Felder Woodworking Equipment

[Rutabagared]

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[ForumMFG]

Joe,

I don't have any information to give you but thank you for posting this.  I've never seen one of these.  I'm actually amazed at this machine, how small it is and all the functions it preforms.  Can each function be turned on with out turning something else on?  Do you have a ball park price on this Felder Machine?  Man is that nice.

 

[EcoFurniture]

I had a closer look at those also.... You are right, the quality is outstanding! The same as Festool.
What I found, is that the basic version is already quite nice, but to make it really useful you will have to spend another good chunk of $$$$.... There is for example the longer (9') sliding table that is a must for processing sheet goods, then there are the specialty fences/guards you can get for the shaper. Then there is the dolly you will need to take the cross cut fence off.
Then overall, I think it's realistic to say, that as soon as you got to like that great tool, you will be very hesitant to by any shaper heads and such from other manufacturers.... Felder isn't cheap....
Anyhow, when I was pricing mine out I came down to a base price of around $18000 and then another $6-7000 to get this thing, delivered, hooked up, outfitted and running.

No question, those combi tools are great and I would buy one right away if I would have the spare money....

 

[Frank Pellow]

When I built my new Woodworking Shed five years ago, I priced a few combination machines and came up with about the same overall price and the same conclusions as Eco...

I decided to purchase separate machines instead and used the money I saved there on a LOT of Festool equipment.  A big part of this decision has to do with the fact that about half the woodworking that I do is away from my shed in Toronto.  Had it not been so, I very well might have gone with a combo machine.

Five years later, I am not sorry about my choice.

 

[ForumMFG]

Joe,

I don't have any information to give you but thank you for posting this.  I've never seen one of these.  I'm actually amazed at this machine, how small it is and all the functions it preforms.  Can each function be turned on with out turning something else on?  Do you have a ball park price on this Felder Machine?  Man is that nice.

Dave,
Yes.  In fact, I believe that you can only power one function at a time - another safety feature.  The prices are up there.  For the 5-1 its about 15K, for the jointer/planer about 6K.  But when you consider what you're getting, the price becomes much more competitive.

You can view all the prices and gain access to some great write-ups and reviews by establishing a login id.  You'll need to establish one for both the Felder USA site and the Felder USA location site.  I found that the latter site useful for accessing write-ups, classes, videos, etc.  Some well-respected woodworkers own combos and sing their praises including Mark Duginske and Kelly Mehler.  Mark Duginske teaches classes using the Felder equipment as well.  Here's an article in Popular Woodworking from Kelly Mehler that requires no login.

There are alternatives available, some cheaper, some not.  Rojek, Minimax, Lagunal Tools, and Robland (distributed by Laguna Tools) also sell units in the US.

Uh-oh.  Have you been presented with another slippery slope?

Joe

Joe, Thanks for the links.  I login in and was able to get pricing.  I'm gonna have to do a lot of saving.   If the quality is just as good as Festool then that is something I would really consider.  It makes sense for people who have small shops to invest in a machine like this that is small and provide quality work.  Felder has a link on their website to another website that has 3 machines for sell that are used.  Something you may want to look into? 

 

[Brice Burrell]

.......I have a Domino so at least I won't be considering a mortising attachment with the initial purchase - or add another $1,000 for the basic unit, $1,400 for the heavy duty one.  And I would sell my cabinet saw, 8" jointer, and planer, which would help offset the costs.  Also, this machine has a "promotional" price associated with it.  Not sure how much that improves things, though...........

Ha, compared to the $20,000-$25,000 investment in the Felder selling the old tools will only get them out of the way.  ;D

 

[joraft]

If I'm lucky, I may be able to buy a saw blade too!

Don't count on it, the dado blade set for my KF 700 was $1000.  

The great thing about Felder (besides the quality) is that most machines have many, many options to choose from. You can customize the machine pretty much to your own taste. The bad thing is that the price can go up quickly when adding options. I try to order only the things I want that must be added at the factory, or are substantially cheaper when added at the factory.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Thanks, Joraft.

$1,000  .  I think I'll be making dadoes, rabbets, and grooves (oh my!) with my routers.  Or, if I'm lucky.  My shaper!

As an owner, can you give me any insight on the company and products in general?  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

Joe

I bet John will be happy to tell you about the his buying experience, use on the other hand.......  ;D

 

[richard.selwyn]

Just a note - I saw mention of the mobility kit.  I have a CF731 without mobility and use a pallet truck to move it.  The wisdom on the yahoo felder owner's group forum seems to be that the mobilty kit is not the best way to go.  A lot of owners fit Zambus casters instead.

If anyone has any questions about anything Felder, Brian Lamb or John Renzetti on the other FOG are fantastically knowledgable and very helpful

Richard

 

[woodguy7]

I cant help you with the combination machines, but i have had my Felder ad531 planer/thicknesser for about 2 years now.  At first everything was fine but soon after using the thicknesser, the wood was stopping & getting burn marks where the feed rollers were.  After lots of adjusting, trying various suggestions over the phone with their engineers & eventually a site visit from an engineer, i discovered the problem lies with the roughness of the bed.  It would appear the only answer is to flood the surface with "super glite" which i have to buy from them & it needs to be reapplied after about 50m of material traveling through it (which does not take very long)
They recognise that this should not be the case but i still have to pay for more lubricant.  Another thing i did not realise is on the 5 series planers the 2 planer tables have to be lifted manually (no springs to assist) & are very heavy.  I would hate to think what would happen if 1 fell !
If i had my time over, i would definitely buy the 7 series which has the springs to assist & both tables lift as 1.  Another think i would pay extra for is the digital lift or I Drive as they call it.  The machine overall is a superb piece of kit & i especially like the 4 knife block with the reversibly blades, takes minutes to change them over.
I am now saving to buy a new spindle moulder from them but i keep buying festools !

Hope this is of some help, Woodguy.

 

[stvrowe]

I had a 2004 model Felder CF741SP up until about 2 years ago.  I purchased it and sold off my Unisaw and several other machines in an attempt to recover shop space.  I am not sure that I recovered shop space as you would be amazed how much space a 2.8m slider with outrigger takes up.  I did enjoy the machine and it was much better quality than what I had.  The Felder X-Roll sliding table is second to none IMHO.  And, no offense to the TS and ATF lovers (I have a little used ATF55), but these saws cannot hold a candle to a slider with scoring attachment with respect to cut quality.  I think with any combo machine, you loose some efficiency in your operation.  Over time, setting up the shaper became really annoying particularly since I had a power feeder on one of their tilt brackets.  Even with a Big Lift assist, this could replace your second hobby of weightlifting.  Felder offers the widest selection of accessories for their machines as I have seen anywhere.  These can be pricey but they do have an annual Christmas sale where many accessories are put on sale.

I have since gone back to the separates route with the exception of the jointer/planer which is a real space saver and the only part of the combo that really made a lot of sense to me.  Once you have a 16" jointer, there is no going back.  Just like a slider, once you have one you have started down the slippery slope and there is no going back.

Steve