Workshop sooner?!

[GarryMartin]

DITTO in spades.  DITTO with a big club would be even better.  That machine cost you a ton of bucks.  Whatever the cause of the problem, a fix is going to still leave you with a recurring problem.

I think those comments are regarding the Briquette machine, not his CNC Tinker. See http://festoolownersgroup.com/workshops-and-mobile-vehicle-based-shops/workshop-sooner!/msg389074/#msg389074

 

[jmbfestool]

dear me, another day another drama, not having much luck at the moment!

Tell me about it I seem to attract drama just found out today my van gear box is shot and it will be about 2k to repair.

My van is only worth £2.5k

 

[jmbfestool]

What did that machine cost ?

£3.5k not cheap but not a lot lol

 

[jmbfestool]

Here are some pictures of the piston head.
You can see it has created some horns were the head hit the top part of the pipe.

I still don't understand why you can't take it back. It's no good.
Tim

Well I suppose if I really kick up a fuss I'm sure he will have to take it back.  End of the day it's not really upto the job.

Saying that if I was to return it and got my money back I wouldn't have a briquette maker.

I have looked all over and there is nothing else on the market at that price and size of machine.

I don't want to spend to much and I don't want a massive machine taking up workshop space.

The machine produced enough briquites each day to light the biomass boiler for a full day.  Which was brilliant.  It meant my shavings/sawdust waste was being used to heat the workshop and the main house and hot water.  Just a shame it only lasted 4days.  Other than that I loved it.

So I either need to find an alternative OR! Modify this one so I can get it working how I want.

 

[jmbfestool]

Id send it back. Its not fit for purpose. Softwood density can change massively as can hardwood so it would constantly need resetting.

Get your money back

DITTO in spades.  DITTO with a big club would be even better.  That machine cost you a ton of bucks.  Whatever the cause of the problem, a fix is going to still leave you with a recurring problem.  I have no knowledge of how a CNC works, but I am pretty sure there is something wrong inside that will continue giving you grief even after you fix the obvious.  I really think some of the forcefulness of your solution with JCB is in order.  I remember your approach to your chisel problem as well.  I think it is time for you to go into high gear.
Tinker

Yes I should but I don't kick into high gear untill I'm cornered.  ill be contacting the company to give my thoughts and see what he comes back with.

 

[jmbfestool]

Id send it back. Its not fit for purpose. Softwood density can change massively as can hardwood so it would constantly need resetting.

Get your money back

You are correct!  To add to the problem you can often have lots of different types of wood in a single bag so you would have to mix it all to try and keep it consistent.  Saying that!!!! I found the machine slow separates dust from shavings.  The slow rotary arm which keeps forcing the material towards the piston slowly allows all the dust to filter down but stops the shavings from coming down at the same rate.

So basically if you had a nice mix of shavings and dust and threw it all in and left it for an hour your would come back and be left with shavings only till all the dust has been used and made into briquettes then the shavings start to get used up.

That alone changes the material setup .

 

[jmbfestool]

[attachimg=1]

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

Looking class dude!! A video would be really really good to see it all

 

[jmbfestool]

Looking class dude!! A video would be really really good to see it all

Bloody hell don't ask for much lol.

Not missing out much at moment.

Still a lot of work to do and tidy up and stuff.

This is the tidiest the workshop has looked. So I thought I don't mind showing fog members.

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

Lol if u don't ask u won't receive ha ha. Lots and lots of nice looking machinery there as well
As a good selection of Festool

 

[jmbfestool]

Lol if u don't ask u won't receive ha ha. Lots and lots of nice looking machinery there as well
As a good selection of Festool

True. When I get time I'll do a quick vid might do some dancing in the video......

Ssssh that's not all of my festool stuff the other half are stored down the back

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

You must have all the Festool collection ;-)

 

[jmbfestool]

You must have all the Festool collection ;-)

No never liked the festool drill Ti 15 [poke]

You mentioned machinery before and I've just mentioned a tool which didn't live up to expectations.  So staying on the subject.

I thought I'll mention the felder dust extractor and starlite extractor.

I have been very disappointed with felder dust extractor. 

It's pretty crap in every way to be honest.

I bought it soon after I bought my felder machinery thinking it will be as good as the machinery.

Well I was very wrong.  If it wasn't because of its size fitting snug behind my thicknesser. I would have likely thrown the thing out. ( maybe not but I would have sold it)

 

[galwaydude18@gmail.com]

I thought u would have done a full ducting extraction sys for the machinery and cnc. Bring it all to the outside and into a skip

 

[jmbfestool]

I thought u would have done a full ducting extraction sys for the machinery and cnc. Bring it all to the outside and into a skip

I was but cost!!

I wanted an outside extractor but it's expensive and I can't justify it.

I thought just to save money I'll just get a felder dust extractor for now see how I get on.

I also bought my mates old dust extractor for £50.  Which was loads better than the felder one I bought for £680

So I had the £50 extractor attached to Cnc and the felder extractor I kept moving back and forth to each machine.  I soon got fed up with that!!

The £50 extractor stopped working motor burnt out gutted!

So I ended up buying starlite duster extractor for £900
and spent £1900 on ducting bloody expensive stuff!!!

Well the starlite not much more than felder is loads better!!!
Double the airflow
two bags
bigger dust port
better bags
better bag support
Better attachment of waste bags
Can be flipped so dust port faces up or down (felder can not be flipped)

Pictures to come

 

[jmbfestool]

I'll start from the bottom up

You have felder and (sorry I've been calling it starlite) startrite extractor  base with castors.

As you can see the startrite has bigger casters and all 4 castors swivel

The felder has much smaller casters which get stuck on a biscuit crumb when moving it about very annoying and only 2 of them swivel making it a pain move about.

 

[Kev]

[member=5671]jmbfestool[/member] I'm assuming you went AF series DC from Felder .. not the RL series?

It'll be a while before I pull the trigger on Felder gear, but I was considering an RL140 in the mix. They're over $6K here and that would buy a significant piece of kit in an alternate brand!!

I don't see anything on the AF series that justifies it's 2~3x price over the rest of the market. I'm not a fan of that collector style in the workshop anyway unless you add the big filter cartridge. To me they belong in an external/closed dust room.

With the sort of equipment you've got I would have thought (if Felder) an RL200 would be the kind of unit you'd need.

 

[jmbfestool]

The main support

The felder is just some folded thin steel to make up the legs really flimsy light Duty. The base is the same thin sheet steel

The startrite is a thick box section which is pretty robust for the legs and the base is thick steel with extra steel for reinforcement

 

[jmbfestool]

You can see startrite is bigger better made.

Bigger motor bigger frame double bag!!!  Also internally all dust goes into the bags.  The felder having a square frame isn't enclosed so it fills up with fust inside the square/corner not a big deal but just another sign of cheap.

Also the starlite can be flipped the felder can't.  (Well I have flipped the felder which isn't shown in the picture But it's not designed to you have to Re-weld the support for the filter bag )

 

[jmbfestool]

Talking about filter bag support.

The startrite has full circles on a rod giving the bags full support keep them open and standing up well.

The felder has a thin metal bar which doesn't really do a very good job at support the filter bag which you can see in the picture. When you start it up the bag just pops to life.