane and rip the 4th edge.

[Ben Rivel]

Wow, now thats an upgrade youll never regret!

[Joe Hollis]

The Rigid was the first jointer I have ever owned. It works really well, but it is limited by the table length and of course the 6" capacity. It is also relatively light, so it tend to want to move a little when I try to feed heavier stock on it. I don't expect any of those problems with the new machine of course.

[Joe Hollis]

Well, I just looked up the Felder. I've seen combination machines in use, but wasn't sure on the model #. I am very curious how one would get used to the constant swapping back and forth between applications.

I think it would be great to have 16" jointing ability, but there are so many times that I would run a board across my jointer (6") and immediately run it right through the planer next to it, then joint the edge and plane the opposite edge and have a perfectly 4 square board. That would take at least 10 times as long on the above machine.

Also, it seems that the aluminum fence was extremely flexible in the videos I watched. How do they fair against a wide board on edge?

Other than the greater capacity, what is the big attraction to the combo machines?

Not knocking your new toy; it looks like a very nice piece of machinery, but I think I would hold onto the Dewalt for sure.....

Dan

I will probably hold on to my DeWalt planer, if for no other reason that I have very little use on it, made a custom stand for it and the amount of money I would likely receive my selling it isn't likely to go far in contributing towards next year's planned purchase of a K3 or K500 sliding table saw. Plus, I bought spare knives for it and a Wixey digital readout that I want to try out on it...

[Joe Hollis]

congratulations!

What does a machine like that sell for ?

What I got for my car, (I downsized), everything in my tool savings account that I have saved for the past two years, and half of my credit line limit ... Around $15K...

[Jim Becker]

Joe, if you have the space, keeping the DeWalt planer isn't a horrible idea as you can utilize it for special setups and it's a better choice for "really thin" stuff, too, because of the rubber, rather than serrated, feed rollers. Congrats on your new tool!

[Matthew Hills]

Keeping the dewalt sounds like a good idea--especially if there is the possibility you want the luxury of planing an odd board without switchover. I will say a big planet is definitely preferred when batch milling. (My parks is much nicer than the rigid lunchbox for this)

Is your power and dust collection set up?

[Joe Hollis]

Keeping the dewalt sounds like a good idea--especially if there is the possibility you want the luxury of planing an odd board without switchover. I will say a big planet is definitely preferred when batch milling. (My parks is much nicer than the rigid lunchbox for this)

Is your power and dust collection set up?

I will have a new 30 amp circuit installed within the next two weeks . I do have 3 hp cyclone dust collector, but it is not set up yet...

[Richard McComas]

Congratulation. As an owner of a Felder joiner/planer for 18 years and a Dewalt 735 for 10 years I'd recommend you keep the 735. I still use my 735 for certain "stuff" because it will make a lighter cut than the Felder with out leaving in-feed roller marks. 1/4 X 3/4 edging is one of them.

[Jim Becker]

I do have 3 hp cyclone dust collector, but it is not set up yet...

You probably already know this, but you must have DC hooked up to the J/P in order to use it...

[Joe Hollis]

You probably already know this, but you must have DC hooked up to the J/P in order to use it...

I thank you for this information Jim, because I did not. My "dust collector" for years has been a push broom and that large aluminum dust pan Lee Valley sells.... It doesn't draw a lot of current, but it has kept me busy...

I will make sure the D/C is set up before I get the machine working. I have an existing electrical circuit I can use for it.

Joe

[Jim Becker]

Yea, you can't run a J/P without a DC attached and running...it will clog up in, oh...about 15 seconds. :D

BTW, rubber Fernco sewer connections will slip right on the typical 120mm port on these machines. ;)

[Curt Harms]

Yea, you can't run a J/P without a DC attached and running...it will clog up in, oh...about 15 seconds. :D

BTW, rubber Fernco sewer connections will slip right on the typical 120mm port on these machines. ;)

Not necessarily:o I ran the 6" hose to the Jet JJP-12 in jointer mode but somehow managed to not hook it up. It just blew the chips out the dust chute. I didn't try planer mode where there are more chips coming out, I probably should just to see what happens. Some people just gotta pee on the electric fence ya know:)

[Art Mann]

I sold my Ridgid planer when I got my Jet JJP-12H but I have come to regret it. I think Jim who mentionedone big reason. Sometimes, you want to take off only a very thin slice of a board and the JJP-12H doesn't do that very well. You can see the marks from the infeed roller. Also, I had an easier time getting a really precision thickness with the Ridgid. As someone else said, it would be nice to be able to step over from the jointer and immediately run the same piece through the planer. The JJP-12H is waaaay faster than the Ridgid when you have a lot of work to do and the spiral segmented cutter works beautifully on figured wood.