Felder cheaper than Grizzly? Strange but true

[John Preston]

I have recently spent much time at work, having the effect of excess money. I make it a rule that all excess monies have to be spent on tools before they go to something frivolous such as housing.

So, that's why I was drooling over a Felder catalog.
I was kinda surprised that Felder's 20 inch jointer is 6595 base price (many many options available.) It has an 80 inch table.
Grizzly's 20 inch jointer (with spiral cutterhead) is 7250. It has a 112" table.

I saw a 16" and a 12" of their parallelogram jointers, and was actually kinda impressed. I'm curious if anyone's got some time on one to find out if they're as good as they look.

Any takers?

[Rob Russell]

I have recently spent much time at work, having the effect of excess money. I make it a rule that all excess monies have to be spent on tools before they go to something frivolous such as housing.

So, that's why I was drooling over a Felder catalog.
I was kinda surprised that Felder's 20 inch jointer is 6595 base price (many many options available.) It has an 80 inch table.
Grizzly's 20 inch jointer (with spiral cutterhead) is 7250. It has a 112" table.

I saw a 16" and a 12" of their parallelogram jointers, and was actually kinda impressed. I'm curious if anyone's got some time on one to find out if they're as good as they look.

Any takers?

John,

I can't comment about the Grizz - I can about the Felder.

First, don't let the 80" table length scare you off. Felder makes accessory tables that clamp on and off (just takes a couple of seconds) which extend the overall length to 120". The nice thing about that is if you don't need all the length for some boards you're jointing, you don't have the extra length to always store or walk around in your shop. If you need 10' worth of tables, you clamp the extensions on and go to town. These tables switch back and forth between the jointer, planer, saw/shaper outfeed and mortiser.

Believe me - even without the extension tables - the 20" Felder is impressive. Take the blade guard off and I could take a nap on it. I happen to have the 20" AD751 which is the jointer/planer combination machine, so it's both machines in the same footprint.

If you're serious about any of these larger machines, make sure you can get them into your shop. The Felder broke down enough to fit through a 34" wide space (down a normal hatchway). If you have a large door to get stuff into and out of your shop, this isn't an issue for you. It definitely was for me and was one factor in why I went with the Felder equipment over the MiniMax (that and available options).

Rob

[Chris Padilla]

Wow! A 20" jointer, eh? Besides the totally obvious need of straightening wide boards, why might one want such an enormous (yet impressive) piece of machinery?

Believe me, if I had shop/garage space for one, I would probably seriously consider one just because it would be too cool. Damn, LOL, I should have held out for a house with a 3-car garage...it would be sooooooooooooooooo nice but we did end up with a very nice house with a very nice view. The only problem is I can only build down (I don't have a basement) and building up is zone limited and it wouldn't aid shope space one iota. Okay, time to stop ranting and dreaming.

Chris

[Rob Russell]

Besides the totally obvious need of straightening wide boards, why might one want such an enormous (yet impressive) piece of machinery?

Chris

Chris,

There were several reasons that I went with the 20" jointer/planer over the 16" or 12".

I'm in the process of finishing a new master bedroom suite (still rough framed now). SWMBO wants all sorts of cabinet work for the room which I will be doing. That includes some potentially wide-board raised panels, for which I'm planning to use single, wide boards.

We'll be redoing our kitchen cabinets in about 5 years and I'll be building them. For the doors, I'm again planning to use single, wide boards for the raised panels.

I've been working with a sawyer, so have access to custom sawing. If we're looking for 20" wide boards, it becomes a matter of finding the logs - but he has sources. If you have a 20" board, you need to be able to process it. I didn't want to plan on hand planing that sort of stuff, so went with the larger j/p.

It was also the only one that was available with variable feed speed. They all have 2 speed, but I wanted the continuously variable feed speed so I could really slow it down for tearout prone woods like maple. Also, with 20" of knife width, you can feed a 4'-5' board through at an angle to help minimize tearout.

Lastly, because I was only going to get the go ahead to do this once, I figured I'd better get whatever I wanted this time around. I can just see it know - " gee sweetie, 2 years ago I spent $$$$ on this 16" jointer/planer, but now I want to replace it with a $$$$$ jointer/planer because I didn't get the one I really needed the first time."

Yeah. Right. Hartford is home to the world-famous "Institute for Living" (nuthouse) and that's where I'd be living after trying that.

Rob

[Chris Padilla]

Rob,

I say all the power to you if you can afford the machine, afford the space, and better yet, LOML says "go ahead!" It is even better that you have your own "personal" sawyer.

I look forward to seeing some nice trees go through your shop!

Chris

[Jim Becker]

Interesting point, John...one cannot always assume that the "value" vendor will be less money when you get into certain kinds of equipment. It pays to shop carefully.

Something I noticed awhile back is that Felder, Mini Max, Robland and others may also offer a better deal when you consider the individual costs for high-end equipment versus the bundled cost via the combos. That was the impetus for my recent FS-350 purchase...the cost for a quality 12"-16" jointer plus the cost of a quality 15"-20" planer was more than the cost of the 14" J/P combo machine. I've always wanted a wide jointer, but the space and cost necessary was up there, especially when the mating planer was part of the picture. The deal I got on the MM was a no brainer in that respect.