Felder JP combo owners

[Albert Lee]

Back in 2016 I almost bought a Felder AD951, I have finally bought this aircraft carrier and it will arrive in July/Aug, mine comes with silent cutter block, digi drive, comfort guard and 7.5hp upgrade.

So, the owners of Felder J/P combo owners, what are the general care, do's and dont's for Felder large jp combo?

Apart from you need the space of the entire State of Texas to run it, is there anything else that I need to watch out for?

I have heard the electrical panel can be very expensive to repair? have you had issues with it?

any other issues that I need to be aware of?

Thank you for your time.

Albert

[Mike King]

Have you joined the Felder Owners Group? Highly recommended as there are a number of very experienced Felder owners who can provide tips and troubleshooting advice. There is a files section that also includes information on calibration of the jointer planers.

Mike

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Mines a CF 741, which is the AD 741 sitting beside the saw/shaper. I've found that I hate the euro guard, there is always some part of it hanging out in the way. It will work though, and it's definitely not a deal breaker. Wax the tables periodically to keep the planer sliding as it should. And that sums up my input, besides just use it and enjoy!

[johnny means]

I had the ad 751 with digidrive. The control unit went and I think it cost me almost $2000 just for the part. As it turned out, the issue was actually my shop wiring. I'm no electric engineer, but the tech from Felder explained it to me and iit seemed to make sense. I had a bad connection which caused a problem with the draw, which affected voltage, yada, yada. I guess I'm saying, make sure your wiring is up to snuff.

[Mike King]

Personally, I like the Euro guard. It has breaks in it so you can bend the portion hanging out over the edge of the jointer. Different strokes for different folks.

[Jim Becker]

Personally, I like the Euro guard. It has breaks in it so you can bend the portion hanging out over the edge of the jointer. Different strokes for different folks.
Me, too...best investment I made for my J/P when I eliminated the "pork chop" which is a pain in the backside when face jointing wide material, which is pretty much all I do on the jointer function. I almost never do edges because I can straight-line them on the slider after flattening and thicknessing. I always hated the "pork chop" type guards in this respect, although I can see why they might be preferable for edge jointing.

[Alan Lightstone]

Me, too...best investment I made for my J/P when I eliminated the "pork chop" which is a pain in the backside when face jointing wide material, I always hated the "pork chop" type guards in this respect, although I can see why they might be preferable for edge jointing.

Jim:

I've owned a Laguna with a Euro Guard, and am now getting a A941, also with a Euro Guard. I'm never owned/used a machine with a Pork Chop guard, but they always looked easier to use to me. Can you be more specific as to why they are a pain to use? I always thought the Euro Guard was a bit of a pain to use.

[Jim Becker]

Alan, the Pork Chop is no issue for edge jointing (or face jointing a narrow board), but when you're face jointing a wide board, it has to "get out of the way" for each pass which can expose the cutter head to some extent and also puts a lot of stress on the Pork Chop, itself. When open wide during a pass, it sticks out a lot, too. I broke two of them before buying the Euro bridge guard because of that! With the bridge guard, it's always over the cutter head for fact jointing (minor exposure for edges along the fence, but not likely someone would stick their fingers in there) and you learn to float your hands over the guard as you pass the material under it at the beginning of the cut. It becomes very fluid. Further, when you bring the board back for the next pass, you can slide it right over the guard ... it's designed for that ... which means you're picking that board up less and can work smoother.

[Brian Holcombe]

The pork chop is pretty annoying for face jointing. The entire cutter head is exposed as the board enters and exits and it is worthless at preventing someone from accidentally pushing past the guard.

Not sure how much guarding it actually does.

I want to replace it with a suv-a-matic, but my wallet does not.

[David Kumm]

It depends on the design of the Pork Chop. My old Porter has one that has a notch so it rarely interferes but can also be flipped out of the way by pulling a pin when running very wide boards. The best guard I've seen is a segmented pork chop made of individual slats that fold down when not over the table. Dave

[Patrick Kane]

Congrats on the 20” machine. That’s a big combo and not one you see everyday. I had my eyes on a used 951 about a year ago. Just wasn’t committed to going over to a combo machine. From experience, the shaper/saw combo is annoying to deal with at times.

As as far as the guards, I like the pork chop. I use push blocks and I can maintain contact with the board the entire length of the cut. The euro guard would require me to lift up and reposition. It requires you to fiddle with it to suit the needs of the board you are working on. You are face jointing 8/4, but you previously worked with 4/4? Adjust. You are face jointing 12/4? Well, you are SOL, because the guard doesn’t elevate that high on most machines. This leaves you to retract the guard completely. I have a 12” machine and I can’t remember the guard swinging out to impede my ability to move. I face joint a lot of 11”+ boards, and would remember if this sucked or not. The extra 4” might make a difference in this category, I’m not sure. I would imagine a 20” pork chop would be ridiculous. I understand the pork chop guard isn’t the perfect design for larger machines, but the basic euro guard isn’t either. I haven’t used a Suva in person, but it seems like the perfect guard. Looks sexy too.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Maybe I should have been specific as to why I dislike the euro guard. When edge jointing, the guard is slid over, so there is exposed blade, and there is more hanging off the table. Generally I use the break joint in the guard to set it's position, and set the fence the proper spacing back to allow for the board to pass. There is still an exposed blade if the board is not over the cutter. There is also exposed blade behind the fence that gets covered by that sliding segmented cover, which honestly falls apart pretty easily and I have not a tremendous amount of faith in. How long did it just take to set the guard to properly work for a simple 4/4 edge joint? Now redo it all because you have a 12/4 next.

