Page 4
First Look cont.
Using this machine is a pleasure. The wide jointer tables give you plenty of space to work with stock up to just shy of 14" wide...a nice feature when you don’t want to rip a figured board down in order to flatten it. The extra width also means you can vary your path more often when working with narrower stock, resulting in longer knife life. Further, the wide capacity allows you to edge joint irregular shaped project components, such as bent laminations, that you would never be able to get on a 6" or 8" jointer.
Changeover to planer mode takes about a minute once you've done it a few times. The jointer tables flip up quickly and easily and are balanced by a spring system that lets you lift them almost without effort. (They lock down for jointing with a twist of two front-mounted knobs) The most time consuming portion of the changeover is raising or lowering the planer bed which is done by a large hand-wheel at the left end of the machine. For some reason, this wheel turned the opposite direction that I expect, but is easy to get used to. One the table is positioned for planing, just move the feed roller clutch to the engaged position, attach your DC hose and start to work.
The finish the Tersa knife system provides is oustanding...as good as
or even better than the Delta 22-560 “portable” planer I used to use.
Many stationary planers cannot boast such a good cut! I do have a very,
very slight issue with snipe at the tail end of a jointing pass, but
am working to rectify that by contacting the Mini Max technician when
I have the opportunity to call. Since I always make at least one planer
pass on the jointed face, that small snipe goes away anyway, but until
I fix the problem, I will not be able to clean up a sawn edge via the
jointer. One would think that the manuals would provide guidance for
adjusting the tables beyond raising or lowering them, but the documentation
that comes with this machine does not. Speaking of which...
Woe be to anyone really needing to consult the manual for anything important. While the machine is excellent in almost any way, the manuals are bottom of the barrel. The five language in five columns format is extremely difficult to read and the translations are not exactly grammatically correct. While the information is usable for getting up and running, details about the many possible machine adjustments are not to be found. The parts manual is similarly obtuse, although you can generally interpret the exploded drawings pretty well and cross reference to a particular part number. Unfortunately, the part descriptions are over simplified and some fasteners not even listed. Mini Max acknowledges that the documentation is lacking and claims to be working on a solution. Owners should expect and hold them to that...the level of investment required to buy these machines certainly warrants good quality and complete manuals.