Hammer A3-31 Hinge side adjustment

[Ted Calver]

Tyler,
I feel your pain. I agree with Rod that you need to give Hammer a call or two. Start with your sales person and ask for their help in resolving your issue. I had problems with a bow in my fence and the tech informed me that anything under 6 thou was acceptable tolerance for the fence. My fence exceeded that and they sent me a new one-- that was 5 thou. The tech should be able to tell you what their spec is for table flatness and if yours exceeds that, a replacement is in order--hope you are still under warranty.

[David Hou]

Hey Tyler,
Sorry to hear about the difficulties you are having with your unit. I purchased my unit used (older generation with "bat wing" beds) and the beds were pretty out of whack. I assumed that it was mostly due to my transporting the unit and then moving it into my basement shop.

I also called Felder/Hammer several times trying to get some assistance in adjustments and did not find the support techs particularly helpful either. They also tried to tell me that there was no way that the unit was as out of whack as I was describing and was generally unhelpful and sometimes condescending. I tried to set up an appointment to have one of their techs come out and service/adjust the unit, which would have been on my dime (travel, food etc.) back in Nov/Dec 2012, was given a date of "sometime" 2/13 and then when I called in Feb to check on an exact date, only to be told that they would not be able to do the service in Feb and I would have to wait until late March/April "sometime" and to call back again around that time. Needless to say, since Nov 2012, I've had time here and there to tinker with it and finally have it running fairly good though not quite at the tolerances I would like. In all, its been a bit of a frustrating experience, and I sure am happy that I didn't jump the gun and sell my 6'' jointer and planer yet!

I actually received a lot more help from folks on here as well as the Felders Owners Group (FOG) on yahoo. I had pretty much chalked it up to a bad experience thinking that the poor service was due to the fact that I was not an original owner, until I read your thread. Sorry to hear about your troubles, but as a new owner, I would expect more support from them. I apologize in taking this opportunity to vent my own frustrations! Hopefully you'll have more success than I did!

[Erik Kyren]

I just got an A3 31 and have been checking its tolerances and trying to figure out how to tune it (the manual is crap and the setup guide I found online has pictures for a previous generation model). I have a feeling they want to have these things set from the factory and not tinkered with by anybody except a service guy. If anybody gets their hands on a factory service manual, any PDF's would be HIGHLY appreciated!

Anyways in regard to your problem trying to get the infeed table to pitch down towards the cutter, have you tried adjusting the clamping mechanism for the table bed? You know the spring loaded lever that you press in and turn 1/4 of the way and it sort of 'cams down' the table against those temple bolts... have you tried adjusting the bar that cam slots into? If you lower the cutter side temple screw it won't pitch down towards the cutter unless that cam engages sufficiently enough to force the table firmly against both temple screws. Also I think unless you manage to get the hinge side adjusted to be the same level as the temple screw you won't get the desired effect.

That the surface of the in-feed table is proud by about 0.004" right before the cutter is a serious bummer. Fortunately it is in the center rather than one side or the other. If you joint all your faces/edges lined up with the center of the proud section it will probably be fine. I think the issue is greater when one side or the other slopes down or there is a twist along the length of the table. I dunno whether it is worth trying to wrangle another one out of Hammer or not. The proof is in the pudding I suppose. I would tune it as precisely as you are able, then mill some boards and get your square up to them. If everything joints and planes into right angles and flat faces then you are probably making a mountain out of a mole-hill.

-Erik

[Paul Straka]

New (and a few years late) to this thread. Getting close to ordering a A3-31 and was wondering if you were able to resolve the bed flatness issue. Just seems wrong to have the bed that far out right out of the box.

[John TenEyck]

This whole story makes me glad I bought a 1988 Mini Max FS35 J/P. The tables are dead flat and coplaner. I had to take the machine apart to get it down into my basement shop. That was not the easiest task but I got it done. A real highlight to me was finding that the hinges had and require no adjustments, no shims, nothing. The frame is machined flat and the tables are milled so that they line up properly. There's just no way it can be wrong. I still didn't expect it to be perfect when I got it back together but, much to my delight, it was dead on. I'm not slamming Hammer, I almost bought one, but I really appreciate the care with which Mini Max built that machine - in 1988.

John

[Brian Arbuckle]

I'm not sure if anyone posted a solution to the warping table issue or hinge side adjustments but I've successfully made both adjustments. I'll summarize the process below and if anyone has follow-on questions, I can get more detailed.

To fix the "bow" in the infeed or outfeed table, lift the tables up and notice two steel rods running across and under the bottom of each. They bolt to the hinge side with two nuts (don't touch these) and to the latch side with one nut. If you slightly loosen the latch side nut, it will reduce the compression from under the table and cause the bow to go flat. These rods control how the tables are raised and lowered so do not loosen too much or the tables may creep down over time. If you have a Oneway gauge, it is easy to determine when the bow is gone and I was satisfied when I was within .001". I started at .008".

