Originally Posted by
Charles B Thomas
Thanks Chris, I appreciate giving a little background, knowing your point-of-view helps me to understand your advise. I too do (did) a *lot* of handwork, the only thing heavier than my #7 is a Stanly 608 Bedrock. At the beginning I started with a scrub plane and worked down through a set of bench planes. At 45 my woodwork has changed; I handle sheet goods with a Festool saw and track, recently cut the TS rails down to a smidge under 27 (from 36) just to make it all fit into 1/2 of the garage. I make a lot less ply-cabinets and more solid furniture. A pinched neck nerve and a year of recovery has taught me I can't do all the milling by hand. Now that I've heard what the community has to say and slept on it, I think I'm ready to order some new machines.
I'm curious what you think of their outfeed accs tables. I'm considering ordering 2 of the 400 (15") and rails for both A3-31 and BS. In my gut I also think they probably aren't needed for most all jointing and seem to be a nicity for thicknessing outfeed of short peices and cool they work on the BS too. The word on the net is the digital readout for the thicknesser is a "Have to have" and not really an "optional accessory" - I'm getting the metric version - $70 cheaper and Festool has already converted my thinking to metric.
Considering you were thinking about the Byrd and also the accessory tables, do this get a quote on the A3-41, the tables on the jointer are longer so it is less likely that you will need them. Bottom line the A3-41 will be cheaper than the A3-31 with a Byrd head and tables/mounts.
Just a comment on your time to change evaluation, though the Byrd will take longer to change to new blades it will have to be done MUCH less frequently, this will save time over the long run. In the end it is insignificant for a hobbyist but adds to the cost savings for a professional.
Since it seems you may want to stay with all one manufacturer and are leaning to Felder you might see what you could get the Felder FB 600 for it isn't "on sale" now but Felder does negotiate.
Of all the laws Brandolini's may be the most universally true.
Deep thought for the day:
Your bandsaw weighs more when you leave the spring compressed instead of relieving the tension.