Felder CF741 universal machine sliding table mods

[markturner]

Hi , I just got one of these amazing machines ordered all the bits I thought would be useful from the accesories and was very happy....until I got it set up and started to use it. Its a big step up for me, coming from using a site saw and Festo guide rail system for all my ripping and sizing up till now in my work, not to mention I now have a spindle moulder as well to learn!

The sliding carriage is a boon, obviously, but I quickly realized that to carry out safe and accurate rip cutting, the saw was lacking and that buying the Felder accessories to do this would cost me a large amount of money.

So, I made an extension table that clamped onto the outrigger frame, with a corian top, attached to some 25mm birch ply for rigidity, into which I routed recesses for some T tracks and guides. The clamps are from the same ply / Corian, with through fixings by stainless steel bolts and wingnuts. I brought a parallel fence and mitre guide for the UJK router table available from Axminster, primarily as I plan to upgrade my own Router table to the UJK cast iron one and these will then be interchangeable with my saw and router table. I also ordered some hold downs.

The whole set up works pretty well, I had to shim the mitre guide locking plate with a couple of bits of corian to make it lock off, but on the whole, the set up works pretty well. Some fine tuning regarding making sure my secondary fence is parallel to the sliding table, but very happy with the result. It takes approx 2 minutes to remove the table if required. The only downside is that it does block access to the start and stop buttons.

Here are some pictures:














Cheers, Mark

 

[marcros]

Mark, Is that mod for "safe and accurate rip cutting" of sheet material, and the standard set up ok for ripping hardwood?

One day, I will have one of these, well the smaller version!

 

[markturner]

Well, you could use for either, what is important is that whatever you are ripping is securely held without being able to move, exactly parallel to the sliding table, meaning you don't have to use the machines rip fence, ( I do use this as a bump stop though sometimes then wind it back slightly once the workpiece is securely held) or hold things down with hand near the blade. Felder do a very nice eccentric clamp, but you would need two and they are £170 each....The the Felder paralell rip guide is £380...... then the extra outrigger leg another £800...... :shock: :shock:

Safest working method is to have the off cut on the right of the blade and the main workpiece securely clamped down so it cant move. Not using the standard rip fence als means you are at much less risk of kickback, even with the splitter fitted.

Its not perfect and needs tweaking, plus you do need to remove the fittings for cutting large sheets, but I am pretty pleased with it so far.

Cheers, Mark

 

[marcros]

it looks good

 

[custard]

Very interesting Mark..

I see you've got one of the latest CF741's with the grey colour scheme. As far as I can see the only difference between this and the green CF741 that I use (besides the spiral thicknesser block option) is the planer height setting sights...but that's a very worthwhile improvement as parallax error on mine makes it difficult to set repeatable cuts.

I know the Felder holdfasts are pricey, but they're superb quality and quick to use. I use at least one on probably half the sawing I do, both cross cuts and ripping, and regularly when I'm using the spindle moulder. They do seem to crop up in the Felder promotions regularly with decent discounts so that's one accessory I would recommend. You can jury rig something with a small quick clamp and a penny washer, but it's a bit of a faff and not nearly so secure.

If you process waney edged boards then the ripping shoe is another useful accessory for not a huge amount of money.

I also see you've got the F38 power feed, that's the same one I use. Many of the US Felder users swear by alternative wheels, but I once had a chance to use these after market wheels when I was working in the US and to be honest I couldn't see much difference.

Best of luck with your machine, properly set up you can work to a tenth of a mill all day long, with everything turning out exactly as specified on the cut list...very refreshing!

 

[custard]

My apologies, I see you have the shoe already...I was distracted by the dog!

 

[markturner]

Hi Custard, I think I may end buying one of the clamps in the next promotion, as you say, the quality is very good. What about any of the aigner gear? have you got any / know anyone who has ?

cheers, Mark

 

[custard]

Hello Mark, yes I use some Aigner gear. Actually I think Felder and Aigner must have some kind of licensing/distribution deal as there are some Aigner items that Felder sells under their own name.

Anyhow, off the top of my head, stuff I use includes,

-Aigner Integral Spindle Moulder Fence with the swing over filling bars and Aigner roller pressure wheels
-The 300mm sliding tenoning hood (which might be an Aigner item sold under Felder's name)
-Aigner Curved Moulding Hood with Aigner feed guide (the Felder equivalent uses fixed diameter bearings, which limits you to specific off-sets, plus the bearings can scorch the workpiece)
-Profiling work piece holders
-Aigner Distometer, this is probably overkill and a dial calliper plus a bit of ingenuity would often do the job. But the more you use the CF741 the more you realise that it's so accurate you can set up tooling "by the numbers", like with a CNC machine, instead of with a series of test cuts. Consequently you'll probably find yourself looking for more accurate tool setting and measuring devices to take advantage of this
-Vectral Rip fence (it's the holding device for ripping short/thin pieces), this is definitely an Aigner product but I don't think that's mentioned on Felder's web site

 

[SammyQ]

Your pooch has just GOT to be one of the most lugubrious animals ever recorded on film,....sorry jpeg.

Sam