Popular Post wnaziri Posted March 6, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 I want to share some of the changes that I made to my workshop for this year. I had set up my workshop with old American heavy iron by Northfield. I used them for about 2 1/2 years and loved them. As I began to spend more time woodworking, one issue that became more important was dust collection. Northfield makes awesome tools but dust collection is not their strength. So began my mission to change my shop. Here is the starting point: After some research of lots of factors, I chose to replace my tools with Felder tools, which are known for precision, excellent build, and amazing dust collection. They are also pretty good when it comes to service. So, over the past year, I have been getting the tools. I also took the opportunity to not just replace the tools but I also re-imagined my workspace now that I know how I like to work and what kinds of projects I like to do. So, here is the current state of the shop: The ducting is by Nordfab. It is very airtight and I can run all tools without having to close any blast gates. The table saw is the Felder sliding table saw K700s with 110" table. Benefits: much quieter, amazing dust collection, MUCH more precise, and I seem to be much more productive when I am in the shop. As you can also see, I cleaned the clutter and the current state of the shop is how I like to keep my places of work and play. My only complaint now is that the walls look ghetto but I really don't want to spend lots of money and time to beautify the rented space. Who knows, I might change my mind. In the meantime, a lucky woodworker bought nearly all my Northfield tools (at fire sale prices). He is interested in building furniture for a living and I think he will put the Northfiled tools to better use. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post pkinneb Posted March 6, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Damn that put a dent in the wallet LOL! Really nice machines drooling on my keybaord. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Oh man ... your shop was nice before but it looks even better now. Minor shop overhaul lol. 9 hours ago, wnaziri said: My only complaint now is that the walls look ghetto but I really don't want to spend lots of money and time to beautify the rented space. Who knows, I might change my mind. For the sheet rock wall that isn't painted, look in to a local residential hazardous waste disposal site they may have gallons of paint that you can take. They usually try an offer it for free as opposed to trying to dispose of it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pd711 Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 24 minutes ago, Chestnut said: For the sheet rock wall that isn't painted, look in to a local residential hazardous waste disposal site they may have gallons of paint that you can take. They usually try an offer it for free as opposed to trying to dispose of it. Also, if you have a Habitat Re-Store near you they sell paint cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 A lot of paint stores sell mis-tinted paints where they screwed up pretty cheap too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Awesome before! More awesome after! For a rented space, with the tools already in there, I wouldn't paint it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Sweet saw! I’m also guilty of cramming and cluttering my space. I’m in the midst of selling off some tools and preparing for a move in the near future. I honestly think a real dust collector would have done wonders for your problem. That original ductwork and blower left a lot to be desired—a lot. Same with an overhead DC guard on the no4. Please post an update after a project or two. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the combo jointer planer. I keep flip flopping on giving up separates for a similar felder. I can’t see myself giving up separates unless I am that crammed for space. Especially you giving up that monster 24” delta! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 18 minutes ago, Pwk5017 said: Please post an update after a project or two. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the combo jointer planer. I keep flip flopping on giving up separates for a similar felder. I can’t see myself giving up separates unless I am that crammed for space. Easy peasy. The change over is so fast it's a non issue. 11 hours ago, wnaziri said: Felder tools Very nice!!! I'm very interested in hearing about the DC. I'm thinking about that one, or the new Harvey one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 13 minutes ago, Llama said: Easy peasy. The change over is so fast it's a non issue. I feel like this is slightly biased by the required agreement upon buying felder "Thou shalt not speak poorly about Felder". How can the needed 30 feet of flex hose to do the change not get slightly annoying, Or working on a weird project that you need to quickly joint on face but #$(@ the joitnter is in planer mode. Or is it more i spent lots-o-money on this, laziness be damned, I'm going to switch this puppy over? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pwk5017 Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 It’s why I’m curious about his opinion. He had very nice stationary machines before switching to the 16” J/P. I strongly considered selling my 12” jointer and 20” planer for a $8000 951 in California two months ago. The more people I talk to causes me to pause before jumping to the combo. From experience, I can tell you the felder saw/shaper is annoying to switch between. I bet it’s more annoying than the jointer/planer switch. However, I use my jointer and planer ALL the time. I don’t use my shaper on every project. It’s a tough decision for me. Separates next to each other don’t take up too much space. Anyways, coming from that northfield and delta to the smaller felder is an opinion I’m interested in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 I can tell you this, on the Hammer A3/31 (older style) I have it can be a pain you just plan better and have the occasional oh crap moment. However I had the pleasure of seeing Llama's 941 in person last year and it really is a piece of cake...the main difference to mine are that the tables go up together with the fence and the table is powered...its a sweet machine drool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Watch that drool, it's hell on cast iron ! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Wow !!! Pretty awesome upgrades !Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 2 hours ago, Chestnut said: How can the needed 30 feet of flex hose to do the change not get slightly annoying, Not sure why anyone needs 30' of hose. Maybe 3? 2 hours ago, Chestnut said: Or working on a weird project that you need to quickly joint on face but #$(@ the joitnter is in planer mode. The changeover is so quick on these machines, it's not a hassle at all. If it were a crappy combo machine, then yeah, the changeover would suck. Sort of a you get what you pay for thing... 