Page 3
First Look cont.
My FS-350 is equipped with a center-mounted fence as is the new FS35 Smart. It works very smoothly, is quite long and is higher than other jointers I’ve used which is great for supporting boards that are being edged. But due to the width of this machine, the fence mount extends well beyond the back of the machine when the fence is set for wide cuts. In order to gain a little more shop space, I opted to cut a 2" diameter hole in the OSB behind the tool to allow me to position the jointer about 2" closer to the wall. (I did not pierce the vapor barrier, however) Folks opting to include the slotter (horizontal mortiser) attachment will need to be able to position the machine with clearance all the way around, or be willing to move the machine when using that feature. I did not buy the slotter as my shop is too small to accommodate it effectively and I have a dedicated mortising machine available.
Dust collection (not optional!) is taken care of via two 120mm ports.
The jointer port is in a fixed position under the infeed table and the
planer port is on a flip-up shroud that enclosed the cutter head when
the tables are raised. In my installation, both ports can be serviced
by a single drop. Given that 120mm is not a common duct size in the
US, an adapter is required (not included with the machine) to allow
you to attach a hose to the ports. I bought mine easily from Oneida
Air Systems, my DC vendor, and only needed to use a few layers of duct
tape to insure a secure fit when the hose is moved from the jointer
position to the planer position.
In
my opinion, the dust collection hoods are the only weak implementation
anywhere on this machine (other than the manuals...), particularly for
the planer. Wide milling machines like this can generate a lot of material
very quickly and it’s
important that you have enough air flow to extract it from the machine.
The hoods themselves have too narrow a slot where they meet the plastic
rectangular to round adapter and easily can get overwhelmed when working
with wide material...the whole reason to own this machine. Further,
the 120mm ports are too small to be able to provide the needed 800-1000
CFM of airflow that Mini Max claims is required for the machine. 120mm
is a little smaller than the 5" drop I have going to the tool. A full
5" would
be better and 6" (or
the metric equivalent) would be perfectly appropriate for this class
of equipment. Additionally, the two screws that hold the planer hood
lock-down project into the air stream and easily catch material...I
rectified that with a few washers to keep them flush with the metal
hood. The sheet metal screws that affix the plastic rectangular to round
adapters also enter the air stream, but cannot be easily backed out
due to their pointed shape. I may try and retrofit for sheet metal screws
by drilling and tapping for them at a later date.