Thread: Hammer A3 31 Thicky/Jointer - a good machine, but buyer beware of certain aspects

Djeddy, I have a c3-31 and I'm generally quite happy with it. The moving between saw and thicknesser is not as bad as jointer/thicky as noted above with having to crank the wheel a lot. Just have to plan your work. One thing I noticed recently was that the fence, when in saw mode drops into the gap between saw bench and jointer table when set at about 300mm rip cut. Doesn't drop a lot but its not very well engineered.
Short power cord is a PITA cos you cant swap it for a longer one cos the box inside machine is hard to reach and complicated inside. So I just forked out for a few plugs and some flex to make an extension cord. Be prepared to have some 20amp power points etc wired into your shed too.
I bought the Hammer 90 degree dust extraction elbow ($65!!!!) which does come in handy, also a wheel kit is good and the dial gauge for thicknesser allows great accuracy.
being a combination machine a certain amount of stuffing about in day to day use is called for. You'll need to do a bit of fine tuning once unit is delivered too. I found James the Melb agent very nice but delivery is slow and getting parts afterwards is a bit of a trial. You have to keep ringing him, I don't think he knows how to use a phone or email very well.
generally great unit with a couple of small niggles. BTW spiral head on thicky is well worth it.

The fence isn’t great for ripping but to be honest, I don’t even notice it anymore. I was keen to replace it when I first got the unit but now it’s a real non issue. It’s a little bit tricky to adjust when you’re ripping but swapping from joiner to saw is a 2 second job. It’s way more of a hassle to go from joiner to thicknesser. I reckon about 20% of the time on the saw is using the rip fence and the rest of the time I’m using the sliding table. When you’re on a combo machine you’re always going to accept some compromises but I think it’s probably made me a better woodworker. My workflow is a lot more efficient now I have to plan every process around setting up the machine differently.

The lack of 2400 capacity on the sliding table is a bit of a hassle but I have a festool rail saw and a 2700 rail for all that stuff and to be honest it’s easier dealing with sheets that way.


I’m woodworking full time now and have been for over 18 months on this machine and I’m really struggling to find anything bad to say about it.

Dalejw, just a quick question for you. When setting up fence for ripping do you have it exactly parrelel to blade or with a little toe-out on the out feed end? I have mine parrelel and it seems to spit more dust up in air and also blade seems to leave ma\rks on timber as it passes on exit. Suppose Ive answered my own question but just wondering what you found.
Also do you use dust hood on blade ( 50mm outlet) and how have you set it up with 5" hose?
Andrew.

You'll havè to pardon my "è" kèystrokè (spillèd a glass of winè ).

Pics wènt missing a fèw yèars ago, so I'll rèpost this onè. This is thè attachmènt I madè to wind up and down. Thè holè goès ovèr thè handlè and thè thrèad goès into a sparè battèry drill:




On thè othèr sidè, thè 3 projècting thrèads go into thrèè holès I drillèd into thè alum:




If I want I can go from 0-170mm in about 5 sèconds! Howèvèr that is most ill-advisèd as it crèatès to much wèar on thè acmè thrèad of thè thicky column (which must bè kèpt wèll grèasèd, btw). I just usè it at a comfortablè pacè which is cèrtainly way quickèr and kindèr to thè wrist. It's worthwhilè for any movèmènt morè than about 50mm

I'll keep that in mind Fence. Thanks. Only trouble is by the time I go looking for my cordless I'd have it wound.

Originally Posted by AndrewPatrol

Dalejw, just a quick question for you. When setting up fence for ripping do you have it exactly parrelel to blade or with a little toe-out on the out feed end? I have mine parrelel and it seems to spit more dust up in air and also blade seems to leave ma\rks on timber as it passes on exit. Suppose Ive answered my own question but just wondering what you found.
Also do you use dust hood on blade ( 50mm outlet) and how have you set it up with 5" hose?
Andrew.

I haven't touched mine from when the Felder guys set it up. Just measured it and it's parallel. If I'm getting burn marks is usually my technique or the side that's running against the fence has a bend in it.

As for the dust hood, I'd planned to plumb a 50mm hose into the 6" main line up high but never got around to it. If I'm ripping a lot of stuff I'll connect the Festool CT17 shop vac that I've got nearby on my mitre saw which does a great job.

For the most part though I just try and batch up all my saw work, wear a mask and forget about connecting anything to the dust hood. I use a heap of ply and move the saw around quite a bit so anything connected to that gets in the way when you're dealing with panels.

I've got an AF22 dust extractor which is pretty efficient but I'm more worried about long term dust exposure than I am about wearing a mask these days.

Originally Posted by dalejw

The fence isn’t great for ripping but to be honest, I don’t even notice it anymore. I was keen to replace it when I first got the unit but now it’s a real non issue. It’s a little bit tricky to adjust when you’re ripping but swapping from joiner to saw is a 2 second job. It’s way more of a hassle to go from joiner to thicknesser. I reckon about 20% of the time on the saw is using the rip fence and the rest of the time I’m using the sliding table. When you’re on a combo machine you’re always going to accept some compromises but I think it’s probably made me a better woodworker. My workflow is a lot more efficient now I have to plan every process around setting up the machine differently.

The lack of 2400 capacity on the sliding table is a bit of a hassle but I have a festool rail saw and a 2700 rail for all that stuff and to be honest it’s easier dealing with sheets that way.


I’m woodworking full time now and have been for over 18 months on this machine and I’m really struggling to find anything bad to say about it.

I don't have a combination slider just the K3 version and I never use the rip fence at all. I ordered my machine with a fine adjustable rip fence then fitted a Wixey DRO to it and the combination is fantastic if a bit more expensive. Have a look at the linked thread, using a slider requires a re-think in work practises which result in a far safer and better result than a conventional saw. The link below covers a lot of what to expect.

So this turned up on Monday

There's only 2 situations I use the rip fence.

The first is to get a parallel rip when I've already straightened the first side up with either the slider or the track saw. I guess I could do it on the slider but measuring each end, lining it up and clamping it way more difficult than using the fence.

The second is using it as more of a stop. Say I've ripped a sheet of ply to 600 * 2400 and I want to crosscut it to get a 300mm * 600mm panel. I'll set the fence up at 300 and hang the long edge off the slider. Makes more sense than trying to clamp 300mm on the slider and hanging the other 2300 off the other side.

Hadn't seen one of the F&F jigs before. I'm totally making one of those.

To gèt thè règistration of thè holès right, just clamp thè piècè of MDF to thè alum circlè (rèmovè it from thè machinè)

I'm now reading all of Brett's posts in an accent in my head...

You've gone full scale Mario in my mind [emoji23]

Dat'sa ok èffèndè

Yes!!!

Should that be FrenchFurniture (I dunno how to do those little accents thingo's)