Hornbeam
Established Member
I had my previous 12 inch planer thicknesser for at least 15 years and it has served me really well. I had spent the last 10 years thinking about buying a felder or similar replacement but always baulked at the price.
With some of the deals around at the start of lockdown I decided to go for it and having previously checked out a number of different machines went for the Hammer A3-31 with spiral block. 2 weeks ago I got the call from Milton Keynes to say it was ready to collect. While the purchase price was a very significant saving, Felder were quoting nearly £400 to deliver. Way too much for a tight git like me. I have a large van so half a days holiday and 6am start down to Milton Keynes and the machine wrapped in polythene on a palletwas quickly loaded by FLT through the side door. Back home for 1.30pm and straight into work.
So now to get over 300Kg of new machinery out of the vane safely. Big thanks to Norris who bought my old machine and after half an hour of careful manoeuvring we rolled it out onto a make shift transfer table and lowered the table. The pallet was moved on roller into my workshop and the machine rollered off the pallet. At all times care was taken not to put ant significant load onto the tables.
I checked all the tables for flatness and adjustment. All seems good and only minor adjustments to the fence stops were required. The surface finish on the cast tables is excellent
A electrician friend helped me wire it in in exchange for me machining some new slats for his garden bench. Ready to fire it up. The noise difference to my old machine is incredible whether free running or planing. The machine is much quieter than my panel saw and you don’t really need ear muffs. 4 hp should also provide more than adequate power
I tried some 6 inch wide American ash. The finish was so much better than from my previous 2 knife block. Some of this is down to brand new cutters but only a small portion. . I like the overhand guard but the plastic adjustment knob is just too small so will probably change it. The planer fence seems really nice and solid and doesn’t need to be removed when changing mode which is really easy both ways
The thicknesser feed rollers seem to have a lot more pressure than previous planer-thicknessers I have used. This means that if taking less than 0.5mm off then pressure marks from the infeed roller can just be seen. At 0.75mm removal these had gone. I expect this will vary with the hardness of the wood species. There is a very minimal amount of snipe just visible on both ends of the piece being thicknessed. I will make a thicknesser table extension as I think support is one of the key contributors..
Chipping extraction. I had always felt my extractor was a bit undersized for my old machine. With the Hammer there were hardly any chips left in either planing or thicknessing. This may not be the case if working at max capacity.
The machine is very compact and due to the size of my workshop that is a positive. Being able to leave it with both tables lifted gives me quite a bit extra space/access
The positives. Noise or lack of, small footprint, quality of finish, overall quality of machine
Negatives. The lever for engaging the thicknesser seems a bit flexible. The tab for stopping the tables dropping when in thickness mode is a bit poor. A couple of the bolts for the overhead guard protrude a little bit and I expect the plastic covers will fall off at some stage so may need to do a bit of fettling. It is quite a lot of hand cranking to lower the thickness table for changeover but I don’t think it’s a big issue
Before I bought I had looked at quite a few alternatives. Given that the machine cost a bit over £3k am I happy. Definitely yes.
If anybody is thinking of purchasing one and wants any further information give me a call.
I have a couple of cuft of walnut, another 5cuft of ash and 3cuft of oak to put through in the next couple of months so I will have a much better view by then
Ian
With some of the deals around at the start of lockdown I decided to go for it and having previously checked out a number of different machines went for the Hammer A3-31 with spiral block. 2 weeks ago I got the call from Milton Keynes to say it was ready to collect. While the purchase price was a very significant saving, Felder were quoting nearly £400 to deliver. Way too much for a tight git like me. I have a large van so half a days holiday and 6am start down to Milton Keynes and the machine wrapped in polythene on a palletwas quickly loaded by FLT through the side door. Back home for 1.30pm and straight into work.
So now to get over 300Kg of new machinery out of the vane safely. Big thanks to Norris who bought my old machine and after half an hour of careful manoeuvring we rolled it out onto a make shift transfer table and lowered the table. The pallet was moved on roller into my workshop and the machine rollered off the pallet. At all times care was taken not to put ant significant load onto the tables.
I checked all the tables for flatness and adjustment. All seems good and only minor adjustments to the fence stops were required. The surface finish on the cast tables is excellent
A electrician friend helped me wire it in in exchange for me machining some new slats for his garden bench. Ready to fire it up. The noise difference to my old machine is incredible whether free running or planing. The machine is much quieter than my panel saw and you don’t really need ear muffs. 4 hp should also provide more than adequate power
I tried some 6 inch wide American ash. The finish was so much better than from my previous 2 knife block. Some of this is down to brand new cutters but only a small portion. . I like the overhand guard but the plastic adjustment knob is just too small so will probably change it. The planer fence seems really nice and solid and doesn’t need to be removed when changing mode which is really easy both ways
The thicknesser feed rollers seem to have a lot more pressure than previous planer-thicknessers I have used. This means that if taking less than 0.5mm off then pressure marks from the infeed roller can just be seen. At 0.75mm removal these had gone. I expect this will vary with the hardness of the wood species. There is a very minimal amount of snipe just visible on both ends of the piece being thicknessed. I will make a thicknesser table extension as I think support is one of the key contributors..
Chipping extraction. I had always felt my extractor was a bit undersized for my old machine. With the Hammer there were hardly any chips left in either planing or thicknessing. This may not be the case if working at max capacity.
The machine is very compact and due to the size of my workshop that is a positive. Being able to leave it with both tables lifted gives me quite a bit extra space/access
The positives. Noise or lack of, small footprint, quality of finish, overall quality of machine
Negatives. The lever for engaging the thicknesser seems a bit flexible. The tab for stopping the tables dropping when in thickness mode is a bit poor. A couple of the bolts for the overhead guard protrude a little bit and I expect the plastic covers will fall off at some stage so may need to do a bit of fettling. It is quite a lot of hand cranking to lower the thickness table for changeover but I don’t think it’s a big issue
Before I bought I had looked at quite a few alternatives. Given that the machine cost a bit over £3k am I happy. Definitely yes.
If anybody is thinking of purchasing one and wants any further information give me a call.
I have a couple of cuft of walnut, another 5cuft of ash and 3cuft of oak to put through in the next couple of months so I will have a much better view by then
Ian
