Felder K915 pro - advise

[Rick Hartwig]

We are looking for an additional sliding table saw for solid wood. We have a '96 Altendorf C45 already for panel processing. (Still works great by the way) We were looking at a Felder K915 professional. There is an attachment available for the Felder sliders that facilitates cutting miters. It has measurement compensation for changing the angle of the fence. Has anyone used this option? It is a $745 option and I am a little skeptical. Does anyone have an opinion on Felder sliders. The other saws we were looking at were by SCM/Mini Max. We were trying to stay in the $15k range.

Altendorf and Martin are out ($26k-55k).

[Gary Curtis]

There is a lively Felder community on Yahoo Groups. Go to www.groups.yahoo.com. You'll have to sign on as a new user and wait a bit for approval.

I own another brand of sliding table saw, but went to the Sacramento showroom of Felder for a two-day woodworking class. We used the equipment (700 series) , but not the accessory you speak of. The 900 series is truly professional machinery.

Gary Curtis

[Todd Solomon]

Rick,

The Felder sliding table saws are outstanding sliding table saws. Their X-roll sliders have cross-roller bearings, rather than balls. This will reduce the likelihood of the slider loosening up, over many years of use.

Felder has recently improved the K700S slider with a beefier double-trunnion. The trunnion on the 900 series used to be a big differentiator, but the 700 series has been upgraded. The 700 series has the same slider as the K915 that you're looking at. In fact, I'm not sure what the 915 will get you, over the K700 series. I've had a K700S Plus for a few years now, I absolutely love it. You may want to consider saving some cash, and just get a fully-loaded K700 series.

I have the older version of the precise angle adjuster that you mention. Mine has a pin that drops into holes at common angles. It works very well, and is accurate. I would imagine that this new device is improved, and I would recommend getting it.

Todd

[John Renzetti]

Hi Rick, That particular miter indexing attachment does work well. It fits on the outrigger and since you want to use the saw just for cutting solid pieces I don't think this is the way to go. You probably don't need the outrigger nor long crosscut fence at all. There's another attachment that is better suited for solid wood, its the DGL or EGL for the digital version. Once set up on the saw this thing is dead on for cutting miters of any angle. Also has adjustments for length compensation. With this and an extension table instead of the big outrigger and fence you'll end up saving some money.
There's a guy I know in NC that has a K915 with the setup I described. He uses it everyday in a pro set up. Felder should be able to give you the contact info.
The EGL can also fit on your Altendorf slider with a different mounting bracket. Felder and Altendorf used to source them from the same company in Germany.
take care,
John

[Bernhard Lampert]

Rick,

I have that gizmo that John R. mentioned for my Felder. The 'Elektronische Gehrungslehre' or EGL work very well, especially for making angles with legs of different width. It takes less than a minute to clamp the EGL on the slider and it is dead accurate. Since it will calculate the settings (in both standard and metric ), the main source of error is already taken care of. For accurate angles, I only use this attachement instead of a sliding miter saw. I have used it for large frames down to small picture frames.
It is not cheap, but it is definitively worth it.

Cheers,
Bernhard

[Rick Hartwig]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will look into the EGL miter fence. We did purchase a 915 pro with the miter fence I described. I will give an update on its functionality.

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[Jim Becker]

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