Help Deciding on Sliding Table Saw

[Derek Cohen]

Another scenario where you would need two parallel fences is if you work with rounded or uneven lumber (such as live edge wood pieces). The end of the material may not be square enough to use the crosscut flip-stop. Below is an example of a weirdly shaped piece of wood. It really depends on what kind of projects you expect to be working on.

Attachment 509163

When ripping boards with irregular sides, start with one side and use the edging shoe ...




... then you can either use a parallel guide of the rip fence.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Josh Baldwin]

Another scenario where you would need two parallel fences is if you work with rounded or uneven lumber (such as live edge wood pieces). The end of the material may not be square enough to use the crosscut flip-stop. Below is an example of a weirdly shaped piece of wood. It really depends on what kind of projects you expect to be working on.

Attachment 509163

Yea sorry for the confusion on this whole thing. The entire reason I was looking at a parallel guide was because my plan is to rip everything on the left side of the blade. I understand using the edging shoe for the first straight line rip, then I was just trying to figure out the best option for the parallel rip on the other side of the board. I totally get that for most things like cutting sheet goods, crosscuts, etc I don't need all this stuff. I was just trying to figure out if the F&F Jig, which I know I'll use for lots of small piece cuts, small rips, etc would be good enough or ideal for ripping longer boards perfectly.

[Brian W Evans]

Brian, the slot in the wagon is most definitely metric, but it's easy to make fixtures that use it. I machined some material from scrap oak years ago to fit in there so I can fasten down custom fixtures when necessary. A simple captive nut with an appropriate sized fastener from above through the fixture works well. There's no '3/4" standard' on machines like this...

Thanks, Jim. I only mentioned that because someone above said that the MM came with a 3/4" slot. I use both hardwood and aluminum bar stock to fit things in the 5/8" +/- slot on my sliding table.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks, Jim. I only mentioned that because someone above said that the MM came with a 3/4" slot. I use both hardwood and aluminum bar stock to fit things in the 5/8" +/- slot on my sliding table.

I missed that mention. The MM does come with a "standard" 5/8" arbor in North America, but that's about the only "inch" measurement on the machine other than the dual scales on the fences.

[Aaron Inami]

Yea sorry for the confusion on this whole thing. The entire reason I was looking at a parallel guide was because my plan is to rip everything on the left side of the blade. I understand using the edging shoe for the first straight line rip, then I was just trying to figure out the best option for the parallel rip on the other side of the board. I totally get that for most things like cutting sheet goods, crosscuts, etc I don't need all this stuff. I was just trying to figure out if the F&F Jig, which I know I'll use for lots of small piece cuts, small rips, etc would be good enough or ideal for ripping longer boards perfectly.

When I got my saw, I basically put the edging shoe into storage and never used it. I can see the value of an edging shoe if you have a whole LOT of boards you want to do a first straight line rip. You can just shove the wood under the edging show and go. If you have a crosscut fence and clamps, it is more of a hassle because you have to :
1. remove clamps behind fence
2. remove crosscut fence
3. install edging shoe
4. do your cuts
5. remove edging shoe
6. re-install crosscut fence
7. re-install clamps behind fence

The whole idea of the edging shoe is to hold that end of the board still so that it doesn't shift left/right during the cut. I have found that my 6" Kreg clamps will reach over the crosscut fence and do this same thing just fine.

- If you're cutting down large sheet goods, you likely will only need the crosscut fence and flip-stop (until your sheets get down to under 24" or so).
- If you're cutting boards up to 14-15" wide which have square ends, the Fritz-n-Franz will excel here.
- If you have long sheets/boards that are 15-25" wide, you can benefit from one parallel fence in addition to the crosscut flip-stop.

You may want two parallel fences if you have one of these scenarios:
- cutting an angle on the long edge of a board
- cutting a raw/uneven wood where you want to leave the ends raw

An example would be something like this where you have a raw live edge on the ends that you want to keep, but need to rip-cut the sides so that they are parallel. The ends may be uneven enough that the crosscut flip-stop is unusable. In that case, you really want two parallel fences:
Live_Edge_End_1.jpg Live_Edge_End_2.jpg

It really depends on what kind of projects you intend to work on.

[Mark e Kessler]

I would look for a used SCM and install 3ph, specifically Phase Perfect (10hp is all you would need, I have one and it will start an 18hp SCM widebelt). you will be better off in the long run and at 10k or under. A used SCM will be more saw than either of the 2 you are looking at and once you have 3P it opens up a world of opportunities for low cost industrial equipment.

[Warren Lake]

think the same as Mark. How much was a 10 HP Phase perfect? Was there only one model or several. My Delta TME gave us three choices and opted for the middle one. 10 HP unit starts 10Hp with no issues and likely do more. My old 3HP that was bare bones minimum 3HP roto would start 4HP. I had emailed a company recently on a post they made about Rotos and turns out they have some they sell but mostly Phase perfect. They sent me info but not prices, Think you are in the US so diff on dollar. How many machines can you run at once total amps. They had a chart to prove they were cheaper to run but they compared needing a 20HP roto to run a 10HP machine which is not the case with the brand i have so right off even before cost of the unit it would not help me compare.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I bought a 10 hp Phase Perfect in NEMA 3R outdoor enclosure recently and it was $3400 delivered. It makes 36 amps of 3 phase @ 240v.

I have an older short stroke SCM slider with a 3 phase 9hp motor (and a shop full of older 3 ph tools) and agree that phase converter + used 3 phase is the way to go for me but not for everyone if you aren’t comfortable with used industrial. You could buy a very nice phase converter and used industrial, full stroke 3 phase slider and still be under 10k and have the future ability to run other 3 phase tools.

[Josh Baldwin]

Thanks for the help everyone. I ended up ordering the Felder K500S. It really just boiled down to price since I think both machines are excellent. I ended up getting it for $2000 less than the SCM, so for me it was a no brainer. Now the dreaded wait til February to get it in the shop.

[Rod Sheridan]

Congratulations Josh, you’re going to love your new saw……Regards, Rod

[Michael Burnside]

Thanks for the help everyone. I ended up ordering the Felder K500S. It really just boiled down to price since I think both machines are excellent. I ended up getting it for $2000 less than the SCM, so for me it was a no brainer. Now the dreaded wait til February to get it in the shop.

Josh, who did you purchase through and what options did you end up getting? I'm considering adding one of these to my shop. Thanks for any and all info you can provide.

[David Dille]

Depending on you situation, you may be able to use a rotary power phase converter to supply your tool with the 3 phase it may need, should you go that route. Most phase converters are now pretty much plug and play.

[Josh Baldwin]

Josh, who did you purchase through and what options did you end up getting? I'm considering adding one of these to my shop. Thanks for any and all info you can provide.

Hey Michael, so the only options I got were the Dado Capability, Indexed Miter and Overhead Dust Collection. My contact at Felder is Jeff Jordan - j.jordan@felder-group.com
He wouldn't want me to tell you the price, haha. But depending on your willingness to walk away from the transaction, I think you can get a pretty sizeable discount. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

[Michael Burnside]

Thanks Josh, appreciate the feedback. I noticed they had an imperial option too, which is something, at this point in my life, I'm sticking with. Yea walking away is easy. This is a want, not a need. Maybe that will push me over the edge to get a ShopSabre Pro 404 instead LOL.

[Jim Becker]

Michael, the SCM/Mniimax machines are dual scale. It's surprising that Felder/Hammer would need to option that for the North American market.