My "New" Mini Max FS35 J/P

[jteneyck]

It was a project to haul the beast from Albany to Lewiston (Niagara Falls), disassemble it almost completely, get it down into my basement shop and reassemble it, but it was well worth it.



The thing is built like a tank as evidenced by the nearly 750 lb weight. I used a chainfall to remove and reinstall the two tables, which each weigh around 100 lbs. The machine was purchased in 1988 but, as you can see, it looks like new. I was very happy to see that the two tables were in perfect alignment when I got it all back together, and as flat as flat can be with no stains or scratches in them. Hard to imagine. The only casualties in the project were the end of my middle finger which I put a pretty good slice in on one of the blades as I was tightening one of the table bolts. Lordy, blood dripped all over the place. That slowed me down for a few minutes till I got it bandaged up. The other was the electrical cord. I noticed when I took it apart that the wires at the junction box looked brittle. So when I put it back together I thought it would be fine if I just cut it back a few inches. Uh uh. The wires were brittle a foot back and further, so I threw it out. Fortunately, I had a piece of SO cord (I think that's the correct term) so I avoided a trip to the store.

I think the former owner might have been hard of hearing. When I ran the machine before I brought it home I could hear an almost imperceptible clicking sound. It was easy to see that one of the gibs in the cutter head was right over where it was barely rubbing on the bearing block. So I recentered it before starting up the machine. That gave me a chance to see how the knife setting jig works. Sweet. The knives are spring loaded. All you do is push the setting jig down on the knives and they are automatically set at the right projection from the head. Easy, peasy; took about a minute.

Here's a photo with the Mini Max and my Inca behind it. The Mini Max is twice as long. I really didn't have much trouble jointing long boards straight on the Inca. I gotta believe it's going to be truly easy on this monster.



I'm never going to need another jointer, or planer. I might put a spiral head in this one down the road, but I'm going to use it like this for a while. The machine also has a mortising table. I haven't put that back on yet. I would have bought it w/o the mortising table, since you all know how much I like my shop built horizontal router mortiser, but this thing can handle large, long bits and will be very helpful for mortising entry way door stiles, for example.

Thanks for looking.

John

[Hank Knight]

Nice!

[oakey]

she is a beauty John good score

[Ken Vick]

Even nicer than I imagined. What's with the short fence? Is that an issue? I'm used to seeing longer fences but I can't imagine they would skimp on the fence with that quality of a tool if the length was important. Really nice score. Ken

[Steve N]

Makes the Inca look like a toy in size comparison.

Enjoy

[jteneyck]

The Inca has a pretty short fence, too, and I never found it to be a problem. All the fence does is register the wood to the blade, at whatever angle it's set at. Newer jointers have much longer fences, but I think that was driven more by mounting them off the end of the infeed table than anything else. I can always add a piece of wood to the fence, if necessary, but I doubt that will be necessary. And I hope not because the fence is already plenty heavy and you have to remove it to tip the tables up for planing.

John

[TGW]

A good machine!

I am pretty sure you will like the attached mortiser.

[shoottmx]

Great score!!

g

[Hank Knight]

John,

How do you like the pork chop blade guard? My Hammer J/P has a European style guard like the Inca. I owned an Inca for 25 years and got used to the euro style guard, but I think the pork chop is easier to use.

If you decide to change out the cutterhead for a spiral one, I'll be interested in the process. I had decided to do the same when I bought my Hammer, but the Hammer service rep I spoke with discouraged me from doing it myself. I don't see why changing out the cutterhead would be a difficult job, but the Hammer guy assured me it was; so I bought several sets of new replacement straight blades instead (that's probably why he told me I shouldn't tackle the head-change myself). In any event, I'm going to swap my straight-knife head for a Byrd when I use up these blades. I'll be interested to know how your change over goes.

You're going to love that machine. I love my Hammer.

Hank

[jteneyck]

Thanks all. I've been playing around with some dust collection in the jointer mode. Apparently, there is a hood that goes up under the infeed table, but the machine didn't have one. Anyway, in the process of working on that I've run a few boards over the jointer table and I have to say, I like the pork chop guard just fine. I thought it would be a difficult transition after using the Euro style guard on the Inca, but I think the pork chop guard is easier to use, as you suggested Hank. You don't have to move it left/right like you do with the Euro style guard for different width boards. The only downside I can see is the safety issue as the back end of the board clears the cutter head. The blades are completely exposed until the end of the board clears the guard and it can swing back in place. You really need to make sure never to wear long sleeves, etc.. I hate to think of what it would do.

Hank, I've never seen a Hammer, but changing the cutter head on the Mini Max would be easy. The cutter head is captured in two big bearing blocks that are bolted directly to the frame by two bolts on each side. Those bolts were installed with epoxy or some other permanent sealer, and getting them loose was not easy. There were a few moments with a pretty high pucker factor until they came loose. But other than that it was just a matter of removing those four bolts and lifting out the entire cutter head assembly. You don't need to remove the planer drive rollers or chain either. I can take some photos for you of the cutter head and how it fits onto the frame so you can compare it to yours if that would be of help to you. I reinstalled the cutterhead with some blue thread lock, so I should be able to get the bolts loose again w/o too much trouble if I decide to change the cutter head. From the few boards I've jointed/planed the results have been very high quality, at least as good as my Inca even though there are quite a few less cuts/inch in planer mode, something like 55 vs. 75. We'll see how it does when I put some figured wood through it but so far I'm really impressed.

John