Power feeds

[Artiglio]

Morning all

I’ve a felder saw/spindle combo, the work on the house now needs some windows and doors made and to get the best from my abilities i really need to invest in a power feed.
Whilst there’s not a huge variety out there deciding on which to go for is making my head spin. Offerings from felder are out due to the cost of what is most likely a rewrapped offering from others. Whilst it looks as though an basic 8 speed ( available via internal cogs, but really only 4 forward) will cover my needs its easy to keep creeping up the ranges.
An extended arm stand could be mounted well outboard to not affect the saws use, with a bit of fabrication ( rather than the tilt bracket from felder), i could stretch to the likes of the dc40 from comatic ( the savings from doing the frames and doors myself would make it pretty pay for itself easily) but why spend unnecessarily.
Any thoughts / pointers appreciated.

Regards phil

 

[Malc2098]

I subscribe to this chap's channel. While it's a Felder he's repairing, he might still be worth contacting for pointers or thoughts.

[youtubessl]82GSrs5enzU[/youtubessl]

 

[Trevanion]

I rarely use a feed speed faster than ~12ft a minute for most work, but it does depend on the job, if it were for something where the finish isn’t critical and it needs to be done quick such as rebates for half-lap cladding I’ll just crank it up to suit.

I think the iTech feeder units are quite well made for the price, fit and finish is very good (besting the Maggi feeders in some cases) and they work as intended.

On a side note, they’re a surprisingly complex bit of kit inside. I’ve recently torn one (an old Europa 340) completely to the sum of its parts and it’s ridiculous how many pieces there are.

 

[RogerS]

In all the time I've been using power feeds, I've never ever gone inside to change the speed. I have a Steff (Maggi) dual-speed and those two speeds do everything that I need.

I bought it with an extending arm that was intended to cover off all three functions on my Hammer C3-31 - table saw, planer, spindle moulder.

I tried the table saw with it once and never again. Ripping stuff down ..especially thick stuff..is, IMO, the one task where you need to listen to the cutting action and back off the feed rate if you sense the blade starting bind because the two parts after the blade are starting to pinch up. A power-feed doesn't have that sensitivity! It will keep on forcing it through until the thermal overload on the saw kicks in.

It weighs a ton although no heavier than Felders' own offering and so here's the thing. It's just too damn heavy (70kg) both to swing up and down to get out of the way for the table saw to be used properly. I limit myself to cutting the narrow stuff that will go past the power-feed. Some people do fit gas struts to help but it's very tight to get one in on the Hamme and yet be able to open the door to the spindle moulder motor. If you look on FOG I think someone there has given the details of what to buy re gas strut on a Felder.

But the worst part of the whole feeder/tilting platform is the flex in the whole assembly. That tilting table twists depending on whether it's being used on the planer or the moulder and there's not an easy way of altering how the rollers meet where they are supposed to be, simply because IMO and compared with my last power feed, the Steff lacks one axis of adjustment. As does the Comatic when I looked at it.

This probably won't be an issue to you but you just need to be aware. Especially as you're thinking about an outrigger.

If it helps I can take some photos.

 

[PAC1]

I also have an ITech mounted on a felder tilt mechanism. I installed an hydraulic arm and that makes it manageable. The feeder units are incredibly heavy so without some mechanical assistance using the feeder was a two man job. My only complaint with the ITech unit is you need to look at the speeds very carefully most are far too fast for heavy duty woodworking. In effect I only use the slowest speeds on my unit.

 

[Jonathan]

I've upgraded my Felder 3 wheeler feeder to the comatic DC 40.... it's so nice to be able to change the feed speed with your fingertips in second's.
My only regret is I didn't get the smart stand, which would be super to be able to change the feeder height from the front.

Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk

 

[Artiglio]

Cheers gents

Comments have cleared things up for me, have gone for a Steff 2034, with an extended arm on the stand, going down the route of a fabricated base so that i’ll not need to do more than swing it out of the way. If that doesn’t work then a felder tilt base is always a later option.
It’ll never get a great deal of use and i’ll be the only user so any problems from abuse will be my fault alone. Nothing i need to do is of great volume and speed is not of the essence so it’ll be set on the minimum and probably not come off it.
It’ll more than cover the cost on the two box sashes i started. ( mucking up a cill section in accoya trying to manually feed bought a long put off purchase to the fore).

Many thanks phil

 

[RogerS]

..... speed is not of the essence so it’ll be set on the minimum and probably not come off it.
...l

I thought that when I first got mine. But now I will usually whack it up onto the higher speed and watch the timber whizz through without any noticeable deterioration in finish.