Commissioning a new Felder machine

[Brian Lamb]

I sent you an invite to join the Felder group. I purchased my Felder machines in 2001 and paid for the commissioning and it was worth it. I'm a retired machinist and since then I have aligned my own machines and quite a few other Fogger's machines and while it can be done, it's not a trivial undertaking, especially on the longer sliders.... it's like trying to force a wet piece of spahgetti noodle into a straight line.

While the factory commissioning may not get the machine as "perfect" as you would like, it will teach you enough to have an inkling of what is required in case you should ever want to take on the project, or fine tune the machine even better.

I have seen quite a few purchasers all bent out of shape about how their machine isn't perfect upon delivery, after all, they paid all this money for it, it should be spot on. They fail to realize that the machine may very well have been perfect at the factory, but it is then crated and fork lifted into a container, driven overland to a seaport, craned onto a ship, craned off a ship, goes through customs, delivered to Felder USA, then trucked/freighted all over the county prior to final delivery to the customer. Any and everyone of those hand offs is a prime opportunity to be jostled or bumped out of alignment. Some machines land at the owner in great shape, some not so much. Having Felder come in and commission will get the machine within Felder's tolerance, and they will spot any missing or defective parts and it's just a portion of the cost of stepping up to this sort of machinery.

[david coelho]

Brian, can you send me an invite too PLEASE

P.S. You may recall I bought a bunch of your products a while back, fantastic stuff !!!

[Brian Lamb]

Invite sent and the url of the group is:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...odworking/info

[John Adank]

Any idea what some people have paid for the service? I know it kind of depends on where you live but I was hoping to get a rough idea of what I can expect to pay for this service. I do believe the sliding table on the saw ships with it attached since it's only 98" long.

[David Kumm]

John, I'd try to talk to the guy who is actually coming out to work on the machine. I've heard of great and not so great guys. While not rocket science, it does go a lot faster if you have some experience. Ask what tolerance he will set the slider too and if he will need to check the cast iron table as well. I use dial indicators and a Starrett Master Machinist level when I do mine and it can take a few hours over a few days. Mac is better at it than I am and I'd take him over most techs as he is pretty anal. I would not expect it to cost less than $500 and get any degree of precision. Easy to burn up more money than that to get everything within a few thou. Dave

[James Zhu]

Felder's tolerance for the sliding table height in related to cast iron table top is 0.012". They will not adjust the sliding table better that tolerance.

I have 9 foot sliding table, Felder tech installed and calibrated the sliding table using a Lee Valley 50" aluminum straightedge http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...40,45313,50074 and feeler gauge set http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...13,51657,32527.

The tech spent 4 hours in my garage. A few days later, I used the 3 dial indicators along the edge of cast iron table and found it was more than 0.012" at some spots, some were 0.022". David Best sent me the instruction about how to adjust the sliding table, it took me a weekend, 22 hours to get it to 0.007" / 0.008" inch.

[Martin Wasner]

Just pay for the setup, its money well spent. When I bought my panel saw, the tech took it from the crate to bolted to the floor and cutting in a day. It would've taken me a lot longer, and I would've wasted far in unproductive time than $1500 it cost me to have him hammer it out.

OP, I noticed that you're in WI. You might reach out to Mac Campshure of Airtight Clamps...

http://macsblogboard.blogspot.com/

Mac is an excellent technician and has been working with Felder machines FOREVER. Best of luck with it.

Erik

He's three hours away from me, but I'm filling that name away. I just agreed to buy a Felder planer.

[Chris Parks]

Invite sent and the url of the group is:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...odworking/info

Brian, I looked at jping but apparently I have to supply a mobile phone number and I don't have one. Is there any way around this?

[Brian Lamb]

I don't know what Yahoo's terms are any more.... but I know I didn't give them my cell (only phone number I have anymore) for years until recently, see if you can just "skip this step" when you are joining.

[mark mcfarlane]

I'd gladly pay $250 or $500. SCM recently quoted "Standard SCM install would run $2,500 for something like that", to setup a CU300 and MM16. I thought this was absurd, I guess I have to pay for the air ticket from Italy and another $1,000 for the setup.

[Darcy Warner]

Not a felder tech, but my minimum to set up a machine I deliver is 500 bucks an I require the electrical and DC be run and ready.

[Erik Loza]

When I worked for Felder (2003-2004), I believe it was a flat rate of $450 to commission a machine. Can you imagine that? Even then, I remember the Austrians moaning about how much they lost on each service trip.

Erik

[Jeff Ramsey]

OP, I noticed that you're in WI. You might reach out to Mac Campshure of Airtight Clamps...

http://macsblogboard.blogspot.com/

Mac is an excellent technician and has been working with Felder machines FOREVER. Best of luck with it.

Erik

Erik, do you know of a similar excellent technician near Philadelphia?

[Erik Loza]

Erik, do you know of a similar excellent technician near Philadelphia?

Unfortunately, Jeff, I don't

Erik

[Jim Becker]

Unfortunately, Jeff, I don't

Erik

Nor do I, Jeff.