It's Christmas & Santa's been

**Colin Howkins** · 18th December 2007, 10:21 PM

Santa has been and has left me with a Felder K500s with a 2.5 m table!

It could be construed that I am one of those 'Tool Snobs' eluded to in this forum on occasions.

Before parting with my hard earned cash I looked at a number of saws similar to the one purchased, and a few things really came out. First looked at one of these at the Working with Wood Show in Brisbane in the early part of 2007. The Felder blokes were passionate about their product. They also knew about their oppositions product and their respective strengths and weaknesses. Compared to the product knowledge held by Felders opposition, to me only enhanced the Felder position.

I don't know about you, but it really turns me cold when you ask a question of a person presumably selling a product and all you get is a quizzical look in response. Like if you ask if a particular shaft runs in bearings or bushes?. What sort of tolerances are incorporated within the machines design?. What standard [if any] is the machine made to?

The lack of information from Felders oppositon is what kept me coming back and so the Felder was bought.

Got to say after working with a contractors saw for a number of years this Felder is really a slik bit of kit.

If nothing else I will get to make some pretty expensive sawdust

Colin Howkins
Graceville Qld

**jow104** · 18th December 2007, 10:42 PM

What a big blade.

No excuses now plenty of projects to come?

**Big Shed** · 18th December 2007, 10:46 PM

All that money and you didn't even get a blade guard

Looks like a mighty fine machine, so what will you be doing with it? Do you do a lot of sheet good cutting?

**spartan** · 19th December 2007, 12:31 AM

hmm, what the maximum rip to the right of the blade?

**les88** · 19th December 2007, 06:50 AM

will it take a dado?
les

**Colin Howkins** · 19th December 2007, 07:30 AM

It does come with a blade guard. Do a bit of sheet work but over the years I have collected quite an amount of slabs, mainly silky oak, just kept an eye out for trees going down and basically got them for nothing - all I had to do was take them away!! The sliding table has a shoe in which the slab can be fitted and you can get a dead straight cut as you move the slab past the blade. I have tried to dress up slabs on a smaller table saw - it's not easy.

Has a rip capacity of 800 with an option to 1200 if you want.

It will take dado blades.

Like all these bits of gear, it takes a while to really appreciated it's capabilities. Compared to my previous saw - a contractor type - it really is a delight to use. I am quite convinced their rolling table is about the best there is

Colin Howkins
Graceville Qld

**Harry72** · 19th December 2007, 08:42 AM

Bloody show off!

Nice one mate

**Wongo** · 19th December 2007, 09:19 AM

Nice saw awful colour.

**Ron Dunn** · 19th December 2007, 09:24 AM

It is too pretty to cut wood.

... does the orange stripe mean that Triton bought 'em ?? *grin*

**Wongo** · 19th December 2007, 10:06 AM

You reckon Triton had the money?

**TimberNut** · 19th December 2007, 12:02 PM

How did the machine arrive? was it on a pallet? I'm assuming you moved it around with a Pallet Jack? Any dramas getting it down off the pallet and moving it exactly where you wanted it?

Why did you chose the K500S instead of going to the K700 Professional? Surely they would have been pretty close in price? just curious as to how you decided which model to purchase.

**Colin Howkins** · 19th December 2007, 02:57 PM

Unit came palletized and crated with the sliding table and bits a pieces packed separately. Arrived on a crane truck and was moved into palce on a pallet jack. Main unit weighs around 600 kg. With sliding table and all bits & pieces a little over 700 kg.

The Felder people unpacked it, assembled it, did trial cuts etc. Was most impressed when they used a dial indicator run out gauge to set it all up and to make sure all was true and correct. The table over 2.5m according to the run out gauge varies 0.08mm over the 2.5m, which I think is close enough to being perfect.

Did look at the 700 series, and they are truly professional pieces of equipment, designed to operate at very high cyclic rates. Price was a consideration as a comparable 700 series was about another 30%, and when one considered the amount of use this machine would be put to to move to a 700 series would really place me in into the area of diminishing returns.

The good thing about the 500 series is that it has exactly the same sliding table as the 700 series, and to me, this is what makes the machine such a delight to use. That along with the overall build quality is what I think put them ahead of the others looked at.

Every part of the machine was tagged with a sticker which bore the name of the person who assembled it. In the case of there being somthing wrong, it could be determined if it was human error or a systemic problem. If the machine is serviced by Felder, that information makes it back to Felder in Austria, and it is logged up against that machine. It is possible at some time in the future to get a complete service history of the machine if it has been continually serviced by Felder.

Felder says they have got records on machines that are decades old and still being updated.

Could be wrong but I don't think you would get this sort of thing from a Chinese machine

Colin Howkins
Graceville. Qld

**Waldo** · 19th December 2007, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by Wongo

Nice saw love the orange colour.

Is what Wongo meant, he loves orange, must be something to do with all his Triton gear.

Great saw there Colin. That's the thing, when you find a mob who know what they're on about inside and out, why then would you shop anywhere else. Sometimes I'll do the same because you know they'll back themselves after with product service once you've made the purchase.

**Wongo** · 19th December 2007, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by Colin Howkins

Could be wrong but I don't think you would get this sort of thing from a Chinese machine

But it is possible. Pay them $20,000 and they will even do your housework.

**underused** · 19th December 2007, 04:17 PM

WOW it's a beauty

Santa and the Reindeers must have had a hell of a job getting that down Your chimney

I'd love to have one of those beasts

did you have a look at their combo machines? any good?

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