Felder K3 Hammer allignment

[Chris Parks]

Think I have finally got alignment in order. Believe the biggest issue was the rip fence. Even though being used as a stop block, it was creating enough of an angle that my pieces were coming out with a slight slant. Feedback, posts and videos I watched helped get through this. Thank you for all who responded and offered assistance.

Not to sidetrack this post, but wondering if anyone had recommendation on where to purchase saw blades for the K3. I know Felder is primary but was not sure if there was something better. I did by a Tenryu blade on Amazon and has not been bad but seems to leave my wood with a slightly rough edge. I cut a lot of 1/4" MDF and Melamine so trying to stick with higher count tooth blades and something on the thin side but also something that can stay in direct alignment with the scoring blade.

I don't seem to have the problem you describe when using the rip fence as a stop block, maybe that is because I use a very short (200mm) piece of the fence and not the full length. I have played with the idea of attaching a vertical rod or post to the rip fence as that presents a single point measured stop which the fence alignment has no effect on but and there is always a but doing that changes the tape reading by a lot. It would be possible to fabricate a measuring stop that sits on top of the rip head and is a single vertical post that could be quickly put in place or removed as necessary and would read the same dimension as the fence itself. Of course the rip fence would have to removed entirely for that to work.

As for blades, if you do a LOT of melamine and panel cutting without a scoring blade have a look at the Felder diamond blade. It is very expensive but does an awesome job with very little chipping at all.

[Wes Grass]

The rip fence warping towards the blade at the tail end when you lock it down is from the clamp bar bending it between the pads on the housing. Dumb design.

Tightening it just enough to hold it in place may work well enough. The other easy fix is to build up the ends of the bar a bit so it can flex but only clamp the fence at the pads. Maybe even just warp it a bit if you can. I 'wasted' a bunch of my time making a new clamp bar, but some sturdy tape would probably do as well if you've got the clearance in the extrusion for it. I think that's highly likely from what I remember mine (KF-700) looking like.

[Rod Sheridan]

Chris, the Felder diamond blade is not recommended for particle board due to the variable densities of the material.

I primarily purchase FS Tools blades for my saw…..Regards, Rod