Slider Table Saws to consider?

[Pat Rice]

Grizzly overarm guard worked well with my Felder K500P, I used the Forrest dado blade set with 30mm arbor hole and holes for the pins. 9E3FCF29-B6B1-437F-A0B6-D1FFC1C75019.jpg3DCDA893-DFDA-4D48-B3C7-D146116EBBA5.jpg

[Jim Becker]

That guard worked great, Pat! Were you able to buy the Forrest Dado King pre-bored for the Felder arbor setup?

[Pat Rice]

You can buy it pre bored from Sliver Mills BBCE0F77-80CC-4288-80B9-0FCE841E74FC.jpg

[Jacques Gagnon]

I thought I had made my decision, but now I’m not sure. The SC 3C will be a tight fit. Also, shipping quotes are coming in about $1500 more to get the SCM machines to me, over the Felder/Hammer machines. I started this adventure with a max budget of $7500, then stretched it, stretched again….. Now I’m back to getting what I actually need, verse want. This hobby is a slippery slope…….

I checked out the Grizzley guard and found a picture of Rod Sherman's (Excelsior). Both look much better than what comes standard with either the Hammer/Felder or SCM saws. I gotta admit though, the add-on accessory guards that both companies offer looks great, assuming it can easily be piped separately from the below blade dust collection. It's nice to know there are less costly options though.

Anyone with the Hammer saws care to offer what they did with respect to blades and dado sets? I probably have at least six premium Forest and Ridge Carbide blades, all recently sharpened - plus my dado sets. I know they are 'only' 10", but it seems pretty wasteful, and costly, to peddle them and buy new blades for the Felder/Hammer machines. Is the bore actually different that 5/8"? I also understand that the saw blades for Felder/Hammer have two additional holes to prevent them from backing off when the motor brakes. Is that a true statement?

Michael,

The approach I took with my newly acquired Hammer B3 is a hybrid solution. I had seven 10 inch blades and a Freud dado stack. I chose to keep three blades and got them rebored to 30mm + two pin holes (about 25$). The rest of the blades went with the saw (in my case the cabinet saw, 15 inch planer and 8 inch jointer ended up in my son's shop, so that was part of the "package" ) and I ordered two blades from Felder, along with the scoring saw. Reboring involves resharpening - not a great situation for you given your blades were recently sharpened. However, a new machine is likely months away so you will still make use of those blades. The blades sold by Felder cover a fairly wide price range, some of which are as low as 28$ (current sale).

I ordered my machine with dado capability and ordered the dado stack from Felder. Both FSTools and Royce Ayr supply Felder in Canada. The architecture of the Hammer machines limits the size of "traditional dado stacks" to 6 inches (150mm). However, Euro tooling (e.g. part number 500-03-019) go up to 180mm in diameter. These groovers are more expensive than traditional dado stacks.

As for the blade guard, it is OK. Not outstanding but does the job. Upgrading to some kind of overhead system is on my list of things to look into at some point. A few members of this forum have used various approaches ranging from home made to third party (eg SharkGuard).

I hope this helps and please feel free to post more questions,

Regards,

Jacques

[Mark e Kessler]

It’s a pretty standard hole pattern some of my blades even came from amazon. I think you can run up to a 8” dado but could be wrong, you can on the k700 and k940. My dado is a ridge carbide but they can be bought from Forrest and a few other companies. You can have all the blades re-drilled by a reputable sharpener.

I wouldn’t let what you have now dictate what saw you want, sure it’s something to consider but you can sell the blades easy, the saw is much harder to sell/live with…

[Michael Drew]

Grizzly overarm guard worked well with my Felder K500P, I used the Forrest dado blade set with 30mm arbor hole and holes for the pins. 9E3FCF29-B6B1-437F-A0B6-D1FFC1C75019.jpg3DCDA893-DFDA-4D48-B3C7-D146116EBBA5.jpg

Thanks for visual aids. I actually had a mental picture of building tables very similar to what you have there. Again, thanks for sharing!

Also, thanks so much to all the incredibly helpful input and advice from Creekers. I can't express my sincere appreciation enough.

As I learn more nuances about these machines that are unique from traditional cabinet saws, I'll make sure to add comments for the next person making this jump from a cabinet saw. There are many more 'things' to consider and be aware of than I thought, so I think it's safe to assume I'm not alone.

[Jacob Mac]

Michael,

The approach I took with my newly acquired Hammer B3 is a hybrid solution. I had seven 10 inch blades and a Freud dado stack. I chose to keep three blades and got them rebored to 30mm + two pin holes (about 25$). The rest of the blades went with the saw (in my case the cabinet saw, 15 inch planer and 8 inch jointer ended up in my son's shop, so that was part of the "package" ) and I ordered two blades from Felder, along with the scoring saw. Reboring involves resharpening - not a great situation for you given your blades were recently sharpened. However, a new machine is likely months away so you will still make use of those blades. The blades sold by Felder cover a fairly wide price range, some of which are as low as 28$ (current sale).

