Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Cam recorder is on so here we go!
I would like to welcome you in the next episode of Domidrewno,
Which you haven't seen yet. Cam recorder hasn't been here so far
And on the first plan of course we see
This planer thicknesser and I am just behind it
And I would like to dedicate today's episode to describe this really cool machine
This machine is made by Felder, Hammer series so the smallest and the model is A341
And here is funny story for a start:
Few months ago I posted an entry on my blog
With the picture of of old power tool
old hand held router
and the picture of it was taken on the table of this planer thicknesser
although 31 model so slightly narrower
and to be honest with you you couldn't see much of the planner on this picture
But even though few of you noticed it and gave me exact name of that model
So congratulations! And respect for good eye!
Probably because of those very characteristic red covers
Next time quiz will be more difficult I promise!
So where do we start?
Maybe here - as you can see it's Hammer series - smallest machines series
Domidrewno workshop is not a huge space
so my main priority was
to have machines not too big
I think this one should fit perfectly.
You probably noticed it stands very close to the wall,
So I can tell you right now the distance between machine and wall is 30cm,
pretty close.
As I mentioned before this is model 41
where cutter head is 410mm wide.
This is main feature
So we start from this.
Let's move on to planning mode since it's all ready
Overall length of both tables is 1.8m
Where one table is 88cm long
Pretty good I think!
And here is already first thing I noticed
In that French machine I was fixing, or Lurem, or even newer models
You can notice you have special ends of the table
Here you don't have them. I mean those endings of the tables
Nowadays they make tables ending with some kind of feather like shape
And here you have solid cast iron and no special shape ends.
I think main reason for this is,
using spiral shaped cutter head,
air velocity is not that drastic and big like in classic straight cutter heads
So the manufacturer could modify it.
As I mentioned second before tables are made from cast iron
So work is very stable (it won't chase you around the workshop)
they are very heavy, perfectly planned
So we don't have to worry those tables won't play like alloy or steel constructions
tables are 410mm wide - full width working space
We also have guide rail here
Guide rail loosening is here at the end
and second tightening screw is at the back.
And then we can easily move it back and forth
Of course guide rail itself has tightening mechanism at the back.
And those details you can't see I will show you on pictures so you can see it better.
Loosen screws and move
Break here and we can work easily on angles between 45-90 degrees with this guide rail
The construction of this guide rail is different from the one I had before
I mean model 31
In this machine it's made more stable, solid.
There is also possibility of your own regulation by two grub screws.
Acting like bumper stops.
So such angles as 45 and 90 degrees can be perfectly adjusted to the table
It's very nice of them they thought about it
Move and fix in position.
What else we have here for the planner?
Of course! Cover!
We can fix it and then material goes safely either underneath or on the side
We are safe and there is nothing which can accidentally happen here regarding
strange situation with your fingers being close to the cutter head.
Really safe solution.
Loosen it and we can swap it to the other side.
Regarding in-feed table adjustment:
we have scale up/down and it can be adjusted between 0-4mm material removal
OK let's move on just give me a second I need to fit scale.
Oh well, at the back, there is our Christmas tree still,
which was left here after Christmas Eve we made here in the workshop! Ha ha Ha
OK loosening tables
two eccentric screws
Loosen them up and we can lift whole thing
Another difference between this and previous model I had
Is this: you lift both tables together
In the previous one I had to lift each table separately
After lifting them up we can see "the heart" of this planner thicknesser,
main part - cutter head
In this case it's a new head from Felder
Spiral cutter head called Silent Power
And now a little bit more about it as it's really cool thing and it's definitely worth mentioning.
It's pretty impressive, as this cutter head looks completely different
than cutter heads I am used to.
big groove in front of those little knives
There are two spirals going around
I will try to do close-up on those little knives.
As you can see each knife has 4 cutting edges
everything is mounted with screws on the cutter head
So change is fast and simple indeed.
OK I'll put camcorder away as it's difficult to focus on filming and talking in the same time
I'd like to point out few important things
For Silent Power construction.
In my case it was really important to reduce the noise.
The difference between spiral and classic cutter head
is 60% in noise reduction
And this is really awesome figure
My workshop is almost entirely built from timber
and any noise creates echo effect
Which you can notice even now in the background, so this noise reduction saves my life.