For the hinge side adjustment you'll need to take the back cover off and then loosen the four black bolts that pass through from the planer housing, through the hinge brackets, with nuts under the hinges on the back of the machine. There are two allen head set screws, one is one size larger than the other. One is located on the top of the hinge closest to the cutterhead and the other is under the hinge just above the white capacitors (the allen wrench for this one needs to be used up into the allen screw). My infeed table was too high at the cutterhead and too low on the outside so I had to loosen the allen screw closest to the cutterhead and then extend the one next to the capacitor. This brought the infeed table coplaner with the outfeed table on the hinge side. I then went to the latch side and adjusted the temple bolts until the infeed table near the cutterhead measured the same on the hinge and latch sides. After checking everything, I noticed the latch side end of the infeed table was drooping and had to perform the adjustment Erik mentions above. I loosened the two silver bolts that the table latches onto (inside planer housing) and raised the latch mechanism by turning the two adjustment nuts. This allowed the latch to tip the table until the outside was coplaner with the outfeed table on the latch side. After this, I had to adjust the temple screws again so the contacted the table evenly. Went back and fine tuned the hinge side. Did another fine tuning on the latch side, and then tightened everything up. The Oneway gage is key when adjusting the latch side because it shows you when the temple bolts have equal pressure. When you tighten the latch, the reading shouldn't change more than .001"-.002". If it does, you need to raise or lower one of the temple bolts. It took me a few hours to figure out how to make all the adjustments. My only real complaint is that the bolt threads are too coarse so it is hard to hold the adjustments when locking all the bolts tight. It takes a little fudge factor and trial and error but it is doable.

Good Luck,
Brian

[Brian Arbuckle]

The images below show the process of fixing the bow on the infeed and outfeed tables that many of us experience with the Hammer A3 machines. The most concerning location of the bow is near the cutterhead but it can also occur approximately one foot away from the cutterhead. Both locations are directly above the table tensioning rods.

Bow4.jpg

Zero your gauge on something flat.

Bow1.jpg

Check for bow on back and front of table.

Bow2.jpg

Bow3.jpg

Loosen tensioning rods to remove bow.

Bow5.jpg

Verify adjustment is correcting issue and continuing making adjustments until problem disappears.

Bow6.jpg

[Sebastien La Madeleine]

Fantastic, thanks Brian!

Sébastien

[Brian Arbuckle]

Here are pictures of how to adjust the hinge side of the infeed table. To see if you need to make this adjustment, place a straightedge across the outfeed and infeed tables on the hinge side and then raise the infeed table until it makes contact with the straight edge. You'll need to decide how out of adjustment the tables need to be before making a change. My infeed table was 1/4" high at the cuttterhead (low away from the cutterhead) so I needed to correct this.

Remove hinge cover.

Hinge1.jpg

Remove back cover. While you are in here, clean and grease the chain. Clean the drive belt and check the belt tension. If loose, lower the motor to tighten it up.

Hinge2.jpg

Loosen 4 hinge mounting bolts. The nuts are shown in the picture above.

Hinge3.jpg

To tip the infeed table up or down, you'll need to adjust both the front and back set screws. They are both allen screws. To tip the table towards the cutterhead, loosen the front one and tighten the back one. Lower the tables back down to check progress frequently.

Hinge4.jpg

Hinge5.jpg

This is the back set screw and the one you'll need to extend to raise the outside of the infeed table.

Hinge6.jpg

I was able to get the hinge side of the infeed table coplaner with the outfeed table within .003". I then began adjusting the latch side of the table. See the next reply for latch side adjustments.

[Brian Arbuckle]

After making the adjustments below to the latch side, the hinge side became .008" out of adjustment so I performed the hinge and latch side adjustments again. When rechecking, everything was within .003" and I stopped...good enough.

For latch adjustments, place a Oneway gauge on the hinge side of the cutterhead with the indicator touching the cutterhead cylinder (not the carbide inserts). Move the gauge towards the cutterhead and then away until you locate the top dead center of the cuttehead. Rotate the dial indicator until it reads .000".

dial1.jpg

My infeed table was .010" high on the latch side so I needed to lower it. It was also about 1/4" low on the far right of the infeed table (outside) on the latch side. Basically my infeed table was in a twisted orientation to the outfeed.

dial2.jpg

Loosen the lock nuts below both temple bolts. Lower the table, lightly lock the table down, place your oneway gauge on the latch side of the infeed table and on the cutterhead. With finger pressure, lightly twist the temple bolts until they both make contact with the underside of the infeed table. Loosen the locking mechanism then while watching the gauge, tighten it fully. If the gauge moves more than a couple thousands, the temple bolts are not making equal contact with the table. With trial and error, looosen/tighten the bolts slightly then unlock/lock the latch until the gauge does not move during the locking process. Now your temple bolts are in line with each other and you can equally loosen/tighten then until your dial indicator reads zero.

