Justifying A Major Tool Purchase

[Julie Moriarty]

I am a member there. Where are the technician manuals exactly? It's so hard to find anything with that archaic platform they refuse to abandon. Are the files mixed in with the bunch of other disorganized attachments/files? Or are they in a thread somewhere?

Don't say that! I just signed up there and am I hearing it's just as messed up as dealing with Felder direct? What is this company? The House of Mirrors?

[Rod Sheridan]

Don't say that! I just signed up there and am I hearing it's just as messed up as dealing with Felder direct? What is this company? The House of Mirrors?

Julie, the FOG has nothing to do with Felder, it's a private website..............It does have a lot of Felder users, just nothing to do with the company........Regards, Rod.

[Glen Gunderson]

It seems to me that making and providing a good, comprehensive, clear manual is the cheapest and easiest part of being an equipment supplier/manufacturer. I've made the mistake of buying a couple of Chinese machines in the past and they actually came with decent manuals that covered all the bases.

Yeah, it's funny how that works. In another A3-31 thread Erik Loza mentioned that some people ended up using the manual from a Chinese copy because it was better than the Minimax documentation:

I remember one of the Asian companies knocking off the FS30 Smart. Buyers told me the machines were lemons but that the documentation was excellent. I actually downloaded a copy of their pdf setup manual and would send it to clients. Several owners said it was a great help, LOL.

[Ben Rivel]

Festool manuals are pretty worthless too which lead the community to step up and make more detailed supplemental manuals. Maybe its a European thing to give us English speaking countries crappy manuals but take lots of money from us?

[Warren Lake]

Julie I told you how to adjust the jointer outfeed. Drop it till it snipes and bring it back up slowly. If nothing else is wrong with the machine it will work, if you go past flat you will get a hollow more and more as the outfeed table is higher. Ive jointed many thousands of feet of material not making this stuff up. I dont fit into clubs, there are people who have some valuable stuff to say, sometimes hobby guys sometimes salesman ill listen to everyone but time and time again its the guys like Mel and some others here who have machined many thousands of feet of wood who get it. Hate to see people going through grief in life, seen too many and had too much of my own.

[Bill McNiel]

I know. But how? I don't want to just start fiddling with it. I want to know the proper steps.

"Hey Julie! All your JP needs is adjusting and it will work like a charm."

This is what's so frustrating. It's like Felder has this impenetrable fortress in which they keep the secrets to making their machines work as intended. Just send us the $&#^%@! manual!

Julie (and Greg),
I have finally finished (I hope) tuning my new to me A3 41 and now have a moderately comprehensive understanding of the process.

One of the "manuals" Derek posted revealed Felder's specs;
Cutterhead tolerance - end to end = .004"
Cutterhead to Outfeed Table = .028" to .036"
Table flatness = .010"
Jointer fence = .006"

The process that I ended up using is;
1) Remove as much "bow" from IF and OF tables as possible given the manufacture's tolerance of .010"
2) Adjust OF table leading edge to parallel with CH with the offset between .028" to .036" (I was barely able to get to .036" with much effort, parallel is more important than offset number assuming the actual offset allows for adjusting for Spring Joint of your preference). I was able to get end to end CH variance to less than .001".
3) Adjust IF table CH edge to parallel with CH and OF table
4) Adjust IF and OF tables to coplanar status
5) Rinse & Repeat due to that age old issue that every step affects the result of a previous step. Eventually it will even out.
6) Adjust for Spring joint, or elimination of same, to your preference. This is a relatively straight forward process but finicky to say the least.

Here are links to fairly well illustrated/articulated procedures to aid in accomplishing the above steps;

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ble-adjustment
http://www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/tag/j...-planer-combo/
https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ide-adjustment

We all would have suffered less and had better attitudes towards Felder if they would just spend a couple of grand and produce a comprehensive, well illustrated, Owner's Manual. In the end my A3 41 is turning out to be the machine I fantasized it would be, apparently I just had to suffer to appreciate it.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions, issues, or just need to commiserate - Bill

[Greg Parrish]

Bill, you traveling to Florida anytime soon.

thanks for the above. Hope to get back to mine over next two weekends.

[Bill McNiel]

Bill, you traveling to Florida anytime soon.

thanks for the above. Hope to get back to mine over next two weekends.

Greg,
Approach this task in small bites. Hopefully the process outlined above and the links will help. For me, finding out the what and how was more frustrating than the tedious process of actually tuning the machine. If Felder provided a comprehensive OM we would not feel so lost, alone and POed.
Again, do not hesitate to contact me, while we are as far apart in the continental US as is physically possible, electrons do not care about distance.
Regards- Bill

[Julie Moriarty]

I'm a picture person because I have the patience of a four year old. Plus I'm in the middle of trying to teach myself QGIS and preparing a 3D presentation I have to make tomorrow that could pay for the JP and then some.

Anyway, I just got this from Tim at Felder: http://upload.felcom.at/file/1538407...djustmentguide

I'm glad I waited. No way could I have figured this out without changing or adjusting something that didn't need it - and then have to figure out how to get it back. No Ctl-Z keys in real life.

[Rod Sheridan]

makes no sense to be set for a hollow, its not wanted or needed on a rail or style or on face material you are machining. I realize its a small amount, do they think everyone is gluing up table tops? Most people dont pay attention to it or know. A few thou over what distance? even technique would change that. Raise her table you mean lower it, its too high now unless the machine has other issues. Still say lower the table till snipe bring it back up, if go past the two boards will show you that.

Hi Warren, all devices have a specified accuracy. This is true of machines, as well as measuring devices such as straight edges.

Unless the tolerances have been updated, the test for the jointer is to produce a surface that is flat to 0.1 mm of concavity over a 1 meter length. The easiest method for a wood worker to measure this is to joint 2 pieces one metre long and place them together.

If you have perfectly flat to 0.2mm gap in the middle, the individual pieces are perfectly flat to 0.1mm concave, which is the desired accuracy.

The customer is welcome to adjust to closer than that if they want, however Felder won't adjust it further than published accuracy statements.

Yes, you raise the outfeed table if the joint is too concave, assuming the tables are within specified parallelism...........Rod.

[Mike King]

I am a member there. Where are the technician manuals exactly? It's so hard to find anything with that archaic platform they refuse to abandon. Are the files mixed in with the bunch of other disorganized attachments/files? Or are they in a thread somewhere?

Files section. First file is "a331 adjustment guide.pdf"

Mike

[Rod Sheridan]

Or maybe there should be a service guy who comes to your door after the machine arrives to get it up to company specs.

That's called commissioning and we have a lot of customers who pay for it, even hobby users.

All the manufacturers supply that service if the customer wants it.............Regards, Rod.

[Ben Rivel]

Files section. First file is "a331 adjustment guide.pdf"

Mike

Ah, yea I saw and downloaded that, but thats a far cry from a "technicians manual". Helpful hopefully, but its just a short document showing some adjustments that can be made with some real photos instead of diagram drawings. Better than nothing though I guess.

[Darcy Warner]

This thread makes me love my 106 year old 30" American jointer even more.

[greg bulman]

Thanks so much for this thread and Julie's message. It may have saved me any it $5000. I all but ordered this same machine two weeks ago. I am now looking for a separate jointer and planer.