Justifying A Major Tool Purchase

[Dan Friedrichs]

I just got a quote from the Felder rep nearest me (curiosity killed the cat). The Hammer A3-31 with Silent Power, mobile kit, dial indicator & handwheel and two 200mm extensions delivered is a bit over $5.8K. Online, the Silent Power is 4-8 weeks out. The rep has it in stock. My head is spinning! And the Titanic is headed for an iceberg.

I agree with Rod - the extension tables are so rarely useful as to be unnecessary. And I suspect you're paying full retail price for them whether you buy them now or later. Likewise, hold off on spare cutter inserts - the included 4-sided ones may last you a lifetime. I also wonder if the mobility kit is worth the cost - many have put nice casters on and had great results. $4100 plus $152 for dial+handwheel is $4250 (plus shipping and tax).

[Julie Moriarty]

Looking at videos, the mobile kit looks workable in my garage. The planer, bandsaw and tablesaw are stored against one wall. The first two always have to be moved out to use them. A few feet from where the planer and bandsaw sit is a floor drain and the floor is pitched to the drain. I have to work the wheels of the tools around so they don't wobble.

The garage used to be an open carport, thus the floor drain. The only time that drain might be used is if we have a storm surge so I could pour floor leveler over it but I'm no fan of concrete work. None of my floor tools are even close to 700 lbs so I have no idea what it's like moving around that kind of weight, let alone what that weight on an uneven floor might do to the frame.

As for the extensions, what I have set up with the benchtop is shop-made infeed and outfeed extensions with an additional fold-down extension on the outfeed. That setup eliminated snipe on the Delta planer and has worked pretty well with the Dewalt. It's just nice not to have to run to the other side to catch short pieces. But I could probably build something with unistrut. I've got most of the hardware already.

And here I am, doing exactly what I said I'd try not to do. But if I wanted to be talked out of this purchase, I should have gone to a macramé forum.

The iceberg looms ahead...

[Jim Becker]

"Arrrrh...arrrh....arrrh..."

[David Kumm]

I feel like a wimp. I've got extensions on my 8' jointer and most every other machine. I hate tipping boards and seem to always work with 8-12' long boards of the 5/4-8/4 thickness. I don't run very well anymore either. Dave

[Albert Lee]

Even when all I was doing before was having the supplier joint one edge, I sometimes found chip out. And in cases where long boards had a bow, when they jointed the board, it could lose an inch of more of the width. Sometimes that meant I'd have to buy more lumber. When I control how the wood will be milled, there's little waste.

I just got a quote from the Felder rep nearest me (curiosity killed the cat). The Hammer A3-31 with Silent Power, mobile kit, dial indicator & handwheel and two 200mm extensions delivered is a bit over $5.8K. Online, the Silent Power is 4-8 weeks out. The rep has it in stock. My head is spinning! And the Titanic is headed for an iceberg.

Do you need the extension? you can cut out a lot of the accessories and save you some $$

I work with 8' long boards and I dont have extension... maybe I should. the planer extension for the AD951 is $200. I cant justify $200 for a piece of metal thats mass produced.

[Bradley Gray]

I have a Parks 12 inch planer that my dad purchased new in 1973 or thereabout. Has a little surface rust (very little) on the beds but otherwise would clean up like new and has very few hours on the Baldor motor. I have a 20 inch grizzly with a byrd head in it so I really don't need the Parks but to this point haven't had the heart to sell it since my dad passed 18 months ago. A byrd head for this planer is $828 and the heft and power the planer offers cries out for one - way more than a lunchbox style. Buy the Parks from me for $500 add the byrd and you're in business for rough cut lumber all day every day for years to come. Plus if you decide to sell it I bet you could get 1K anytime you wanted with that head on it. Those old Parks are tanks.

Julie,

I have one of these planers and you should jump on this offer. This is a real planer that with maintenance will last several lifetimes.

I use mine with the original 3 knife head (I do back-bevel the knives) and it has been a workhorse for 35 years.

You can check out the manual on OWWM (Parks 95)

[Bruce Wrenn]

Julie, are you building case work, or furniture? Case work is just plywood, or melamine boxes,with a pretty face. The boxes can be butt screwed together, as only the face and the ends are seen. Doors can be bought, ready to finish, or prefinished. Try to locate a copy of Danny Proulx's book "Making your own kitchen cabinets." This book changed how I built cabinets. As for machines, I would watch CL for a used four post 13" or 15" planer, and a 6" jointer. With the guard removed and replaced by a shop made Euro guard, you can face joint board as wide as 9" on a 6" jointer. My hardwood supplier seldom has any board that are wider than 9." The 15" planer will handle anything you throw at it. As you have found out licensing boards are usually in business to protect those who already hold licensees. Seldom does the licensee holder lift a finger to actually do the work. They only hold the licensee, thus restricting competition. Doing a remodel while living in the house is @#LL! Only advantage is the short commute to work, which means you can work longer because you are already home. I don't know how far you are from Atlanta.. IWF is there this coming week. It is amazing to see how automation has become the standard in the woodworking industry. Worth the trip, and the $20 registration fee. Bruce

[Alan Lightstone]

Julie:

Boy, I wish you had posted this 6 months ago when I sold my Laguna J/P combo with helical knifes. I'm about 90 min north of you. Would have been thrilled for you to get it.

