jointer and planers recommendations

[Mark Carlson]

Vijay,

I got a Hammer A3-31 this week. Spent the weekend setting it up and playing with it. I ordered mine with Byrd head installed The machines come over from Austria with the straight knife heads and get replaced in Delaware before they ship to you. I was told I had to get the digital guage so I did. Havn't installed it yet. First impressions of the Hammer are excellent. The machine came in perfect condition, and everything is really high quality. Beds and fence are perfectly flat or as close as I can measure. The best of any machine I've purchased so far. The most time was spent getting the 800lb machine off of the pallet and onto some great lake casters so I could move it around easily. The last thing I did was try to joint and plane a 8/4in piece of stock square and I got near perfect results without having to tweak anything.

My other choice was the 12in minimax but I really wanted the byrd head. I think byrd might offer a head for the minimax that you'd have to install yourself.

~mark

[Vijay Kumar]

Vijay,

I got a Hammer A3-31 this week. Spent the weekend setting it up and playing with it. I ordered mine with Byrd head installed The machines come over from Austria with the straight knife heads and get replaced in Delaware before they ship to you. I was told I had to get the digital guage so I did. Havn't installed it yet. First impressions of the Hammer are excellent. The machine came in perfect condition, and everything is really high quality. Beds and fence are perfectly flat or as close as I can measure. The best of any machine I've purchased so far. The most time was spent getting the 800lb machine off of the pallet and onto some great lake casters so I could move it around easily. The last thing I did was try to joint and plane a 8/4in piece of stock square and I got near perfect results without having to tweak anything.

My other choice was the 12in minimax but I really wanted the byrd head. I think byrd might offer a head for the minimax that you'd have to install yourself.

~mark

Mark, thanks for the feedback. I'll need to check this out, dont really know if my budget will allow this. One question on the casters, did you pry up each corner to slip the caster underneath that corner or was it some other way.
Vijay

[Mark Carlson]

I pushed the jointer, so it was hanging off the pallet by 6in or so, and then used a floor jack, to lift it until I could get my drill under it. Drilled holes, installed casters. Kept pushing the jointer off the pallet, placing two by fours, underneath until it was off the pallet, and then jacked up the other side. Then it was a matter of removig the two by fours slowly until the jointer was resting on the casters.

[sunny nic]

Ryan, that's an interesting workflow. I prefer to rip first, for 2 reasons:

1) Narrowing a cupped board generally reduces the amount of face jointing required. Face jointing an 8" board with a 1/8" cup means I have to thin the board at least 1/8" on the jointer. If I rip that same board into 3 strips, the cupping on the narrower boards will be significantly reduced.

2) I find that when I rip a board after it has been straightened/flattened it often moves out of square in one or both directions. At that point the boards are useless for that project.

The workflow I prefer is edge joint, rip, edge joint, face joint, plane

yup, rip first would be the way to go.

[Curt Harms]

I'm not familiar with the configuration of the combination machines, but an ordinary jointer can face plane stock up to just under twice the cutterhead width, by flipping the work end for end after each pass. Trust me, it's not difficult and it works fine for flattening one face of a board before it goes through the planer, and it's a good bit simpler than building a planer sled.

I've heard of that procedure, Frank. I tried it; maybe I did it wrong but I just wasn't happy with the finished product. For me having one machine taking up space instead of two and not having a screaming lunchbox planer in a basement shop was worth it.

[Frank Drew]

The point I was trying to make is that the wider the stock, the more likely you are to face joint off more thickness than if the planks were narrower.

Scott, no question, sometimes the board is too cupped to salvage the thickness you need full width and you have to rip it into narrower lengths first; and if the board is in wind, often you're simply out of luck.

I've heard of that procedure, Frank. I tried it; maybe I did it wrong but I just wasn't happy with the finished product.

You certainly won't get a finished surface, it'll be uneven in places and won't look at all like it just came out of your thickness planer, but you can get a flat enough reference surface to go face down on your planer bed to machine the other surface parallel (then you'll have to turn the board over to run the face-jointed surface to clean it up.)

[David Hostetler]

I have to assume that you are asking about this from a business perspective, I just can't see a home hobby woodworker being able to justify the space, infrastructure (electrical) requirements, and cost of such large high end machines. I guess it's possible, but the analogy of buying a Ferrari to run to the corner Circle K is very appropriate.

So the question for you would be, what are you planning on doing with it... What is your budget in terms of space, power, and money like? Are you actually going to face joint 20" wide stock?

For my home / hobby workshop I am doing quite nicely with a 13" lunch box planer, a 6" bench top jointer, and I am in the process of building a 1HP 24" thickness sander. (have the discs for the drum cut out, need to clue them, and true them up on the lathe)... Any greater width and I am taking out the #5, and presently looking for a good #7 bench plane to true up wide stock...

[ron ogle]

I would be leary of Powermatic. I have 8 inch planer with Byrd cutterhead. Cutterhead is great but it looks like the company that bought out Powermatic is just using their name to sell far east machines on the same level as Grizzly for twice the price.

[Ray DuBose]

Ray, did you do the Byrd conversion yourself or did you get it that way from Hammer? I am in the market for a 12 inch J/P so would appreciate all details including costs.
Thank you.
Vijay

No I had Hammer add the Byrd Head. They could put the head on for me cheaper than I could buy the head from Byrd so it was a no brainer. My Total Shipped to my Door with Byrd Cutter installed and a Mobility Kit was $4223.19