But how many times do you have occasion to plane really wide boards? I would love a 30” thicknesser, but would be quite content with a 10 or 12” planer. In fact the widest board I have milled in the last ten years has been 8”.
Greg
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But how many times do you have occasion to plane really wide boards? I would love a 30” thicknesser, but would be quite content with a 10 or 12” planer. In fact the widest board I have milled in the last ten years has been 8”.
Greg
Yet another opinion hahaha
If I was in your shoes I would take the extra 2 grand (at least) needed to upgrade to a hammer and put spiral heads in both machines (assuming space is not a worry). Then you have a long bed jointer (way more important than wide for 99% of jobs) and a spiral thicknesser too, with no need for a changeover
Not so in my opinion. Possibly if all you are jointing are edges of boards for dining room tables. In my case, I build medium size furniture, and want to flatten faces, often 12" wide. Bed width is far more important. Hence I went from a long bed 8" jointer to a Hammer A3-31 for the 12" width (more cost-effective than a stand alone 12" jointer).
Regards from Perth
Derek
I also have the hammer A3-31 and as others have mentioned winding the table up and down is the biggest hassle. However there is a work around for this that I have on my “ To Do list”. You can make a removable spacer the height needed to flip over the dust shroud, so it only takes a couple of seconds to add this for thicknessing thinner material.
Cheers Andrew
In order to better explain the spacer I mentioned have a look at the 10.30 minute mark in this video where Nick shows his for an A3-26 but just a matter of making it to suit your particular machine.
Woodworking Tools I Had, Have, & Hope to Add // Shop Tour 2021 - YouTube
Cheers Andrew
Lance, the only problem with that idea is you lose reference to the measuring tape or in handle dial.
I made a similar add-on for my A3-31, but it was mainly to plane thin stock. I plan to make another, thick one, and it will be exactly 100mm thick. That way it will be easier to continue using my metric dial on the machine. I shall only have to wind up-and-down about 3", as opposed to 7 1/2", which is required to get the shroud out of the way.
Regards from Perth
Derek
If you consistently use the base for most milling, as long as the relative heights remain consistent, it shouldn't pose a problem.
For my workflow it would only really matter where I forgot to note my final dimension and need to match a new piece to some already milled, by measuring a piece to match. Derek's 100 mm riser would certainly simplify the maths to calculate the offset required. This is a very rare occurrence though, so don't foresee it posing much of a problem.
Yep fair enough. Should have said that for me bed length is very valuable 99% of the time, I mostly make doors, windows, tables, so work with sticks in the 2 - 3 meter range very often.
Mind you, as well as the carbatec 8 inch jointer I also have a 16 inch SCM combination for the wide stuff..... bit of a luxury.
Just thought I'd flag a possible different pathway.
Cheers, Steve
I find the table extensions handy, I’ve got the 900mm and the 400mm that I use on the A3-31 and the K3
It makes machining longer stock easier, as with most hammer options it is overpriced imo.
the accurate dial gauge is worth every cent.
after using a spiral head cutter, I will never go back to a blade system, it provides a great cut, reduces the noise and cutter change is easy
After a bit of mucking around with the old thicknesser and not being able to get it to work as well as I wanted, I have placed an order for an A3-41
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I’ve just finished cleaning and rotating some of my helical head cutters on my c3 31 and am always impressed with its finish on all sorts of material. Iron bark to cedar it’s fantastic. The numbering on the actual cutters is a great referencing knowing what face your up to also
Cheers
Nathan
Do yourself a favour and get the dial indicator for the height wheel on thicknesser.