Since mid February, I have not owned either a jointer or a planer. See the thread:
http://festoolownersgroup.com/member-connections/i-said-goodbye-to-my-8-inch-jointer-and-15-inch-planer-yesterday/

While I was working as crew on a small sailboat in the Bahamas for most of April, my long anticipated Hammer A3-31 jointer/planer arrived in Canada from Austria. On Monday, I drove over the Felder/Hammer warehouse in Mississauga to pick it up. My trailer bed is much below the level of the loading dock:



But, these guys had obviously had to cope with this before and, in short time, they attached the trailer to a fork lift with a pair of straps and lowered it onto the trailer:

     

Even though the machine was strapped down to the trailer, I was afraid of it being top heavy, so I drove the 30+ kilometres home over city streets never exceed 60 kilometres per hour.

My friend Rod Sheridan, who also owns an A3-31, is coming over this afternoon and is bringing equipment from work to help me move the jointer/planer from my driveway into my woodworking shed. Right now, the A3-31 is sitting in the trailer in my driveway under a new tarpaulin:

 

I was slightly worried about that happening, so that's why I didn't post anything about what is under the tarp in my driveway until today.  It's now daylight and Rod will be here to help me in about 5 hours.

I live in Scarborough near the Finch/Warden intersection.

The machine is now in my woodworking shed:

Rod Sheridan came over this afternoon to help me move the joiner-planer from my trailer and into the woodworking shed in my back yard. Here is a series of pictures showing the move:

(1) We used 2 come-alongs to move the machine to back of the trailer:



(2) Rod winched the A3-31 down frpom the trailer on a couple of ramp planks:




(3) Here is a photo of the machine at the bottom of the ramp:



(4) The machine is now on a dolly and being moved along a series of overlapping plywood panels



(5) Here is the ramp up to Shed #2:



(6) We used a come-along screwed to the floor to move the machine up the ramp:



The machine is now in the shed but still on the dolly:



I need to attach a power cord (which I have not yet purchased) and to assemble the fence, the extension tables, the digital guage, and the mobility package. Once that has all been done and I have tried out the machine, I will report back here.

Considering how many pictures they took, if they had been indulging along the way, I doubt they'd have managed to get it into the shed.
 

Yes, but the frosty beverage was ice water. 

You have a great story and a great friend in Rod.

Moving large heavy objects is fairly easy if you remember 3rd grade science class.

I have moved 8000 to 10000 pound machines with just a few jacks, johnson bars and pipe. 

I have seen machines that weighed over 10k pounds pushed by two men once they laid down some sheet steel and tossed a little grease on the ground.

Good job on the move Frank.

Roger Savaterri once made a statement that I think is too often overlooked. He wrote something like; "Good set up hygiene requires checking the results of the set up, not just the set up itself." If your machine joints flat and planes parallel, with minimal or no snipe in either case, then it is set up right. There is only one direction you can go from perfection and it isn't good. 

Nice to see a post from my good friend. I hope you had fun away from Toronto.

Hey, I didn't know that there was one.  I will look for it.

Felder Owners Group on Yahoo. It is very useful. There are both Felder and Hammer owners.
Richard

Congratulations Matt!

I'm very happy with the results produced by my regular blades and can't imagine that the spiral cuts would be better.  But, maybe, they are.

Which model of the K3 table saw are you getting?  I am very happy with my General 650 and would never replace it with a Hammer K3.  But, there is a remote chance that I sometime in the future might get a good enough deal on a Hammer B3 Basic Saw-Shaper that I might replace my table saw and router table.  The main reason for doing so would be space saving.

That sounds interesting. I guess the only concern after that is the price difference between the spiral cutters and the straight cutters. Don't know if there's any difference between difficulty installing them.

Dead easy. Just screw the little cutters in position and done.    Like Matt said if you damage your cutter you can rotate just the one damaged cutter and you can do this to all  of them 4times  

One side of the cutters has a longer cutting life than a normal cutter and you have 4 sides  so personally I think your silly not going for a spiral cutter the noise reduction to me is jut a bonus.

Jmb

Darcy, I agree with your point, Felder is one of the few companies that offers true spiral knives but only on the higher end equipment. From what I've been told by Felder reps is they designed the new cutterhead to more closely match the true spiral knife. The inserts for the Hammer/Felder machines are not the standard insert cutter, they were specially designed and the four sides are actually number. The one problem that is not often discussed in the discussions on insert cutters versus straight blades, is that of damaged and wear to the inserts. The damage to an insert cutter is most likely to occur on the more fragile corner which when damaged or worn turns the 4 sided into a 2 sided cutter with only one rotation to maintain a good cut. The other thing not discussed in regards to any spiral cutterhead is the actual cost of the replacement cutters and the time its going to take to remove the cutters, completely clean them and the there mounting seat. Neither system is actually better than the other with both having there good and bad points.

Frank, glad to see your finally going to be able to play with your machine. Just a hint but go for the cobalt knives that available for your machine.

John

John

Frank

"Double-sided ground disposable reversible blades, HS planer knife with high proportion of cobalt (M42) increases durability by up to 75 %." This is a quote from Felder.

"An exotic hard grade of high speed steel with more Cobalt and Vanadium for 35% longer life than the HSS grade. M42 is great for surfacing most hardwoods. " This is a quote from Tersa blades.

The quality of cut is the same, but in my experience, when I had my A3-31 they lasted at least 3+ times longer than the Carbon steel blades that came with my machine. That is also somewhat dependent on the type of wood and how well you clean it before planing.

John