I ordered my machine with dado capability and ordered the dado stack from Felder. Both FSTools and Royce Ayr supply Felder in Canada. The architecture of the Hammer machines limits the size of "traditional dado stacks" to 6 inches (150mm). However, Euro tooling (e.g. part number 500-03-019) go up to 180mm in diameter. These groovers are more expensive than traditional dado stacks.

As for the blade guard, it is OK. Not outstanding but does the job. Upgrading to some kind of overhead system is on my list of things to look into at some point. A few members of this forum have used various approaches ranging from home made to third party (eg SharkGuard).

I hope this helps and please feel free to post more questions,

Regards,

Jacques

Where did you get your blades rebored? I just bought a Hammer slider and am trying to figure out what to do with the saw blade situation. Thanks.

[derek labian]

Brand new SCM 24" bandsaw missing a part needed to tension the blade. After 2 weeks of zero support he ended up having a local machine shop fabricate one.

Same thing happened to me. I was pointed to a 3rd party store to buy the missing part.

[Jacques Gagnon]

It’s a pretty standard hole pattern some of my blades even came from amazon. I think you can run up to a 8” dado but could be wrong, you can on the k700 and k940. My dado is a ridge carbide but they can be bought from Forrest and a few other companies. You can have all the blades re-drilled by a reputable sharpener.

I wouldn’t let what you have now dictate what saw you want, sure it’s something to consider but you can sell the blades easy, the saw is much harder to sell/live with…

Mark:

My understanding is that the Hammer K3/B3/C3 are limited to around 180mm when it comes to dado function. Since the « traditional » dado stacks usually come in 6, 8 and 10 (?) inch models, the fall back becomes 6 inch stack since there does not seem to be any 7 inch dado sets readily available. Your machine can handle larger blades than my Hammer model.

With regards to blades, I concluded that reusing existing blade would be nice but that it was not a key parameter in my purchase equation.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hello Michael, I use an FS Tools dado set, bored to fit the machine. Hammer saws take a 180mm diameter dado (7"). I have a 6" dado. In Canada, Felder sell their own dado which is a carbide shaper adjustable groover to fit the saw, or Royce Ayr or FS Tool stacked dado sets.

For blades, I had most of mine bored to fit, about $20 per blade, most tooling shops will provide any of their blades bored to 30mm and bore the 2 pin holes as well.

Yes, the blades have 2 pin holes for braking.

I've attached a photo of the 2 saw guards I use, the stock Euro guard which can't be used for non through cuts, and the Excelsior which can be used for non through cuts.

For out feed I have the long extension table (illustrated and the short table. Most of the time I use the short table which does not have a leg.

Regards, Rod.

B3 Long Table Extension.jpgB3 Stock Saw Guard.jpgCompleted Installation.jpg[ATT

[Rod Sheridan]

You can buy it pre bored from Sliver Mills BBCE0F77-80CC-4288-80B9-0FCE841E74FC.jpg

Caution, 180mm maximum diameter dado for the Hammer saw......Rod.

[Pat Rice]

Good catch Rod, the Hammer can use the 6” Forrest dado set
Attachment 471282

[Kevin Jenness]

I've attached a photo of the 2 saw guards I use, the stock Euro guard which can't be used for non through cuts, and the Excelsior which can be used for non through cuts.


Completed Installation.jpg[ATT

That appears to be a modified and rebranded version of the Excalibur overhead guard, which was quite decent at the price. The basket could be slid sideways or the arm pivoted 90*, and the dust pickup worked well.
https://marsonequipment.com/products...ust-collector/

[Erik Loza]

FYI: The Felder K500 can be optioned with a tubular-style overhead guard for around $250(?). It’s not as well documented as the big swing-away guard, which is $1K-ish, but looks functionally like the guard in the above photos. Could be worth considering.

Erik

[Michael Drew]

Hello Michael, I use an FS Tools dado set, bored to fit the machine. Hammer saws take a 180mm diameter dado (7"). I have a 6" dado. In Canada, Felder sell their own dado which is a carbide shaper adjustable groover to fit the saw, or Royce Ayr or FS Tool stacked dado sets.

For blades, I had most of mine bored to fit, about $20 per blade, most tooling shops will provide any of their blades bored to 30mm and bore the 2 pin holes as well.

Yes, the blades have 2 pin holes for braking.

I've attached a photo of the 2 saw guards I use, the stock Euro guard which can't be used for non through cuts, and the Excelsior which can be used for non through cuts.

For out feed I have the long extension table (illustrated and the short table. Most of the time I use the short table which does not have a leg.

Regards, Rod.

B3 Long Table Extension.jpgB3 Stock Saw Guard.jpgCompleted Installation.jpg[ATT

Thanks Rod!

I did a quick search on your guard, and was not able to find a vendor on the 'interweb'..... But seeing how the rest of the continent thinks freight to Alaska is by dog sled, and they charge to feed the dogs, shipping costs will more than likely be more than the actual attachment anyway.

I'm zero'ing in on the Hammer machine. The SC 3C simply takes up more floor space than I can accomodate in my current work space.

The Felder K500 is calling to me though. The extra 2 grand to 'upgrade' to it though, probably not needed for a hobiest like me.