Hammer A3 31 Electric Table Rise & Fall

[Chris Parks]

Has anyone thought about or even fitted an electric motor to drive the rise and fall on the Hammer A3 31 or 41? I looked at mine today and it does not look to be that hard to do but if someone has already done it I would like to see how it was done. I reckon a DC motor and a bit of ingenuity would do the trick.

[Erik Loza]

I have a customer who fitted an electric drill to the handwheel arbor on his jointer/planer and uses that for raising and lowering the planer table. Says it works great. I'm not going to mention his name without permission but he does post on here occasionally.

Erik

[Chris Parks]

Eric, I have seen the electric drill trick but this has the in handle height measuring instrument as a complication though it can still be done. The idea of an electric rise and fall with two buttons and a speed control sort of appeals to me. It would be nice to be able to dial in a target height but that might be a step too far.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Because my building something takes soooooooooo long, a local cabinetmaker is making the cabinets for our new kitchen. While touring his shop, I mentioned I admired his Altendorf slider. His reply was "If you got the money, I will deliver it and set it in your shop!". Long story short, he said the electronic controls on it seem to break at the most inconvenient times and he has to pay somebody travel, on-site labor and expenses from Seattle or northern California to fix it. He wished he had gotten the model with the manual handles to change setups.

[Graham Wintersgill]

You could have a look at model engine starters as found here: http://www.sullivanproducts.com/StartersContent.htm

Or you could look into Arduino or Raspeberry Pi solution.

Regards

[John Lankers]

I've used a cheap electric screwdriver on the saw/shaper but I can see your problem with the indicator in the handwheel.
What you could do is pull the handwheel and the roll pin off of the shaft and slide a small pulley (maybe even a wooden disc) on that has a set screw, fasten a 12 Volt car window motor to the front or under side of the planer table and connect the two using a flat belt.
The more elegant solution would obviously be a AD741 with Powerdrive

[Warren Lake]

For many years I had a progress stroke sander. I hated raising that table up and down. Constantly had to keep the threads clean and it was still annoying. Got an Italian machine, power table up and down, also open on one end and you can put long boards on it with no post in the way. You only need something you dont like for lots of years to appreciate how much better something is and I do everytime I raise or lower that power table. Ive had it 20 years or so and it was probably 25 years old when I bought it, had zero issues with the electronics or any aspect of that machine. Murphy if you are listening piss off.

Ive heard of peoples concerns with electrics on machines, then they should also have manual handles on them or come with handles that can be attached as well. If something fails you dont want to have to stop working. Find my planer goes up and down easy enough with the handle. Sure power with a nice digital readout would be nice.

[Bernie May]

Erik may have been referring to me. I glued a nut to the center of the hand wheel. I use a socket and extension in my battery powered drill to run the planer table up and down in just a few seconds. I do adjustments with the hand wheel itself. I got the idea when I had a jointer planer that had a nut there to begin with.

[Jamie Buxton]

Erik may have been referring to me. I glued a nut to the center of the hand wheel. I use a socket and extension in my battery powered drill to run the planer table up and down in just a few seconds. I do adjustments with the hand wheel itself. I got the idea when I had a jointer planer that had a nut there to begin with.

How can you glue a nut to the center of the hand wheel? On my A3-31, the center of the hand wheel is a gauge for the planer thickness. The surface is a clear plastic dome, and it wouldn't likely take much torque at all.

[Chris Parks]

Jamie, the centre indicator is an accessory item not a standard one.

I like the idea of an electric window motor, not bad at all, a switch off one would work as well perhaps through a relay. I read a bit during the week where someone had hacked an Arduino and used an Android tablet to drive it for a CNC conversion on a mill and I could incorporate that at the same time I guess. The tablet was run by Bluetooth with no hard connection. I don't pretend to have the computer knowledge but I know someone who has. This definitely has got legs now to refine the details. Thanks for the replies and interest.

[Chris Parks]

The more elegant solution would obviously be a AD741 with Powerdrive

John, my wife will be along shortly to discuss this suggestion with you, I would advise you to leave the country first.

[ian maybury]

One potential complication may be the advisability of arranging something to shut it the power off when the adjustment reaches the end of its travel. It might have been an exception, but somebody reported breaking the bevel gear or the pin retaining it that the crank turns a while ago...

[Chris Parks]

One potential complication may be the advisability of arranging something to shut it the power off when the adjustment reaches the end of its travel. It might have been an exception, but somebody reported breaking the bevel gear or the pin retaining it that the crank turns a while ago...

Limit switches would have to be installed but manually operating a push button switch should not be a problem. I find it surprising that someone broke a gear or pin, that would take a monumental brain fade on the operators part which is the nicest way I could put it!

[John Lankers]

Here is a link to how I did it, but this wouldn't work with the indicator dial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnhsrsWdY9k

[Erik Loza]

Eric, I have seen the electric drill trick but this has the in handle height measuring instrument as a complication though it can still be done. The idea of an electric rise and fall with two buttons and a speed control sort of appeals to me. It would be nice to be able to dial in a target height but that might be a step too far.

I woud just remove the handwheel and clock readout, then do a stand-alone digital like the Wixey or maybe an Accurate Technologies unit.

Erik may have been referring to me. I glued a nut to the center of the hand wheel. I use a socket and extension in my battery powered drill to run the planer table up and down in just a few seconds. I do adjustments with the hand wheel itself. I got the idea when I had a jointer planer that had a nut there to begin with.

Ha! I was thinking of another owner but it's good to know that other guys are doing this, Bernie.

How can you glue a nut to the center of the hand wheel? On my A3-31, the center of the hand wheel is a gauge for the planer thickness. The surface is a clear plastic dome, and it wouldn't likely take much torque at all.

I don't know how it is on that machine but on the Minimax units, it's a round arbor shaft roll pin running transversely, that indexes the handwheel. You could, for example, slip a piece of pipe over the arbor shaft and then drill holes on both sides, with some screws or something like that. Or perhaps drill and tap the end of the arbor shaft for an adapter for the chuck. Just ideas popping into my head.

Erik