Olie

I heard the price for this new 15” will be around $1500 which is similar to a Dewalt 735 with a pre installed Byrd shelix head.

@pkinneb Thanks. My space isn’t necessarily small at 28x30 but it sure isn’t big. I thought the space savings and advantages would outweigh the change over especially for someone like me who right now is a late evening and weekend warrior. I may not need 16” but have run into a lot of boards at my hardwood dealer that are greater than 8”. I thought about the hammer jointer only, but the combo is only $520 more and I figured why not try it and if it came to a point where I hated the change over and wanted separates then later down the road I could dedicate it as a jointer only and get a planer. On another note, did you see the new planer that Oliver is coming out with? It’s a 15” bench top planer with a Shelix head.

That will look cool.

I don’t have an exact way to go back and match the thickness on my dewalt 735. I did have to go back and make another piece before but I didn’t need to be at a super exact dimension so I used my digital calipers to get close and then took another small cut and ran the previous pieces through to the new very close dimension because it didn’t matter that much. Probably not the way to go about it but that’s what I did!

Two tools I thought about upgrading in the future are my jointer and planer. I work out of two stalls in a 3 car garage currently and I’m a hobbyist with young children so I’m a busy guy and not out there milling every week or hours per week. I’ve used Kev’s 16” Hammer and really liked it and have been researching the Hammer 16” J/P combo. It seems from my research people either love it or hate it. In terms or hating it, mostly due to the change over. I’ve watched videos and the change over seems to be about a minute and the greater downsides are if you need to go back and forth from jointer to planer or forget something and need to joint or plane another piece and matching the same setting, etc. How much of a pain would that be? Is it worth it to just pay thousands more to get separates for a hobbyist? I got a quote a while ago and now whenever they have sales they email me. They just had a big sale and it was $5665 for a 16” J/P combo and $5145 for a 16” jointer only. That didn’t include shipping or any accessories, but $5665 for 16” of both jointing and planer seems like a great price compared to similar or even lower capacity separates. The combo would have its benefits of space savings, money savings, consolidation of dust collection, same infeed/outfeed space, don’t need to have additional electrical wired to put in a new outlet for separates. But would I hate the combo and change over? Technically I have the space for separates if I needed to. My thought would be why not just try the combo and if it doesn’t work for me it’s only $520 more for the combo and just dedicate as a jointer in the future and get a separate planer? I know Kev’s thoughts on combos and I’m interested in hearing more. I also know @pkinneb has the A3-31 12” combo but also has a separate planer so does that mean you decided you don’t like changing over so you bought another planer? Anyone else have feedback? I’m just thinking about the long term and don’t even need to upgrade now or at all and just want to and when I’m busy with family and can’t make it out to the shop as much I turn to research and find more tools I want for when my kids get older, haha.

Thanks for the kind words. It was definitely good to take the creative leap and develop something on my own. I do have lots of creative ideas all the time but I think sometimes I want buy in or confirmation of ideas when I need to just go with it and try stuff and make mistakes and learn. Could be partially due to being a newer woodworker and building confidence in my work and I’m definitely a perfectionist which can be both good and bad in this journey. Looking forward to getting this all finished up in the next week and move on to actual projects for the house!

Well I have a sanded and shaped chop. There are so many options and ways I could have shaped this chop but I just made a decision and went with it. The top chamfer ended up more than I planned but not bad and nothing lost. I cut it on the miter saw and forgot to lock the bevel and gouged it a little so I had to take another deeper cut. Doesn’t look too bad though. Here are some pics. I know a lot of pics! Can’t wait to get some finish on this bad boy.

Here is my chop design. I really like curly maple and I have some curly maple accents in my tool tray and I have some wenge plug accents throughout the base of the bench so I decided to add a strip of wenge between the African mahogany and curly maple. It’s not glued up yet or shaped. I was thinking a heavy chamfer on the top of the chop and cutting the curly maple/wenge piece at a 45 at the bottom. Unless anyone has other ideas?

I decided on a chop design that I’ll reveal soon, but for now I got the leg vise installed. The most nerve wracking part was the big long mortise but it actually went well. I decided to hog out most of the material with a forstner bit and to the final depth and then I cleaned it up with the router and edge guide. The bottom of the mortise will never be seen so I didn’t care about the point holes from the forstner bit. I then had to drill the pin holes in the side of the leg and chop and installed the plates and criss cross to test its function. The most finicky part was mounting the nut in the back of the leg so the screw fit in the right position and then the bushing in the front on the leg that stabilizes the screw. All in all everything went pretty well and the vise seems to be functioning great. I really like the look of it and hope I like the function just as much. IMG_7864.MOV

Wow, that is looking good.

My wife’s family that was visiting finally left so I got out to the shop to glue up the chop to get to the desired thickness. Do I have enough clamps on it 😉 The Benchcrafted instructions say the chop needs to be a minimum 2.5” thick so I glued up an 8/4 and 4/4 board and now at 2.75” after jointing. I have a chop design in mind, but thought I’d ask everyone for ideas or chop designs that they like. Any ideas?

@pkinneb for sure! It does have the new big eye fence too and nickel plated top but still about twice the cost of a decent 15” bandsaw.

The technology is apparently a blade tensioner, brake lock, and push button built in LED lighting. Seems cool but will probably come at a hefty price as I heard it would retail at close to $4200.

Thanks. I never considered both ends so I’ll have to take a look at that. A few holes with a 3/4” bit I have and cleaned up with a chisel seems easy enough. Doesn’t need to look good either based on where it is.