Jonter/Planer Combo

[Chris Padilla]

I have the FS41Elite J/P. That is 410 mm wide or 16" with a 3-knife Tersa head. Works great, easy to change, cheap to pick up more blades. I was quoted $1200 for a Byrd Shelix head for it a few months ago but decided to pass on it. Mine has done everything I've ever asked of it and I don't see a reason to change anything. Oneida makes a transition from 6" to 120 mm for the dust collection port. If you don's see it on their site, jet them an email about it and they'll whip one up for you.

[Patrick Walsh]

Anyone have feed rate or snipe issues with the Minimax machines.

I have read a number of accounts of such but who knows it could just be user error. Or the Hammer machine with silent cutter head could be that great because people rave of the fact they get zero snipe.

i was also told the Minimax machine have no way to adjust the rollers but that the Hammer Felder stuff can be adjusted.

i am concerned with snipe as i often work with wood $25-30 a board foot. If for nothing else you get attached to agrain pattern and do t want to cut it off. Or i. To lazy to deal with feeding a dummy board through with my good piece. A planer that leaves zero snipe sounds like a dream. If its true can be had id really kick myself if i purchased anything else.

[Patrick Walsh]

I considered a old machine. I already purchased that Yates machine form the 30-40's and the fence has some twist in it. No big deal bit also not ideal. I really don't want to have to or cant move a 2000 lb machine into my shop. Plus all those machines are 3 phase. At least the good ones and i don't want to do the phase converter thing. Rather just have a shiny new machine if its not a Grizzly or Jet hobby machine.

How wide is your old Yates jointer? You might check on woodweb to see if there is a used machine close to you. For me the cost of driving half way across the country to get a used machine would cost more than just buying new. But I see some great deals in the east and north parts of the country.

[Jim Andrew]

I was not talking antique machines. A couple months ago I was looking for a slot mortiser, and saw a Hammer K3 winner, 7948, a combo jointer surfacer, and a hammer bandsaw. All advertised by one seller
and only about 3 years old. And at half the price of new. But it was in one of the east coast states.

[Chris Merriam]

I get snipe with my FS30, but I'm not ruling myself out as the cause LOL! It is quite easy to adjust both the infeed and outfeed roller pressure, it just takes an allen wrench in two bolts, one on either end of each roller. The bolt heads are easily accessed just by lifting the tables to put it in planer mode - they're right there in plain view.

This is my first full size planer, prior to this I had a lunchbox so there were no adjustments to make at all, so I'm still learning how to tune the machine for best performance, and unfortunately I'm self-taught and there's no documentation on the proper tension/pressure each roller should have. I'm pretty sure I've been running with too much pressure, the board was getting jerked out of my hand on the infeed side, so I've recently dialed the pressure back but I'm not in the middle of a project so I haven't even bothered to see if that solved the problem or not.

[Chris Padilla]

I don't have snipe problems with my FS41...just jam it in there and all is good out the other end assuming the knives are sharp. Having double-sided blades is a plus.

[Jamie Buxton]

There's a Mini Max FS35 jointer / planer on the San Francisco Craigslist. Has slot mortise. Asking is $1000. Yep one thousand.

[Patrick Walsh]

How about with dust extraction do you still have clog problems.

One of the things the Hammer rep os claiming is that although the minimax machine has two dust ports thus not having a mess of hoses the ports are smaller and like to clog.

Anyone having trouble that is running a Minimax machine with clogging. How is the dust collection overall.

Dust collection is one of my biggest motivators for going with a modern machine vrs a vintage cast iron beast. I hear the Hammer is great in this department. Good enough is good enough but there is nothing like a machine that collects dust well.

Run at least a 6" line out to the J/P from the DC. You can reduce to 5" for that last piece of flex and then use a Fernco rubber plumbing boot from the home center to attach to the 120mm port on the MM. Hammer is likely similar if you go that route, but I don't know what their port size is. And again, you do need your DC to be in place before you can operate these J/P machines. They will clog in about a half second without DC. Nature of the beast...

[David Kumm]

A spiral creates small chips that are easier to extract vs the long shavings from straight knives. Size the DC properly and you will have no problem. When you get into large machines, a 5 hp 15-16" impeller is what you need. Dave

[Patrick Walsh]

5 horse!

i had hoped for a 3 horse Onieda V3000 operating one tool at a time.

Are you saying this is not going to be enough or insufficient?

A spiral creates small chips that are easier to extract vs the long shavings from straight knives. Size the DC properly and you will have no problem. When you get into large machines, a 5 hp 15-16" impeller is what you need. Dave

[Rod Sheridan]

I don't have snipe problems with my FS41...just jam it in there and all is good out the other end assuming the knives are sharp. Having double-sided blades is a plus.

Same with my A3-31, zero snipe.

I normally take 2mm off per pass and with a 6 metre per minute feed rate it's fast......Rod.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Anyone have feed rate or snipe issues with the Minimax machines.

Have a MM FS-41 Elite, no snipe issues. Not sure what is meant by feed rate issue? My machine is an older MM FS-41 with a single speed three knife Tersa head.

With my old dust collector, the long shavings from the Tersa head used to like to clog the dust port.. Especially bad with wide (14-16") Poplar boards, was much less an issue with Walnut, Cherry or Mahogany. The new DC is sized like Dave alluded to, it hasn't been installed yet, so....

[Chris Merriam]

I have the 3hp Oneida for my FS30 and it works great, no issues. I have it on a run of about 20 feet using 6in pvc, then step down to 5in flex at the machine, hooked up using a Fernco rubber fitting. The Fernco wouldn't slip over my 120mm fittings so I had to shave the inside a bit. One difference on the MM vs Hammer is on the MM the dust fitting is essentially in the same place when jointing or planing. On the Hammer you have to physically flip the hose from the right side of the machine to the left side. Sounds trivial but makes a difference to me since I try to minimize flex hose use (it's expensive and it hurts performance). I also have my machine pushed close to a wall, and large flex hose can be surprisingly heavy and inflexible when moving in tight tolerances.

[Patrick Walsh]

What are people doing with the MM machines for a height gauge on the planer.

i have read of aftermarket units. I have also read those aftermarket units can be problimatic?

[Robert LaPlaca]

What are people doing with the MM machines for a height gauge on the planer.

i have read of aftermarket units. I have also read those aftermarket units can be problimatic?

My machine has a digitial height gauge (not electronic), sounds really low tech, but once you have the gauge dialed in it is scary accurate..