2 hours ago, Chestnut said: Or is it more i spent lots-o-money on this, laziness be damned, I'm going to switch this puppy over? Again, so fast you don't even think about it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 1 hour ago, Llama said: Not sure why anyone needs 30' of hose. Maybe 3? The changeover is so quick on these machines, it's not a hassle at all. If it were a crappy combo machine, then yeah, the changeover would suck. Sort of a you get what you pay for thing... Again, so fast you don't even think about it. There was quite a bit of sarcasm there. I've watched your vid the change over is fast. The machines with out the powerd bed would be more annoying but i think it was Mick that posted the power drill solution which was clever. I honestly really like the idea of them you can get a good sized planer and a huge jointer for cheaper than you could get a jointer standalone from a good American company. At the end of the day i will never be able to get a machine like that into my shop so it's just not even an option, but a troller has to troll . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 Good thing you put "minor" in quotes or I might have been envious Nice stuff. Lucky guy with the Northfield stuff too, they make great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnaziri Posted March 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 5 hours ago, Pwk5017 said: I’d love to hear your thoughts on the combo jointer planer. Well, I went from 12 inch Jointer and 24 inch planer to the combo16 inch planer / jointer. I can honestly say that I have not noticed any negative impact on my milling of lumber. The issue of having to transition from jointer to planer or vise versa is such a non-issue that I had not honestly given it any thought until this moment. The changeover from one function to the next probably takes about 20-30 seconds. I can not speak to the general category of combo planer/jointers but my unit has these rather robust springs on either side. Lifting the steel bed ( Which I believe is about 400 lbs) is nearly effortless. The two sides of my jointer lift up as one unit. The one "concession" I had to make for the unit was to place it about 16 inches away from the wall to allow the transition from one function to the next. With my old set up, I piled up my jointed piece on top fo the planer and the planed pieces on the jointer! Now that I have lots of free space in the shop, I finally built a milling cart. Having the cart makes using the combo device really easy because it lets you keep your lumber close by and organized. I would recommend such a cart for owners of such combo machines. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnaziri Posted March 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 6 hours ago, Llama said: Very nice!!! I'm very interested in hearing about the DC. I'm thinking about that one, or the new Harvey one. I know very little about the Harvey DC system but I do know that it was designed and produced in China. I have expressed my thoughts on Chinese products in prior posts. I think the difference between the cost of the Harvey and the RL 160 is not that great. Felder have several DC systems but their systems can be divided into "AAA" and "Major League" units. The first of the "Major League" DC system is the RL 160. IT IS POWERFUL!. Folks at Felder helped me pick a unit that would server my whole shop. It is not a small. It is much quieter than my prior Italian DC but it ain't quiet. It has two bins for chips that you line with plastic bags. I do not have much experience to base any kind of useful comparison of DC systems, but I REALLY like my RL 160. It is set up for 5 tools with 6" ducts going close to each tool then reducing down to 5 inches. My DC system has a blast gate for each tool but I have not had to close any of the gates to maintain excellent dust collection. I would not hesitate in recommending the RL 160 to anyone. If you have any specific questions about this unit Mel, please DM me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnaziri Posted March 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 6 hours ago, Chestnut said: How can the needed 30 feet of flex hose to do the change not get slightly annoying, Or working on a weird project that you need to quickly joint on face but #$(@ the joitnter is in planer mode. The hose on my system is 10 feet long (that is the standard length that is sold by Nordfab) because I don't want to cut the hose. Changing over from one function to the next takes me less than 30 secs. That is hardly cumbersome and I don't find it annoying at all. You would be surprised and impressed how effortless the changeover actually is. Note: just noted the trolling but I will leave my answer unchanged 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wnaziri Posted March 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 1 hour ago, JosephThomas said: Good thing you put "minor" in quotes or I might have been envious I was getting sick and tired of the way my shop looked. So, when I was trying to decide what to do with my shop, I envisioned "minor" changes. I knew I wanted to get rid of the clutter but then I started thinking about the tools. Well, in the end, "minor" turned into "replace all tools". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 I looked into that Harvey DC a few days ago. The CFM kinda limits it to being moved between machines or a very simple duct system. I've learned to let the early adopters take the hit and see what the consensus is in a few years. The sound levels look impressive but I haven't heard one running yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted March 6, 2018 Report Share Posted March 6, 2018 6 hours ago, Chestnut said: Or is it more i spent lots-o-money on this, laziness be damned, I'm going to switch this puppy over? Wait, isn't that the Festool logic? Seriously, folks with repeat builds or a really good pre-analysis of operations can pretty well minimize the "go backs". I do one-offs as a majority of my work so individual machines work well for me despite the space savings of a combo. Kind of how some folks get by with 30" rails on their tablesaw; how do they do that? We all have our own approach and as we develop or morph methods, our machine needs change. At some point we 'settle in' I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mat60 Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 Ghetto....Have you seen my shop..LOL...You have a great space and the tools are sweet. You must really enjoy working in there. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 7, 2018 Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 2 hours ago, wnaziri said: Note: just noted the trolling but I will leave my answer unchanged Sorry i was hoping that the exaggeration would be a bit more clear. Some of it is out of envy because i can't have one of those machines. I could never move a 1,000 lb machine that large into my basement unless i remove a wall. I'd love to give one a test run just so i know what i'm missing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wdwerker Posted March 7, 2018 Popular Post Report Share Posted March 7, 2018 If Gibbs can get a boat out of his basement surely an engineer can get a 1,100 lb machine into one ! 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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