Hammer C3-3 dished fence

[RogerS]

"And which part of Sir's fence would Sir like to be 90 degrees to the planer table ?"

AKA why the Hammer fence is dire.



What else is bad about it ?

As already mentioned in another thread ....
When you tighten up the locking knob when using it on the table saw, it shifts its setting so you have to unlock it, adjust, have another go, unlock it, adjust, have another go ....

When you put it onto the planer, and leaving aside the dished surface, trying to get it vertical is a joke. You have to use one hand to hold the square against it, your second hand to tighten up the locking knob and your third hand to hang on for grim death trying to keep it vertical as you tighten up the knob.

Underwhelmed to say the least.

 

[Mike G]

Is it aluminium or cast iron? If cast iron (or steel), get hold of a welder's magnetic square to hold it square, freeing up one of your hands for wrestling with the fence.

 

[9fingers]

I presume that when you tighten the nut/knob whatever there is a turning force trying to move the fence as well. Usually a washer or two will decouple the two forces.

Dished extruded aluminium fences is a common complaint. Firstly try throwing it back at the hammer rep.
If that fails you might find a willing local engineers who will machine it flat for you or even a woodworker with a CNC router might help you out.

Bob

 

[Doug]

Is there a fixing behind the dish area? As Bob suggests it could be undue force from a nut or bolt, it looks to be centre of the fence is it where the arm assembly fixes to the fence?

 

[RogerS]

I could be wrong but ..

Is there a fixing behind the dish area?

It's basically the extrusion. I'veposted elsewhere and got back replies that 'Yes, I've got the same fence on a Felder XYZ or Hammer ABC and it's dished'. Peter Sefton had the same problem. It was replaced by the replacement was just as bad and 'within tolerances'. Peter ended up using a scary sharp method to flatten it.

As Bob suggests it could be undue force from a nut or bolt, it looks to be centre of the fence is it where the arm assembly fixes to the fence?

I think Bob is referring here to the mounting of the fence on the rails and not the dishing.

I keep looking at some nice Sedgwicks on eBay because (a) they have a bloody good, securely fixed cast iron fence and (b) they don't have those effing lift-up tables.....wind the thicknesser platter all the way down, swing the dust chute into planer position, close the tables, now in planer mode. Lift the tables, wind the thicknesser all the way back up again, swing the dust chute into thicknesser position, you are now in thicknesser mode.

Mind you, the digital read out is very good on the Hammer. I faffed around trying to fit a Wixey digital scale to my Sedgwick but didn't get very far. 'swhy I'm also drooling over a used Felder thicknesser with powered rise and fall and digital readout.

 

[Rod]

Repeat after me “you don’t need it, you don’t need it” [emoji3]

Rod

 

[Doug]

I asked if there was a fixing behind the dished part as my fence is slightly dished where the bracket that attaches the fence to the machine fits, it is very slight & only affects the area of the fence where the brackets is so doesn’t affect the performance of the fence as the other 7/8’s ofthe fence is flat & square.