Another thing is this big groove though knives are small
So collecting wood chips during work is ideal and wood chips themselves are much smaller.
I saw it somewhere on the internet in some advert clip
Where guys were comparing traditional and Silent Power cutter head
Theoretically amount of it is the same as you remove the same thickness
But because the are much smaller - they take much less space in dust collector
Next important thing is energy saving
It's quite easy to explain because
cutting edge of each of these little knives
is much smaller than typical knife 410mm long
so machine is under smaller load while processing material.
Next very important feature for me:
is - it doesn't matter if we have 2 or 6 knives planner/thicknesser -
when we run logs for instance,
it may happen you have some grit
or metal particles in it
which we didn't notice, then we end up having a chip out on EVERY single knife
So on every next pass we have this annoying mark where the chip out is.
Here all you need to do is find the chip out
rotate one or if you need two little knives
to next cutting edge and job done! No hassle!
So I don't have to change all the knives
Just rotate one.
I can't tell anything about durability of the knives yet
As it hasn't been running long enough
But that will come and I will tell you later.
OK time to move on to next part
Now we have tables lifted up and we want to use thicknessing mode
It just couldn't be easier
All we have to do now is move this dust collector adaptor
Now we have thicknesser's table freed up and off we go!
By the way thicknesser's table is also done in cast iron,
It has central lifting column
here is locking device and here is lifting wheel
material thickness working range
is also quite amazing for the machine like this
it can operate between 4-225mm so not bad result
here is handle which engages infeed roller on or off
the feeding rate is 6 metres per minute
It doesn't have speed control, Just one constant
That's pretty much all about thicknesser's mode
I was talking about cutter head cover
and there is micro switch located here
which, in case of changing set-up doesn't allow machine to start.
This micro switch turns machine off until you put top tables back on their place
Now electrical parts,
machine is equipped with 4kW motor
which is more than enough while using Silent Power cutter head.
On this side you have 3 phase socket
and on/off switch
there are no central switches or electric locks here
So that's all in electrics
Closing the table. You can see here another lock,
Which stops table from accidental dropping down.
You need to manually unlock it and then you can drop the tables down.
Drops down, tighten 2 eccentric screws
and that's it! All you have to do is connect dust collector's hose and you are good to go!
I'll show few more places you can do some adjustments
I'll lift the table
I just need this smaller camcorder...
That's how it looks from the other side
Now what I like to show you are those plastic caps
there are 4 plastic caps on each side of the cutter head
underneath those caps are some screws
which adjust infeed and outfeed rollers
those rollers which move your material while thicknessing mode
So this is the place you can reach just in case as well
Next place, I'll move a little bit here,
are those bolts which hold motor.
And another one on top here,
so we loosen those 4 big nuts
and using that 5th screw we can tighten the motor
or loosen if you need
and last place
which I might revisit in the future
is this metal plate and after undoing those nuts
you can get to driving belt.
Although I hope I won't have to undo it at all.
and here you can immediately see dust collection adaptor
it's 120mm diameter
OK and now few words about accessories you can buy additionally
First and most important thing in my opinion
is horizontal borer attachment
which adds another function to this machine,
and it is like horizontal drilling machine - I don't have it by the way.
Next thing is and I am thinking how to show it to you...
are really thick
alloy made extensions
this is 400mm and you can also get 800mm long
You can fit these extensions either on outfeed side of the thicknesser's table
or that side on planner's infeed table
so if you are running something really long
you don't have to struggle - better add this extension
and almost double your table
Pretty cool stuff
I wasn't sure about positioning this machine in the workshop
And I still don't know if this stays here for good
So it's really nice to have an mobile option
How it looks:
There are plastic wheels
which you bolt into that side where the holes are
feed long axle rod
fix on that side on the bottom
and we also have kinda hood
there are 3 mounting holes for this hood
the last thing is long handle
which we fit under this metal hood
Lift this end of the machine and we can move it around
Really smart! I haven't fitted it in mine yet
but it is possible I will have to move it somewhere else
and it's easy enough to do it on your own.
If you have forklift you can you see it
If you have any questions about this machine
don't hesitate and I'll do my best to answer
I will also make few pictures as usual
so you will be able to see some details
which might be interesting to you
I bet you now you want me to fire this beast up to see what it is capable of
But we will leave it for the next episode Which I hope you will enjoy as well
See you soon!