Minimax FS30

[tony j kent]

Hi folks, I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. I recently purchased my first jointer/planner. I looked closely at the Jet, Grizzly, Hammer and Minimax 12" combo machines and decided on the Minimax. A shout out to Erik Loza - he was great to work with when purchasing the machine.

I put a lot of thought into how I would get it off the pallet and onto a mobile base (in my case a Portamate PM3500). I decided to build a single use gantry from wood and a $60 harbor freight chain hoist. The vertical members of the gantry are 2"x6"'s and the joist was a 2x12 . It worked great - took about 15 minutes to move it from the pallet to the mobile base. I'll use the wood to practice on the FS30.

I videoed my whole unboxing - you can take a look here. Hope this help other folks.

]

Tony

[Bruce Page]

Whew!
Welcome to the forum and enjoy that beautiful machine!

[Jim Becker]

Congrats on your new J/P!! Enjoy!

[John TenEyck]

You work fast! You're going to love using it.

John

[Rick Fisher]

Nice thread.. nice machine.

[David Wong]

Clever. Much better than using an engine hoist (like I did). Congratulations on your new machine.

[Anthony Albano]

Hah, enjoyed that!

[Rich Riddle]

Interesting way to do it. You might want to keep that single use gantry for the future.

[Chris Padilla]

I like how you lifted it...may have to file that one away for future use.

[Rod Sheridan]

Nice machine, Tony, you'll really enjoy using it...........Regards, Rod.

[tony j kent]

You guys are right - I love using it. I installed a Wixey WR550 digital readout today.

[Keith Pleas]

Thanks for the video - that was very helpful.

[Patrick Harper]

You guys are right - I love using it. I installed a Wixey WR550 digital readout today.

I love my FS30. I would love to see how you have the Wixey setup.

[Erik Loza]

I love my FS30. I would love to see how you have the Wixey setup.

+1, Tony. If you don't mind sharing. The Wixey seems to be a popular mod on the FS30 (at least according to my owners...) but I rarely see pics of it. Be nice to have a thread to refer guys to.

Erik

[tony j kent]

Hi Erik, I also couldn't find any good pictures of how people mounted it so it took me some time to work out where to put it. I think I got it right but if I did it again I would mount it about 0.25" to 1" to the left. In the current position the wixey vertical 'ruler' almost interfears with the wood if I am planning full width stock. Here's a picture of the mounting position. The vertical position doesn't matter too much - around the level of the roller engage lever will work. You only have about an inch to play around with the horizontal position.

wixey.jpg


I am loving the FS30. I didn't think I would like the porkchop guard (based on other peoples comments) but it works fine for me. My bandsaw ($100 on Craigslist) its getting a good workout now resawing thick stock. I've bought many tools used (not knowing for sure how much I would really use some of them) but the jointer / planer is where I made big investment. I need to buy, but holding off on a drum sander. I want to spend less< $2k, preferably much less and have 16/32 capacity. So many horror stories on the interwebs about tracking problems and I couldn't begin to decide which brand/model to look at. I've decided to focus on dust collection for the moment (after reading Bill Plentz)

My project for memorial day is upgrading my 2 stage cyclone shop vac to something better. I found a 220V 2hp Grizzly on CL for $200 (its an old model but never been used). I think I'll buy it and modify it so the motor sits on top of a Thien baffle top hat with a garbage can underneath. I may vent it outside it if its not too loud.