Hammer K3 Winner - What I've learned in the last 6 months

[Ted Diehl]

Ted, sorry to hear about your issue with the Pallet Jack. I would recommend joining the Felder User Group on Yahoo. There are a lot of posts there about buying the right Jack for the Felder range. Most of the saws require a narrow Jack to fit under the frame. A standard width Jack will work with the combination machines.

Andy, I didn't mean to imply the pallet jack was a waste of time. It did allow me to jack up the saw but I had to carefully balance the saw on one fork - which took about 3 attemps before it balanced. It also appears there is a shortage of pallet jacks on craigslist because I started getting calls on it within 2 hours of posting. I should have asked more for it but you know, I'd didn't want to be greedy :-)

[Ted Diehl]

Lots of us use rubber sewer pipe fittings as couplers. Fernco is one brand, you can buy them at HD, Lowe's, et al. You'd want 5" ID for the machine, then adapt up/down as needed. Also, and you might already be aware of this: 2.5" dust extraction on the main saw chute will probably be an issue. I assume you're talking about the main saw chute and not the one on the riving knife.

Erik

Yes, it's for the main extractor duck. I'm not having any luck at HD or Lowes. They don't have anything large enough to fit OVER the Hammer port. I have tried many searches and have bought several but none seem to fit OVER the duct. I bought a 5" to 4" reducer on Rockler and it will not fit OVER it's too small by about 1/16". So I thought about getting a PVC coupler to fit between the duct on the saw and the rockler fitting and nothing seems to be sized right. I'm about ready to give up and just sweep up the mess after I done cutting wood. The only option I have left is to get a thin piece of aluminum and roll it into the shape of a coupler, tape it with duct tap on the inside and stuff it in the saw duct and then push the rockler reducer on to the other side. Then I'll tape it up with a roll of tape and see what happens. It won't look good but if it is functional I'll use it.

[Chris Parks]

These saws have a really bad habit of thin cut offs going down into the dust chute under the blade and then through the port into the extraction hose so you need to make sure you can disconnect the hose at the port easily. Hammer do sell an insert for when a Dado set is used which is wood, comes blank and stops this happening or you can make your own which is a bit of a fiddle as it needs reliefs cut into the under side for it to fit.

[Ryan Mooney]

Hammer do sell an insert for when a Dado set is used which is wood, comes blank and stops this happening or you can make your own which is a bit of a fiddle as it needs reliefs cut into the under side for it to fit.

They aren't toooooo bad to make - especially if you buy the hammer one as a template

I add about another 1/4-3/8" on the slider side of the insert and then bevel it to fit under the table... It wouldn't be as necessary with the high density stuff hammer uses but I'm mostly just knocking them out of some poplar so it really like a little extra beef there.

[mark mcfarlane]

Chris, agree with you regarding the F & F Jig. As long as you use some grippy material on the faces of the F & F, I've never found the need to clamp anything yet, even when cutting long strips off of narrow 2" thick material. Like you, I've put some stops and scales on the top of each side of the jig which enables accurate and repeatable cuts, quickly and easily.

Andy, I'm curious to see a picture, if you have one handy.

[Andy Giddings]

Here you go Mark. I copied the approach used by the original inventors and also used the YouTube video from Extreme Woodworker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0PyFjtSHrE. The scales, stops and track are all Incra products that I had laying around. I used a metric scale only as it helps me with accuracy. The track just sits on top of the Baltic Birch ply, doesn't need to be recessed. The green material is the same as the original Fritz and Franz jig. Although its a European product, there is a distributor in the US. The material has some give, which makes the grip more secure.

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[Chris Parks]

Adny, the Incra stops look great, I might try that. Where did you get the green material for the faces from?

[Ted Diehl]

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Well, I got tired of feeling sorry for myself and noodled this around in my head and came up with this for my Hammer K3 saw dust exhaust port. It aint pretty but its totally functional!

[Andy Giddings]

Chris, from a company called Summa Solutions in South Carolina. Its made by Ostermann in Europe and Summa are the distributor. Min order is 10 meters and its $5/meter. Shipping was the killer as it was the same as the cost of the material.

The part number is Ostermann 100.2056.032. You will need a 3mm groove cut into the face of the jig as the material is a push fit into the groove. Here is their spec page https://www.ostermann.eu/en/product/47618 I still have 9 meters left so would be happy to send some for what it cost me + shipping

[Chris Parks]

Andy, I will PM you and thanks, shipping to Oz can be the killer.

[Chris Parks]

I am modifying my exhaust port at the moment, not actually the port but what happens after that. My thinking behind this work was I am sick and tired of having the vertical drop to the saw for the cabinet and wanted it gone and wanted the extraction hose off the floor. I have been looking at this problem for at least 12 months and actually started a thread on what others have done but there did not seem to be any alternatives that suited me. I looked at moving the exhaust port to the left opposite wall away from the sliding table putting it under the extension table to the right but it was always in the way and was going to restrict material handling or if left on the floor was going to be a trip hazard and a PIA to use the correct terminology.

