Thread: Upgrade to a Hammer

It takes about a minute to raise the beds, flip over the dust hood and raise the table. That process drives some people crazy. I have only ever had combos so I do all my planing and joint one edge, then switch to thicknessing.

Get the handwheel dial indicator which allows you to set accurately to any dimension you need. That is handy for when you have to go back and mill one more board.

I can’t speak to the helical cutters as I have only ever had straight knives.

The only reason that I have combos is space. If I had a permanent shop I would have separate machines for every operation, but I would probably still have straight knives on the jointer.

Andrew, the change over is not a big deal though as you say some don't like it but the machine does an awesome job and the silent head is worth having both for the reduced noise and the small chips don't fill the DE drum anywhere as what the straight blades would. Some users make an adaptor for the height winder but while it can be done most if not all cover the in handle height gauge, not a big deal as an approximate height can be reached using the height rule then fine tuning by hand using the gauge which is deadly accurate.

Ditto to Chris.

Regards from Perth

Derek

The swap over process on most of the modern combo's from Hammer, SCM, etc are quick and easy. Haven't heard much good coming from the QC side of Hammer lately, worth doing some research. You'll lose 1" of thicknessing capacity but double your jointing capacity. I think the biggest deciding factor aside from the slight increase in cost on the Hammer range when I had my quotes done is the lead times.

I've got the SCM version FS41cx. The attached was given to me as a comparison between the two machines I didn't make it so haven't verified if its all true.

I've had the Hammer A3-31 for about 6 years now. It have not needed anything done to it in that time. Always perfectly accurate. Nil sniping. The carbide faces have been turned twice, and probably did not need the second (recent) turn. So, about 10 years on one set of carbide blades. The A3-31 has a 4 hp single phase motor.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I used to have a Felder combo, I can say the change over does not take long,

BUT!

If you want to convert from planing to thicknessing of a piece say thats 19mm thick, apart from flipping the table you also need to raise the thicknessing table from 235mm+ to 19mm. that would take some time if you use your combo often.

Felder combo machine I had (AD951) requires the table to be lowered to at least 235mm to use planing/buzzer, if you opt for hand wheel and do a lot of work you will be wheeling that table all day long.

Hi Andrew,

I too have the A3-31 and if lost would gladly buy another one. The longest part of the changeover is winding the table up and down; the actual flipping of the table/dust shroud is very quick. I would think that 99% of my changeovers would be under a minute.

Having said all that, if you aren't short on space, what are you hoping to gain by converting to a combo? Especially considering you'll have to throw in a fair bit of extra money to get the Hammer.

Re. winding the table up for thicknesser mode (I have the same issue with JET JPT310), I did once see a video where a guy had somehow mounted a nut at the centre of the winding handle. Possibly even just removed a plastic cover to expose the nut holding the handle on.

He then used an old battery drill with socket attachment (kept permanaetly handy close to the machine) to engage the nut and whizz the table up and down, no manual effort required. Probably have to use a battery drill on the low speed setting to get enough torque to turn the handle?

Originally Posted by Mr Brush

Re. winding the table up for thicknesser mode (I have the same issue with JET JPT310), I did once see a video where a guy had somehow mounted a nut at the centre of the winding handle. Possibly even just removed a plastic cover to expose the nut holding the handle on.

He then used an old battery drill with socket attachment (kept permanaetly handy close to the machine) to engage the nut and whizz the table up and down, no manual effort required. Probably have to use a battery drill on the low speed setting to get enough torque to turn the handle?

I tried this out, using an velcroed aluminium disk for the test …



… but it was an effort to put on and pull off, and frankly just not worth the saving of 20 seconds.

Regards from Perth

Derek

If you have the money and time, check out Panhan or Itech.... interesting combo design where no flicking of table is required.

I have a c3-31 which has the A3-31 combined with saw etc. Two things I might add are that the jointer tables are only about 1.5 mt long so that is a bit of a pain with very long stock.
‘Also you’ll have to budget for a 20amp power point to be installed in your shed. It’s not just a matter of changing face plate of a GPO but you’ll need to upgrade cable as well.
Another vote for spiral cutter head and height adjuster wheel.

Have just been through this process myself, have done the change over process on both the Minimax and Hammer and is a pretty quick and simple process, the winding does seem a bit of a bother so decided to upgrade to the Felder AD741 fitted with an electronic lift device so will just need to push a button to raise and lower the thicknessing table. Is a bit of an indulgence and a luxury I could do without but figured this will be a life long machine with hopefully no regrets attached to it.

FYI with respect to the planer table Felder do sell 400 and 1000mm long extensions, the 741 has a 2000mm table and with two 400mm attachments should easily and safely be able to plane lengths of up to around 2800mm which is almost impossible with the 1200 length on my current Sherwood planer.

Cheers,

Rudy

I saw a belt driven A3 with the Gilmer belt drive just behind the hand wheel, the problem is I can't remember where but possibly on the Sawmill Creek forum.

Thanks Guys that gives me a fair bit of insight, I don’t have any specific need to change what I currently have, but the thicknesser has seen better days, so if I upgrade that, I thought it might be worth getting a wider buzzer while I was at it

Cheers
Andrew


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