Latch1.jpg

Place a straightedge across the outfeed/infeed tables on the latch side and see if the outside of the infeed table is in line. Most likely it will be lower or drooping down so you will need to tip the table dropping the cutterhead side and raising the outside. This is done by adjusting the latch mechanism.

Latch2.jpg

If you have a droopy table, lower the temple bolt closest to the cutterhead and raise the temple bold furthest away then loosen the latch bolts and adjust the two locking nuts. Lightly latch the table. Check with a straightedge to see your progress. When the outside has raised up to within a few thousands, repeat the temple bolt adjustments above until they touch the bottomside of the infeed table again. Make small changes, check, and then adjust again. When everything is close, check the hinge side again with a straightedge because latch side adjustments will most likely throw the hinge side out of alignment. Redo the hinge side then come back to the latch and perform additional minor adjustments. When everything looks good, carefully tighten down all the locking nuts and bolts paying close attention to your gauge. The gauge should not change when tightening everything down but the threads are so coarse that a slight twist will change the heights. Good luck!

Finally, check the jointer operation for snipe, sprung joints, and splayed joints. Snipe occurs when the outfeed table is above the height of the knives or dramatically below the knives. The table should be set at .001" below the top of the knives to produce an ideal jointed edge (slightly sprung or when two board edges are placed together they will be touching on the ends and slightly apart in the middle. When slight clamping pressure is applied across the middle, the joint should come together completely). An easy way to check this measurement is to lower the infeed table to take about a 1/16" cut. Joint the first 3-4 inches of a boards edge (until it just goes past the leading edge of the outfeed table) then turn off the machine. Take this board and slide it over the front edge of the outfeed table. Use a feeler gauge to measure the gap between the board's edge and the outfeed table. If the outfeed table is too high, the board will hit the front edge of the outfeed table. A flat edge will be produced if 100% level. An ideal sprung joint will be produced when .001" or so below the cutting edge. To adjust the outfeed table up or down, take a wrench and rotate the outfeed mechanism at the square pivot point below. Check the measurement again and continue making measurements until you're happy. As a final test, joint the edges of two boards, put them together, and confirm you have a slightly sprung joint.

outfeed1.jpg

[Lawrence Seals]

Thank you so very much for taking the time to put together this post! Your detailed instruction has helped me immensely. I have the HAMMER A3-41 and man was the infeed side out of coplaner! You would think that they would deliver these machines to be ready to go, especially considering the high cost. Anyway, your instruction made my day a hell of a lot easier to deal with.

Thanks again!

[Morgan Patton]

I'd like to thank Brian Arbuckle for providing instructions where Felder won't.

I received an A3-31 about a month ago and it came poorly adjusted and with both jointer tables not flat. Thanks to Brian's above instructions and other research, I have managed to get the planer adjusted and working well but I can't seem to compensate for the jointer tables not being flat. The outfeed table dips down to as much as .005" in the middle of the long direction, is pretty flat across the short section (-.002") but dips down as low as .01" when measured from one corner to another. The infeed table isn't much better. I have managed to get the outfeed table level with the cutterhead and have made sure the temple bolts are hitting the tables with even pressure. After talking with Felder tech support (again) today, he said that the temple bolts don't need to evenly touch the table and, in fact, I should use them to twist the tables in the opposite direction that they're currently twisted in. I tried this and, while it does flatten out the low point that is measured from one corner to another, it creates a low spot in the other direction (measured from the opposite corner to the opposite corner). So, the best I can get from a .01" low dip in one direction is a .005" dip in both directions. The Felder tech also said not to concentrate so much on the numbers and just worry about if it joints boards properly. Well, it doesn't, the boards come out being about as flat as the tables, not. When I put two jointed boards together, the gap is as much as .025". That is way too big of a sprung joint for me. There is also a sizable dip when measuring the boards from corner to corner, just like on the tables.

At this point, I have already lost way too many work days messing with this machine and I've already lost one big job to the wasted time. I'm definitely never buying anything from Felder again and, honestly, even if I was able to get this machine adjusted properly, I'm realizing there is no one locally that could ever repair it. I tried local machine repair companies and none of them have ever seen one of these machines in person. It's been a very expensive lesson but I now know I should never by a piece of machinery that can't be worked on locally. I'm now stuck with a very expensive planer that takes up the space of a combo.

[Bill McNiel]

Kudos Brian for taking the time and energy to put together this informative, comprehensive guide to tuning a Hammer A3. You have my heartfelt gratitude for leading me out of the weeds, I am truly indebted to you sir.

Again, many thanks - Bill

[greg bulman]

The felder rep called a couple of days ago and I almost put deposit on this same unit. Starting to think that would have been a bad decision. Think I might go the separates route.

[Julie Moriarty]

I just did a few tests on my brand spanking new A3-31. If I set the dial to 0 at the center, the back runs .003" high and the front is .005". Taking a measurement from the outfeed side of the table, setting the dial to 0 one inch into the infeed table, at 18" the table drops off .015".