That being said, buy the good stuff. You won't regret it.

[Rick Potter]

I am already jealous.

[Dan Hahr]

I'd hold back on buying any new planer until you get your DW735 back or tried another one to compare. I've used big ole 20" planers and have a Delta 15" planer as well as a 735. With sharp knives, there is NOTHING that doesn't come out well enough that a trip to the drum sander won't fix. I've run everything from cedar and fat lighter pine to jatoba, bubinga, bolivian rosewood, hard maple, and teak through it and have never had to run less than 1/64th at a time and that would have been on a 12" wide board. I have bogged it down with a deep cut, and a 1/16th at 8+" of hard wood will make it struggle a bit, but normally, a 1/32" cut will work on any wood, any width. (However, do not ever try to run kempas over HSS knives of any kind...)

I keep my knives sharp and the bed waxed. If a board stops moving, the feed rollers are dirty. DNA on them cleans them up and gives them the grip again. I got one of the first ones and it is still going strong. I do tend to use it for the last 1/16 of an inch unless the wood is prone to tear out. I am somewhat ashamed to say that I have used the same knives in the Delta 15" for the last 8 years without sharpening them. They are chipped but still sharp enough to do the majority of the wood hogging before the board sees the 735. It's also much faster and will cut an 1/8" off 15" wide poplar without missing a beat. I can't wait to see it work after I get around to setting the new knives I've had for 7 years.

Also, I hate to waste wood, but I'd shy away from cutting 3/16 off one face before planing any type of wood to get 3/4. I've had good luck with resawing bolivian rosewood with a hand saw to get bookmatched panels and it was very stable, but I think I just got lucky. I always plan to remove an equal amount from both faces.

I could definitely justify buying a nicer used 15"+ planer or an 8" jointer to upgrade my 6" one, but there's no way I would spend 5-6K on a tool that I have to switch between operations, and that I couldn't run a wider panel through. I just built a 2700 sq ft home and built three custom vanities, all the kitchen cabinets, custom pantry, and a custom island. Plus, every bit of trim in the home was custom made from poplar, from rough cut and 13/16 lumber. Even with the cost savings on the house, I couldn't justify a combo machine. (I did justify a Supermax 19-38 sander, I just wish it was before I finished the 700 feet of 7" base molding with a ROS.) And, several kitchen door panels were resawn, bookmatched cherry, with some really curly cherry thrown in for fun.

Dan

[Bill Dufour]

Julie,

I have one of these planers and you should jump on this offer. This is a real planer that with maintenance will last several lifetimes.

I use mine with the original 3 knife head (I do back-bevel the knives) and it has been a workhorse for 35 years.

You can check out the manual on OWWM (Parks 95)

Fine woodworking has an article on how to adjust a planer and the example machine is a Parks 12". I did not realize the knob to lift the front guard is actually the depth adjustment.
Bill D.

[Jim Becker]

Julie, are you building case work, or furniture? e

Julie has a bunch of threads in Woodworking Projects (where finished work and builds go) that illustrate her wonderful work...which spans both casework and furniture. She also builds guitars.

[Julie Moriarty]

Julie has a bunch of threads in Woodworking Projects (where finished work and builds go) that illustrate her wonderful work...which spans both casework and furniture. She also builds guitars.

Thank you, Jim! I was just thinking today how nice it would be to have a jointer for guitar necks.

We had a talk last night. We both agreed if all we did was purchase cabinets for the two bathrooms and laundry room the cost would quickly exceed the JP cost. I had a cheap jointer for years but gave it away before we moved. It was easier to get boards edge jointed by the supplier than mess with that thing. But I will admit even a cheap jointer was nice to have. Now I have to hand joint everything.

And then there's this - I talk myself out of doing a lot of things for lack of a jointer... and now a decent planer. One of our neighbors has expressed an interest in having me make a live edge coffee table but I balked at it because of all the handwork I'd have to do. But if I could make a few bucks on the side, that would ease the pain of a JP. I could also save over $400 by picking it up myself. We've been about a long weekend in Miami for a while. We could rent a trailer there and pick up a pallet jack here, do all the heavy lifting (like roller wheels), then return the jack and trailer all for a little over $100. Florida charges tax for deliveries making that $500 shipping actually $535.

With a couple of end tables and a live edge coffee table planned, sure would be nice to have a quality JP. This purchase may still have some life in it. But I will wait until the DW735 comes back. Maybe they won't be able to fix it and they send me back a new one. That would increase the value when selling it.

[Brian Holcombe]

Even a 16" machine doesn't get you very far with live edge stuff. You'd need a monster for that.

Great to have a wide jointer for everything else though. I put Aigner extensions on mine when I need them, I need them fairly often. For instance I'm flatting 16/4 x 8" x 120" material soon. That's heavy enough that I don't want to try and maintain it flat to the tables on my own doing, which is poor practice in any case.

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Brian about the benefit of having a wide jointer. It makes it a heck of a lot more versatile, including accommodating odd-shaped workpieces. It's hard to appreciate sometimes if there's no experience with an "aircraft carrier wide surface and cutter head", but it can be eye opening once one is available. A quality J/P provides that in a space that is a lot easier for many woodworkers to accommodate in their shops, too.

And Julie...a nice "romantic" trip to Miami to enjoy the area while picking up your new power tool will be fun!