The Freight Truck dropped off some gloat today. Hammer K3W
Hammer K3 Winner 48x79
Thanks to Mr. Sheridan and many other SMC members who posted and provided me with feedback through PM's and such for this machine. Carl Knapp was my sales rep and proved very helpful. He even answered my questions when he was on a laptop in Hawaii with his wife so I really appreciate that type of workaholic customer service.
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Shipping:
For shipping I went through my logistics company called JLS (Jarret Logistics) which then had Estes Express deliver the package. Had I gone with Felder's shipping quotation it would have costed me $768 from DE to CA. I ended up only getting charged $328 which included residential lift gate service to drop the pallet off right in my garage. The estimated shipping class is CL 100, though my package was shipped with a slightly lower shipping class. The pallet is 4'x7' and weighs about 1,000lbs. It has tilt sensors on the box and the entire saw was encapsulated in a zerust corrosion inhibiting yellow shrink bubble. Everything was bolted to the pallet including the small zero clearance wooden saw throat plate. Lucky I had 8 feet of opening for the pallet jack to move the box into my garage.
To remove the saw from the pallet:
I bought the mobile base setup from Felder and was able to use a 2x4 as a lever to lift the saw up a little bit to put some plywood pieces under the saw. With this technique i added the wheels and feet to the saw while it was still on the pallet. Then rather than build a ramp, I built up two rails of plywood scraps that matched the height of the pallet, and pushed the saw onto the plywood scraps. (The wheels were not on these scraps)
Then I used the same method of using a 2x4 as a lever to lift the saw blade up a hair while my nephew pushed a scrap piece away from underneath. This slowly lowered the saw to the ground.
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The Saw Specs:
The base price of the saw is $4,999 for the K3 Hammer Winner 48x79. I had to pay tax which I couldn't get out of because Felder has a sales office near me. If you contact your sales rep you can find out current promotions and possible free upgrades with your saw so the features and add-ons I received are a YMMV (your mileage may vary).
Saw is 230V, 4HP (3KW) 60hz with E-brake.
Comes with emergency stop button on sliding table side.
Removable flange for dado blade.
wooden zero clearance throat plate.
Pro solid steel round bar fence guide 1250mm with micro adjustment. (bar weighs at least 50lbs by itself and fence mechanism is heavy cast iron)
2000mm sliding table anodised
900mm crosscut fence
1300mm crosscut fence (comes with two fences)
Outrigger table 1100
US T-check and quality control
Rolling Carriage without lifting bar (I already have a lifting bar so didn't need an extra)
250mm silent silver saw blade (plywood blade)
300mm silent silver saw blade (general purpose)
80mm silent silver adjustable scoring blade (10+10T)
Eccentric clamp with clamping shaft M 20
Adapter for eccentric clamp
I was told that the standard included saw blades are normally NOT the silent silver series as that was a promo along with the added plywood blade which doesn't come standard.
I received 25% discount on accessories if I buy it at the same time I get the saw, so that's why I bought the eccentric clamp.
The rolling cage was a free adder because I already bought the lifting bar and cage with my A3-31 a couple years ago.
My total was $5,321+ tax, then $328 shipping from DE to CA which took 4 business days.
The lead time on the machine was about 2 months, and it took me a month to sell my old grizzly 1023SLX cabinet saw and excalibur sliding table attachment. (Sold on Craigslist for $650 and I threw in two Freud Diablo blades and V-link belts.)
I should mention that you only get ONE black plastic hand turning wheel with the machine. I'm used to having two wheels (one wheel for blade height, the other wheel for tilt). Luckily I already had an extra wheel that came with my A3-31. If you buy the digital readout hand wheel for that they still packaged the black wheel as a spare.
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Notes worth mentioning:
The wire coming out of this thing is only like 3 feet long so I will have to add a plug and use an extension cord to it to get it to reach my 220v outlet.
Assembly wasn't fast but at least the parts went together as planned.The sheets showing how to attach the two extension tables, guide bar, etc is in austrian so I had to go off the visual pictures and there is a healthy amount of nuts, bolts, and washers. I suggest reading the manual thoroughly before touching a single bolt. There is a huge thick plastic bladder balloon on the inside of the machine I think is there to support the motor during shipping. I needed two 13mm wrenches, some torx bits (T-30 i think), and an extra 17mm wrench. I also needed to use a straight edge, square, and typical table saw setup tools.
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My initial impression is that this saw is well built with a lot of thought put into it. The craftsmanship is 97% excellent for there are a few cosmetic flaws (sheet metal surface imperfections) but nothing to affect function.
The saw came with a small scrap piece of MDF and trace amounts of very fine saw dust for I was told that during inspection/quality control they test the saw by cutting something on it at the factory after they set it up.
I have not cut anything on it as I've still got to do some more setup and toying around. My initial impression is that the saw takes up a lot of space (Maybe a little more than I expected), so i'm glad that I have it on wheels. The sliding table rolls nice and smooth with no excess play and there's lots of EASY to make adjustments. The saw is loud at like 99 decibels so hearing protection is a must. It comes with a 6" dust port so i'll have to get another adapter. One feature I like is the dust collection blade gaurd and flexible clear duct inside the machine to direct dust collection directly under the blade which is surrounded by a steel shroud. My old cabinet saw just had suction inside the entire cabinet body and it was always a sawdust mess inside the cabinet and loss of suction.
The above pics were taken with my phone and when I start using the K3W I'll have be able to post some better pics and a review of the actual usage. The quality of this machine meets my expectations that I developed after owning an A3-31. I don't have any regrets that I didn't go for the K500 or K700 series for I feel the Hammer line is more than adaquate for the weekend hobbyist. The only curiosity I have is whether or not I would have been equally pleased with the Grizzly G0623X which was a runner up.
Anyways, I'll post again when I have enough content to be helpful. Thanks
Chris
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