Felder FZ700 spindle or similar advice?

[g1_lo]

Thanks for taking a look at this post.

I am looking at getting a new SM, I currently have a mixture of both Hammer and Felder machinery. But my current SM is an entry level from Axminster I bought a while ago when I first setup.

Now my current moan with my current is that the fences, sliding table just aren't accurate enough for me and thus takes ages to setup. Even though I use previous copies of the profiles I am running to aid in setup.

Basically I want to hear from others that have purchased better quality machines, have you found that they are:
1. Better to setup and repeatability is improved
2. Accuracy you don't have to think about - like festool (I'am referring to digital movements etc in regard to the SM)
3. Production is significantly increased

Or anything else I've missed off.
With so much choice these days it's often easy to get bogged down with all the latest tech when sometimes it doesn't improve efficiency.

Love to hear your comments  [big grin]

 

[junk731]

First of all is this for Professional use or Hobby and how deep are your pockets. To get both digital on the fence and the cutter you have to move up a couple of machines to the Format 4 line at better then twice the price. I have been using a F700Z with powerdrive since 2011 with no real issues. My fence is the Aigner version and has manual micro adjustment. If you keep notes and always setup your cutters the same way you should be able to have good repeatability with minor adjustments. The Powerdrive option adds the ability to do .005" vertical adjustment with the cutter with a digital display. The reward titling spindle brings in another level of versatility and safety. Make sure you get the reversing spindle option. I regularly use 3 different spindles, 1 1/4", 30mm and the router bit.

John

 

[stvrowe]

I felt your pain - I suffered with an entry level shaper with its horrible fence system for almost 20 years.  I had a Felder CF741 for about 3 years (the combo thing just didn't work for me) that had the 240 shaper fence system and then purchased an SCM Technomax.  The fence systems from the latter two machines were far superior to the entry level shaper which was too coarse to be of any practical use.  Still, the setups on the shaper are still time consuming.  It is often said that shaper setup is 90% setup and 10% cut which is true for short production runs.  I think that is why a number of shops buy multiple shapers, set them up once and leave them alone.  That is an approach if you have the space but space in my shop is at a premium.

After attending a Felder Open House, I ordered a new shaper and it was delivered a little over a month ago.  It is this except with the short sliding table:

Format 4 Shaper

I was hoping for the upgrade to result in 10% setup time and 90% cut for short production runs.  Once you get your tooling setup, which doesn't take much time at all, the setup consists of changing tooling and entering your cut parameters on the touch screen.  With the tooling already setup, I estimate my setup time is now 1% and cutting 99%.  So far, this technology has really impressed me and saved time.  You can repeat previously made cuts quickly and precisely.  This is the only shaper I have had where I wasn't fighting the snipe for full profile cuts since the fence adjustments can be as small as 0.1 mm.   

My dream machine was the Martin T27 Flex but that was way out of my affordability range.  The Format 4 had most of the features I lusted after in the Martin at about 1/3 the price so it was an incredible value that so far has not disappointed.  Soon to be on the market, a SCM Technomax T55I shaper, anyone interested?

 

[g1_lo]

John I forgot to put that this is in a proffesional shop. Although it won't be used everyday.
I know from looking at the felder and Martin that for full adjustment I am probably looking at least 15k which as nice as it would be. It wouldn't, at present, warrant that much investment.
However both yourself and Steven raise valid points. The FZ700 with digital readout seems like a halfway house. Ultimately I suppose I need to head to the showroom and actually use both machines and see for myself the procedures for both and the time for my given setup.