Power feeder - 3 vs 4 wheels

[Mark Bolton]

Grizzly had them for $750 when they first started carrying them.

What is mind blowing about it? The dc40 is $1000 (usd) in the uk.. a rebadged comatic from grizzly is the same as rebadged comatic from powermatic...

The DC30 is 1159 on shopgears now, the DC40 is 1259. As I said, Im admittedly not a fan, but the mindblowing/scary part (for me) is what has happened to the rebadged unit to get it to a $400+ discount. I have seen and been around enough of that in other shops to have a pretty good guess on a visual inspection, but whats happened internally would make me nervous enough to get the real deal.

[Martin Wasner]

The DC30 is 1159 on shopgears now, the DC40 is 1259. As I said, Im admittedly not a fan, but the mindblowing/scary part (for me) is what has happened to the rebadged unit to get it to a $400+ discount. I have seen and been around enough of that in other shops to have a pretty good guess on a visual inspection, but whats happened internally would make me nervous enough to get the real deal.

I agree. Saving money costs a lot sometimes.

[Greg Parrish]

Ordered the co-matic 4 wheel DC40 with two sets of the thin wheels. Hopefully the bracket from Felder gets here in less than 8 weeks. It was on back order.

Thanks guys.

[Jared Sankovich]

The DC30 is 1159 on shopgears now, the DC40 is 1259. As I said, Im admittedly not a fan, but the mindblowing/scary part (for me) is what has happened to the rebadged unit to get it to a $400+ discount. I have seen and been around enough of that in other shops to have a pretty good guess on a visual inspection, but whats happened internally would make me nervous enough to get the real deal.

Beyond the grizzly issue, what do you dislike about the comatic dc feeders? The dc40 was my next feeder purchase.

[Mark Bolton]

Beyond the grizzly issue, what do you dislike about the comatic dc feeders? The dc40 was my next feeder purchase.

Ah.. misunderstanding. We have comatic DC's.. major fan (other than wallet pain). My not a fan comments were about the green paint issue.

[Martin Wasner]

The dc40 was my next feeder purchase.

I wish all my feeders were the dc40. I have one on our miscellaneous shaper. Doing something odd the day, 2fpm change in speed made a difference. Which is bonkers, but nice to have the option

[Greg Parrish]

Best I can tell the grizzly one looks identical. If they had a 4 wheel version at their pricing for $100 more I’d have gotten it but I only saw the 3 wheel version. I also compared the Steff 4 wheel vario which isn’t a whole lot more than the co-magic but it weighs a lot more and it looks like the speed is manually controlled. Not sure if it would have been a lot higher quality or not though being made in Italy by Maggi.

[John Kee]

For the application Greg is actually going to be using for, a tiltaway bracket on the front of a saw slider/shaper combo, the weight of the 4 wheel units gets old real fast. IMHO wheel composition has more of an effect on power feeder operation then the extra wheel. The yellow wheels from Western Roller do give superior feed results even in a lowly 3 wheeler.

[Jared Sankovich]

For the application Greg is actually going to be using for, a tiltaway bracket on the front of a saw slider/shaper combo, the weight of the 4 wheel units gets old real fast. IMHO wheel composition has more of an effect on power feeder operation then the extra wheel. The yellow wheels from Western Roller do give superior feed results even in a lowly 3 wheeler.

If you like the yellow try the blue.

[Jared Sankovich]

I wish all my feeders were the dc40. I have one on our miscellaneous shaper. Doing something odd the day, 2fpm change in speed made a difference. Which is bonkers, but nice to have the option

I have a vfd on one of mine for sort of varible speed (50 to 100% of the gearing speed) but the full deal, with the ease of moving from horizontal to vertical seems like easy win. One of my other feeders is the current comatic "cabinet" feeder with the 45 degree mount, and i always wonder why comatic didnt put that mount on every one of their feeders. 10 seconds to go from horizontal to vertical.

[Mark Bolton]

Have the dc40s in the shop and Pf38s and ordered western roller wheels for the dc40s about 4 seconds after ordering the feeders from shopgears. All feeders are western roller. Cant say I agree with the notion that a three wheel feeder with WR is as good as a 4 wheel in use. I'd still be running the 3 wheels for sure if the work hadn't come to pay for the 4 wheel. But the 4 wheels is extremely nice and I'd love to have a dc70 to rotate around but it'd sit unused alot.

Said it before and things may have changed but my wheels for the dc40 fron western may have come early after their release and have a cast phenolic type hub and my dc40s have a wing nut affair so its tool-less wheel swap and they loosen up like crazy. Yih have to check the wing nuts on most every setup and on long runs youd better be watching for some wheel wobble and be ready to stop.

[Mel Fulks]

Jared is correct ,the blue are more grabby ,but I was warned by the sales guy that they wear down a lot faster and
and are best used only on material that can't be controlled with yellow. Why are there so many materials on the market
that are "unsafe at any speed"? The stock tires are rubbish

[Greg Parrish]

Okay I go away for a moment, come back, and now you guys have me second guessing my ordering the DC40. LOL

As best I can tell it doesn’t weigh any more than the Felder F38 3 wheel unit due to the dc motor. However, I’ve never owned or used one of these and don’t know what I need or what to expect. Just don’t want to have to buy twice and don’t want to wish I had gotten a different one. The 4 wheel seemed to be most flexible but if I’m missing someth8ng here for usage on my KF500 please let me know while I can change my order possibly. Thanks.

and if I need to cancel the thin wheels I ordered let me know. Looks like you guys are saying the stock ones are not as good as another brand.

[Mark Bolton]

You are not going to regret the dc40. Trust me. You will want to be alone in the shop with some napkins or paper towels when you get it set up. Yoh made the dead right decision.

[Mark Bolton]

I guarantee you the first 20 jobs you run you'll be kicking yourself in the pants. Next 40.. wash rinse repeat. The western rollers are a good cheap upgrade. You can still wear out the stock rollers.