Combo jointer / planer question

[Greg Parrish]

I’m tied up early this morning but plan to call them for help and guidance later today. Hopefully with their help I get this thing humming.

[Ben Rivel]

Wow... I could have said the same thing, Greg. I've barely touched mine since I got it. Another project has owned me these past few months. That will end in a few weeks. Then I intend to put it to work. But as of now, I still haven't installed the digital readout. $5K just sitting in the workshop collecting dust. Never did that with any tool before.

Eh, dont feel bad, mines been sitting on the pallet for going on a couple months now too. Life happens. Youll get around to putting it to good use. And its not like itll go bad if you dont. The point is you have the tool when you need/want it.

[Julie Moriarty]

Got a chance to give the JP a run today. Put it up against 8/4 sipo. Sure do love the finish!

[Greg Parrish]

Got a chance to give the JP a run today. Put it up against 8/4 sipo. Sure do love the finish!

Sounds great. Glad it’s working out.

Im in talks with Felder regarding mine. Spoke with Tim yesterday and someone from service today. Supposed to hear update tomorrow so I’ll wait till I know more to say anything but fingers crossed they are able to do what I’m asking to help me out. Regards.

[Julie Moriarty]

Im in talks with Felder regarding mine. Spoke with Tim yesterday and someone from service today. Supposed to hear update tomorrow so I’ll wait till I know more to say anything but fingers crossed they are able to do what I’m asking to help me out. Regards.

Hope they can take care of things, Greg. They SHOULD! I never did "the commissioning" on mine but for short pieces, so far it's working fine. Before I do any edge glue ups, I'll have to get the beds coplanar but I can't even remember where I saw how to do that. I think I'll install the digital gauge first.

Keep us posted on what Felder is doing for you.

[Greg Parrish]

Well, once I heard the quote this morning I couldn’t justify the cost for commissioning a tech for calibration, but Ben in service in DE has been great in trying to help me understand what items to tackle based on the symptoms I was having. He personally recorded 3 videos on one of their machines on site and texted them to me this morning.

So far, I think I have my jointer issue worked out by adjusting my outfeed table per his instructions. Originally I thought it was too low but turns out it was actually too high. Seeing the video of how to adjust made the written instructions I was struggling with much easier to grasp. A simple task actually now that I’ve done it.

Also got my fence as squared up as possible. I say that as my extruded aluminum fence face has a slight cup which makes perfect square impossible but it should be fine now that I’ve adjusted it as best possible. A machined cast iron would have been great but this should be fine.

Last up I’ve got to get the planer section sorted out. I popped a follow up question to Ben just now and hope to be able to get it sorted out shortly. Will be wonderful to start using this thing but I may still be giving cutting board IOU’s on Christmas.

Lastly i out 2 coats of paste wax on all three bed surfaces. Hopefully that helps keep things moving better too.

More to come. Thanks.

[Brian Holcombe]

None of these type of machines have a machined cast iron fence. Mine has a 'heavy duty' aluminum fence with a cast iron support and steel shaft and it still is flimsy compared to a fence on a stand alone jointer.

I'm assuming it has to be somewhat due to the added weight to the top. The springs have to overcome that weight and so everything added up ends up being pretty heavy.

[Derek Cohen]

Also got my fence as squared up as possible. I say that as my extruded aluminum fence face has a slight cup which makes perfect square impossible but it should be fine now that I’ve adjusted it as best possible. A machined cast iron would have been great but this should be fine.

Greg, if I examine my A3-31, the fence also has a cup somewhere along the length. It is perfectly square at the cutter head ...



It has always produced a square edge. Further, I check for square, but the fence does not lose its setting after being slid back and forth many times for changes betwee the jointer and planer.

As Brian mentions, I imagine that the fence is an aluminium extrusion to keep down weight. It does occur to me that one could attach a length of MDF, or other material, to achieve a perfectly flat surface over the length, should you wish to do so.

Regads from Perth

Derek

[Greg Parrish]

Here is a question. I managed to get rid of my snipe by adding tension to my in-feed and out-feed rollers. Now the snipe is gone but I’m getting ridge lines due to the in-feed roller pressure. Is this normal or do I need to back off the tension? I obviously have one side more tensioned than the other but it’s feeding straight. Not going to mess with it until I get responses since it is dialed in to be snipe free right now. LOL

thank you.

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[Brian Holcombe]

How much material are you taking off per cut?

[Jim Becker]

How much material are you taking off per cut?

This is an important question, Greg...if the outfeed roller is metal and serrated, there's a "minimum bite" you have to take to avoid seeing the marks. This is common with stationary type planers, Benchtop planers tend to have rubber or other composite rollers which do not mark material and you can take really thin bites with them.

[Greg Parrish]

That’s it I bet. Was only dropping .01 between passes. I have the imperial gauge so I can’t remember what measurement that equates to but it’s nt much. Probably need to take larger bites to thickness and use drum sander if thin bites are that important.

Thanks guys. Looks like I have this thing figured out now so hopefully I can knock out some cutting board pieces tomorrow.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, that was one of the things I had to get used to when I went from the bench-top thickness planer to the J/P. Getting to know your scale and how it equates to "reality" relative to the actual thickness coming out is important because you can't "sneak up on it" quite as easily with the larger machines due to the roller configuration. On the other side of that, they can really pull stuff through when you want to take a much larger bite, too...something that doesn't work as well with the bench-tops.

[Nick Lazz]

Id love the hammer 16” but can’t justify the cost. Was thinking I might could swing the straight blade A3-31 12” model with mobiliy kit if I sold my current machines for enough money. Are the hammer blades good? The dewalt ones sucked which prompted the shelix head.

Greg, I am seriously considering an upgrade to a 16” machine. I have an A3-31 that I would sell if you are interested, obviously depending on your location.
It does have the knives but I have never had an issue with them. They are simple to change and last a long time and have a high quality finish.
Pm if interested.

[Jim Becker]

Nick, he already owns one...