I am fortunate that my workshop is a two story building with a steel frame and sheet flooring so I came up with the bright idea of ripping up part of the floor and running a duct to the nearest wall. It could only be a short run due to the construction detail of the steel joists and beams. The next problem was the off cuts these saws swallow and preventing them getting into the underfloor duct and also allowing an easy way to get them out. I also had the issue of 5" to 4" differences in pipe size and a blast gate needed to be in there somewhere, these photos do not show the blast gate as I am doing that bit right now.

I built a box with entry from the saw and in the floor of the box is the exit and the wire screen prevents big bits going any further. The perspex lid is easily removed to get the long bits out but the blast gate still had me puzzled until yesterday. I have slotted the wall nearest the saw so that a sheet of plywood can be pushed in and covers the floor exit but that was going to be a pain to get to so I needed a remote control for the BG. I took a long piece of wood and fixed it to the end of the plywood slide, it exits under the machine just where the operator stands do he can push it back and forth with his foot, I haven't tried this bit yet but it sounds good!! Now I have a remote control blast gate, well I hope I have.

[mark mcfarlane]

Here you go Mark. I copied the approach used by the original inventors and also used the YouTube video from Extreme Woodworker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0PyFjtSHrE. The scales, stops and track are all Incra products that I had laying around. I used a metric scale only as it helps me with accuracy. The track just sits on top of the Baltic Birch ply, doesn't need to be recessed. The green material is the same as the original Fritz and Franz jig. Although its a European product, there is a distributor in the US. The material has some give, which makes the grip more secure.

20161022_152642.jpg

Thanks Andy. Gives me some ideas,...

[Chris Parks]

I finished the remote controlled blast gate today, I suppose it cost me 25 cents but that is only a guess.

The operator end when standing at the saw...I haven't cut it to length and won't until I use it a bit more

Showing control rod.jpg

The other end connecting to the slide inside the box...


Control Rod Connection.jpg





The box itself showing a few bits of debris after testing, the block of wood is a stop to limit movement when the BG is opened.

Sliding Blast Gate Open.jpg


All in all I am super pleased how well it works and the BG works without much force at all and the best part is it is so simple.

[Christopher Petro]

i took delivery on my Hammer K3 Winner last month and thanks to your advice, I went out and purchased the Harbor Freight Pallet Jack before my saw arrived. The pallet jack currently sold by HF will not work well. The forks are too far apart to slide both of them under the saw base. You can get one fork and balance the saw on it but this is Very dangerous if you're not careful. I did do it though and carefully balanced the saw on the fork while my buddy slid some scrap 2x4's under the front and rear of the base, then I lowered the saw down and attached the mobility kit I ordered with the saw. Then with the wheels in place, built a ramp and got it off the pallet. This could have been accomplished without the pallet Jack using 2x4 studs to leverage each side up. I put the pallet Jack on Craigslist and sold it in 2 days for $200.

I read the instructions from Felder for doing the ramp + pallet jack trick and stopped when I got to the part where you balance the whole thing on a single fork because you can't fit both under the machine. That, combined with the low-profile wheels on pallet jacks that tend to cause the whole jack to bottom out when going over any surface that isn't flat, made me decide that I needed a less crazy way of getting the machine off the pallet. When I saw that you have to get the machine off the floor to put the mobility kit on, and that really settled it for me.

Instead of spending $250 on a HF pallet jack, I just went to home depot and built this monstrosity with a drill and a contractor chop saw. It is really ugly--drilling straight 14" deep holes with a hand drill was beyond my skills--but it works fine. It's engineered for 2000lbs, so there was plenty of safety margin. The K3 Winner was the bigger of the two machines, and there wasn't any visible deflection when I hoisted it up. Made it nice and easy to install the mobility kit, especially when I found out that the previous owner had glued some washer to the bottom of one corner to level it on his floor and it was partially covering one of the holes for the adjustable leveling feet. I had to lift the whole thing high enough to get a grinder under there and open the hole up.

Total cost was $250 for lumber and hardware, plus about $75 for the chain hoist and straps. Only a little more than the pallet jack would have cost, and IMO it'll be more useful for other purposes. It's wide enough that I can fit a truck or trailer under it in the future to load or unload machinery or large projects. It's also (I hope) going to let me get the motor and impeller up on top of my DC system. Of course if you've already got a proper crane lying around, that would be even better, but this was a reasonably cost-effective solution compared to even a harbor freight gantry ($750 vs. $250), and I'm pleased with how it worked in the end.

Big thanks to the OP and others in this thread for some great ideas for fitting extra stuff to the K3!

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[Andy Giddings]

Congrats on the new machines and your ingenuity, Chris.