So I currently have a Bridgewood 12" jointer with a Shelix head. It does a good job. A 12" jointer is fine for most jobs, but I wish I had a dollar for every time I had a 12"+ wide board to flatten. (The Bridgewood can only actually do 11 3/4"max)
So I thought some day, wouldn't be nice to have a wider jointer. Low and behold I find one for sale locally. It's a Felder 20" A7-51 jointer. Asking price (assuming we can dicker) would be in the $3,000 range. Looks to be in very good condition. Oddly enough I am not finding much info on the web. I know it's an older model so no longer made.
Anyone know this machine? I like the Shelix head. The Felder takes 4 knives, so not sure about that. It's 3ph and my shop is 1ph. So a converter would be required. Is that expensive and hard for me to install?
Are older Felders hard to get repaired (and expensive)? I'd sure appreciate any insight here about this machine and if I'd be getting myself over my head with it. Thank you! T.
call Arco Phase Convertor. located in Shelbyville In. very knowledgeable and very helpful. they will answer any concerns you have about the phase convertor. good luck. sounds like a great deal. good luck
Thomas, I’ve often thought about having something larger than my 12” jointer too, and it would be tempting if the right deal came along, BUT. How many people work in your shop to help lift and feed those really large, wide beams when they come along? I’m just a one man shop, so even if i had a 24” most of the time I’d have to find a helper to feed the beast.
My recommendation is to google Makita 1800B power planer, and add that to your arsenal. With its 6 3/4” cutting width, you can quickly flatten BIG slabs that you can’t even lift onto
that machine, much less feed it in from one side and catch it on the other, while needing to be pushing down near the blade while it’s being fed over.
For me, I’d much rather feed what I can physically handle on the 12”. If it’s a little wider, say 16”, make a pass on the 12” then finish the rest with the Makita, but at some point it’s just a lot easier to set the big timbers up on the bench or horses, then run the tool over it until I have a good enough bottom side to go through the 24” thickness planer.
If you came up through the ranks using hand tools to flatten, like lots of contributors here did, then you already know how to use winding sticks to sight for twist, and having the front handle as the depth adjustment, you can work on the humps by starting in with a shallow setting, while turning the handle deeper, then back as your coming off the back of a hump.
You won’t believe how nice this tool cuts with sharp blades. And changing blades is quick and easy, and only ~$600. Amazon users give it five solid stars, which I assume there have never been any unsatisfied buyers. How often do you see that? I’ve had mine for about 35 years, and only changed brushes and the cord. I bought 4 sets of knives so I can keep a sharp set or two ready.
I have an 8" jointer. I don't intend to ever own anything wider. Hence, I was driven to learn to sufficiently flatten what the jointer can't by other means. I was surprised at how trivial a task it became. In my case I use a scrub plane. But if I did flatening every day it would be with a power hand plane, likely an inexpensive 4" power plane.
I don't know what you have for a thickness planer, but if it is deficient then the money would be better spent on a machine with a large bed like any of the old light industrial planers in the 18-24" range. These machines can run a 5 HP motor on single phase. With a large bed on a planer flattening only needs to occur on the diagonal corners of the bed foot print.
My last two chests of drawers involved 17" x 36" single board panels for the ends. I didn't spend over 5 minutes getting each flat enough to thickness plane. Flattening meant nipping off the high diagonal corners until the board didn't rock on the table saw top. Then it was off to the planer.
While slow to set up and use, a router sled is another way to flatten one side of a board. With that one flat surface, the wide planer then can be used.
My first thought when I saw the picture was also how to safely manage heavy boards on what look like relatively short infeed and outfeed tables.
Keith, you and Bill make good points. Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger. Working with larger timbers will surely diminish as I get older. So the need for a machine like that will lessen over time.
I have been able to make due up to this point and I sometimes make pretty large work. I see no reason why I can't keep using the methods I use until the time comes that I scale down my work.
I saw the Felder for sale and maybe my eyes were bigger than my stomach. (although, with my stomach that would be hard to do ;-) )
I appreciate the voices of reason! It wasn't the best timing financially anyway.
....if anyone else here is interested in that machine, email me and I'll send you the link. I do not know the seller but I'd be happy to pass the info along.
Thomas, I realize that you have already decided to take a pass on this machine. Nevertheless, I thought I would contribute this bit of experience. As I'm sure you know, Felder also makes the less expensive Hammer brand. I bought a used Hammer A3-31 12" jointer planer combo machine with straight knives. I had planned to put a new spiral segmented cutter head in it. I called the Felder/Hammer service people here in the US and inquired about how difficult the transition would be. They strongly discouraged me from doing it myself. They told they could send a service representative to do the job - or fix what I'd screwed up - and quoted me some outrageous per diem for a service visit. I don't recall how much it was but it was in the multiple hundreds of dollars (I'm thinking $800/day). I still have the straight knives.