When face jointing, the guard jumps over the board. Hang on, so you are forced to reposition to move your hands/blocks over a fixed guard as you are pushing through? It's those repositions that I think are the most dangerous maneuvers to me. I've lost grip on a pushblock and dropped it in a cutter before, I know it can happen. Everyone says the porkchop leaves exposed blade on face jointing, check out that huge piece of spinning jointer blade you can see down into when you jump that euro guard over a 6" wide 8/4 piece of stock. A hand is only 6/4 or so thick... It's worse the thicker the stock is.

Daves mention of a segmented porkchop sounds interesting.

To sum it up, I think the euro guard takes too long to set up, isn't adaptable to other widths when edge jointing without resetting, leaves a lot of cutter exposed in face jointing, and interferes with pushing stock through.

I did come up with a work around for the face jointing process that works fantastically. On my machine I can swing the power feeder over the jointer, and put the feed pressure over the cutterhead and outfeed table. Works fantastically for face jointing, and I can just leave the guard off.

[Michael Rector]

The fix is getting a suvamatic jointer guard. All your problems disappear, along with your wallet.

[Patrick Walsh]

I have both the Felder fold away jointer guard on my Ad941 and the Souvamatic on my Martin T54.

Both are excellent.

I have to admit that I often don’t even use the guard on my Felder but instead just adjust the fence to width of my stock off the front of the machine. I never could get a good enough feel for the under over motion of the hands to get the kind of cut I want. Regardless the guard is very nice and anyone whom had used or seen my Felder machine seems to be taken by it.

I was reluctant to spring for the extra $$$ for the Souvamatic considering the cost along with a couple people not having the best things to say about them. I almost went for the Martin pork chop guard and hit am I glad my local dealer talked me out of that decision.

I’ll say this for whatever reason with the Souvamatic the under over thing with the hands is intuitive and natural. I use the jointer guard 100% of the time when using my Martin and my cut quality never suppress. I’ll be honest as stupid as it is I hated jointer guards enough you never would had convinced me I’d ever opt to use one vrs just moving the fence around to compensate for the an exposed blade.

[Albert Lee]

Congrats on the 20” machine. That’s a big combo and not one you see everyday. I had my eyes on a used 951 about a year ago. Just wasn’t committed to going over to a combo machine. From experience, the shaper/saw combo is annoying to deal with at times.

As as far as the guards, I like the pork chop. I use push blocks and I can maintain contact with the board the entire length of the cut. The euro guard would require me to lift up and reposition. It requires you to fiddle with it to suit the needs of the board you are working on. You are face jointing 8/4, but you previously worked with 4/4? Adjust. You are face jointing 12/4? Well, you are SOL, because the guard doesn’t elevate that high on most machines. This leaves you to retract the guard completely. I have a 12” machine and I can’t remember the guard swinging out to impede my ability to move. I face joint a lot of 11”+ boards, and would remember if this sucked or not. The extra 4” might make a difference in this category, I’m not sure. I would imagine a 20” pork chop would be ridiculous. I understand the pork chop guard isn’t the perfect design for larger machines, but the basic euro guard isn’t either. I haven’t used a Suva in person, but it seems like the perfect guard. Looks sexy too.

I agree with the saw/shaper combo is super annoying, my previous combo is a Robland NX410 5 in 1 combi so I am ok with the j/p combo.

I really hate to buy new but I have no choice. these machines are rare and only ones thats available on the market over here are 30+ yo straight knife jointer or planer.

[Albert Lee]

I dont think the Porkchop guard is legal here in New Zealand, I like the idea but I have never used one... Dado blades are illegal over here as well.

If I say I have never used the guard when jointing on my previous 16" wide JP combo, and I have been operating without a guard for over 5 years since I received the machine, would I be mad? the reason I dont use is because the guard is a straight guard and I only use the 4" of the jointer most of the time, so I have this 12" guard in the middle of my work flow path.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a Hammer A3 J/P and have used almost all of the Felder models.

If you're running a 3 phase machine from a phase converter, verify that the converter provides a true 3 phase output. (voltages balanced between phases at all loads). If yours isn't, make sure that the electronics is fed from the 2 utility legs, and not the manufactured leg. I would also consult Felder if you're not sure.

As to the machines, make sure you wax or use Felder Supergleit on the tables to reduce friction between the wood and the tables.

In regards to the jointer guard, I much prefer the bridge type to the pork chop type. If you have trouble with it sticking out too far on edge jointing applications, buy the "comfort " guard which has a segmented design.......You'll be happy with the machine............Regards, Rod.