Would you be interested in 20" fs52es with a Tersa head?I had this built,and it showed up with a manual bed adjustment,and I ordered it with a powered bed adjustment,after a 7 month wait.They offered to make me a good deal on it,but I refused,so they built me a new one,to the correct specs that I ordered.The new one should be here soon (supposed to ship last month from Italy).I would guess they will make someone a good deal on this,since they let me use it while the new one is being made,and they can't sell it as new,even though I have only used it for 3 month's .I'm guessing they will be willing to take a loss on it,and not have to hassle with crating it back up,and shipping it somewhere else to store it.
I have a standard Euro bridge guard on my FS350 and there's zero issue with it. It follows the outfeed side. I just flip it in the opposite direction before doing the pivot. So in this photo, a lever is released at the place where it attaches to the bed, the whole thing is pivoted toward that white door in the background and then re-latched. At that point, after pulling my fence forward, I can flip the bed back toward those shelves to convert to thicknessing mode. The FS-41 series should be similar If I'm not mistaken.
Last edited by Jim Becker; 07-08-2020 at 1:00 PM.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
This is well worth it, I know because I don't have a powered bed. At the time I purchased mine it was only available on the 3ph machines, so its nice that they made that improvement.
I may see if they will sell the parts to me so I can convert mine to powered.
Anywho:
The factory mobility kit is easy to use and it tucks away when not in use, machines that are this heavy should be setup and leveled so it's actually a very good thing that the wheels tuck away when not needed.
I have the ES and it's very much worth the added expense, IMO. It's nice and heavy. I'm not in love with the sheetmetal body machines, but IMO this is a nice machine and well made.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Timely thread for me, as I'm considering this same exact machine. New forum member here. Setting up a garage shop in the Seattle area and for the jointer/planer decision, I'm trying to decide between 'forever' machines (which would be separates) and a combo machine that I'd use for the present but sell when I get a bigger shop space. As a general rule, I'd far rather get the crying over with early, but I don't know if separates are practical right now.
Back to the FS 41ES: Brian, were you able to confirm with your dealer whether the powered planer bed is an option on the 1 phase machine? The SCM website doesn't indicate so, but it's not a great website to begin with, and perhaps they've updated the options?
Adam
Adam, you may very well find over time that the J/P will be your "forever machine". I can tell you that I have zero desire to give up mine for separates and it's been in my shop since the mid-2000s.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
That's encouraging, Jim. If I do end up going with the combo, I'm very much looking forward to the jointing width. Never had anything close. Will need to grow in discipline in my milling plans, as the changeover looks likes a bit of a bottleneck if repeated too often (hence the question about the powered lift.)
Here is my build.
1 MINIMAX FS 41ES JOINTER/PLANER COMBINATION MACHINE, TERSA
R0.22.00 Minimax FS 41ES USA-Canada
93.07.58 230 Volt
93.12.15 Frequency 60Hz
58.02.22 Rubber-coated feed roller on thicknesser outfeed
58.02.23 Tersa cutterblock Ø 95 mm with 4 knives with rapid locking system
58.02.50 Wheels for machine movement
58.02.41 Additional overturning fence for processing of thin workpieces
58.02.44 Powered vertical movement of thicknessing table with digital display
58.03.37 Single-phase motor S1 3,6kW (4,8hp) 60Hz
08.06.25 Triple wall
Who quoted you? Elite Metal Tools or Reardon?
I’d definitely try to add the Euro bridge guard. The above configuration only includes the aforementioned annoying plastic pork chop.
I epoxied a nut to the center of the wheel that raises and lowers the planer bed on my Hammer A3 31. I then use a socket driven by my battery drill to raise and lower the bed rapidly, i.e., a powered bed. It sure beats doing it by hand when I switch between planing and jointing.
I have the FS41E with the segmented head: very nice. I made a slight modification that makes the manual planer table elevation semi-powered: all you need is a cordless drill.
So Tersa or Xylent ??? Tersa is about $250 less...