Guess I'm going to order a Euro Slider

[Ray DuBose]

Been looking around and seems like Hammer K3 Winner with their current discount on a 78" slider is going to be the saw for me. Just got my Sub Panel put in my garage to be able to run 220/230 over to it. I need to get some of my garage cleaned out more to make room for it.


I'm sure I'll be looking for help with this saw having never used a Panel Saw. Seem to have a hard time finding blades for a 30mm Arbor with Holes. The guy at Hammer said that Forest makes blades for it but looking at their site it looks like just a Dado Blade. Freud doesn't make any that I can find on their site either. it comes with a Blade but if I want others where is the best place to look.

Also, is the lifter bar and rolling kit from Hammer the best value out there? I read there were others that fit it as well at a cheaper price.

Thanks

Ray

[Steve Rowe]

Ray,
I have purchased blades with 30mm bore and pinholes from Felder, Forrest, Tenyru, and Leuco. I am sure there are others as well. With Forrest, you need to call them. They will charge extra for the bore (if I recall correctly it was a total of $22 last time I had one bored). They will also rebore your existing blades if you have a favorite.

I gave up on the Freud blade with this bore. Freud will tell you to go to your retailer and they will order them for you. I did this and after the requisite deer in the headlight look, they told me that they order from a distributor warehouse and it would cost me a lot for a special order. I read between the lines and they didn't want to deal with me so I took my business elsewhere.

On the rolling attachment, I am not familiar with the Hammer version but the Felder rolling attachment is top notch (with the price tag to prove it too).

[Mark Woodmark]

Forrest does make blades for it. Also they will bore your blades for it if you send those blades to them

http://www.forrestblades.com/dado.htm

[Eiji Fuller]

cabinet supply companys should stock blades for euro machines. They are common enough in the industry. You just wont find any at Home depot. LOL. Or you could just order a few extra with the machine.

[Rick Lizek]

Any decent saw shop can bore any blade out to 30 mm and you can get saw bushings to allow you to use the same blade on other arbors for around $5 each. We do this with 30 mm, 1" and 5/8" arbors with all sorts of blades from crosscut, rip and dado.

[Gary Curtis]

Rick is correct. My local saw-sharpening service will enlarge the arbor hole of American sawblades to 30mm.

The Hammer is quite a machine. I took a few classes at Felder's Sacramento, Calif. facility.

Gary Curtis

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Ray, cogratulations on the new purchase, I have a B3 Winner.

As others have stated, any saw shop will be able to supply blades with the appropriate bore and pin holes, as well as convert your old blades for you.

I use FS Tools, the cost was $12 to re-bore my existing blades plus $6 for the two pin holes.

I presume that you've ordered it with a scoring saw option? I wouldn't pass that up.

I made my own mobility kit, similar to the Hammer kit. The Hammer mobility kit works very well, if you're not a metal worker, buy the kit.

Regards, Rod.

[Rob Russell]

Rather than the mobility kits for my Felder equipment, I bought a narrow fork pallet jack. That's been useful for other things than moving the machinery around.

[Dave MacArthur]

I would think that with the euro at historic lows against the dollar this month, prices would be very low if you could acquire European equip priced in euros rather than dollars. Not sure how that might be except by dealing with european offices, but it's possible some companies set prices in europe and then translate into dollars on some recurring basis.

[Martin Shupe]

Ray,

How much is that saw with the 78" slider? You can PM me if you want.

You've got me thinking....

Thanks

[Tom W Armstrong]

Martin,

I'm not Ray, but I've been going through the same process and pricing out a K3 with the 79" slider, and it's no secret Hammer has the K3 on sale right now. Basically, you can pick up the K3 Winner with the full "Comfort" package for around $5000 or so. This is about $3000 off the list price right now. I'm having trouble justifying the $495 shipping or I probably would have pulled the trigger by now, but still contemplating...

[Ray DuBose]

Yea as stated previously, The saw is on sale for $4999 + shipping (around $480 for me but that's lift gate to my house) then + $200 for a mobile kit so I can move it around the shop.

I called yesterday to find out if they have them in stock and they told me if I ordered today it wouldn't be here to August. They are suspose to be checking if they can expedite that any sooner but if not it looks like I may have to wait which isn't to bad for me since I wanted to empty my shop and put an epoxy floor down and finish some wiring up and get it cleaned out (wife thinks its a storage area since she can't park her car there)

[joe milana]

Just curious here, would spending the money for a nice euro slider and not being able to rip a sheet of plywood, or SLR long stock, lead to a bit of buyers remorse? I would hate to think I had that fancy saw and still had to break down sheet goods by hand.

[Frank Drew]

I never had any problem finding stock 30mm bore blades, and I never paid an upcharge; if you get existing blades re-bored, make sure they re-tension the blade afterwards -- any change to the plate, such as enlarging the arbor hole, can throw a blade off balance until it's re-tensioned.

[Ray DuBose]

I haven't had the issues come up were I wanted to rip a section of the 8' side of the ply. Usually I cut across the 4' side of the ply then go from there. Also most of what I use these days is 5'x5' Baltic Birch.

You can still cut down the 8' side of it buy using the fence on it I would assume. Unfortunately the next size up comes with a price tag that's pretty much double what I'm paying.

Just curious here, would spending the money for a nice euro slider and not being able to rip a sheet of plywood, or SLR long stock, lead to a bit of buyers remorse? I would hate to think I had that fancy saw and still had to break down sheet goods by hand.