Felder AD951 user experience

[Albert]

I bought my AD951 from Felder NZ agent in July 2018, it was delivered the next day. Benefit of not being too far from Felder agent & service - not sure if its a good thing.

This is my first Felder machine, and the AD951 has been used on almost daily basis - some of you probably know that I have a daytime job so this little beast only gets used between 5pm-7pm.

It has been 5 months now so I think it is time to do an user experience update, needless to say, there are no apparent issue so far – which reminded me what my Austrian bike mechanic told me about Austrian products – If it worked on the first day, it will work forever, if it has an issue on the first day, you will never be able to have it fixed and it will haunt you forever.

First impression:
The AD951 was delivered on a 3m x 1.2m pallet wrapped in heavy plastic. it is also locked down by about 10-15 solid steel brackets. very impressed with the preparation.

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Finding a home:
It took me a while to find the right spot for the AD951 in my relatively small workshop, didn’t want to alter too much of the existing machine setup, because the dust extraction are already there (I really don’t want to touch the main trunk), and I need to consider where to put the monstrous panel saw(slider carriage length 3.8m, need 7.6m clearance to run it tip to tip) and the spindle moulder, which also has a sliding table. The Felder takes up so much space, although it only measured about 900mm wide, if you want to place it against a wall, you have to leave a gap of 350-400mm between the wall and the back of the machine to allow for fences when in thicknessing mode.

First iteration: next to the panel saw. didnt work
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Second iteration: next to the plug-board, between the saw and the sander. worked well in terms of space saving and work flow. tweaked a bit with its position and that is it.
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Current locality of the machine in relation to the workshop.
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Connecting the machine:
The main motor is a 3 phase 7.5hp, the factory power cord is a 5 core and the user manual says all 5 core has to be connected, this is because the feed motor, is a single phase motor and it requires a signal from the neutral to give the feed motor a signal to start – don’t ask how I know this …. Its rather embarrassing.

Dust extraction:
The hood on the AD951 is 140mm. not 160, not 150, but 140mm. I improvised by putting a rubber form around it and used my 150mm ducting. It’s a replaceable plastic shroud, perhaps Felder saved 10 cents by using a 140mm shroud instead of a 150mm?

2 x 150 duct, one for jointer mode, one for planer mode.
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Because the distance between the ports when in different mode are so large, you have to have 2 branch servicing the monster if your dust extractor is not a mobile unit.

The shroud on the 951 is quite capable to remove a lot of shavings very quickly, minimal spill over shavings when thicknessing, I dont know if it was intentionally designed but there is this wind effect to blow the shavings out of the chute. AD951 is quite capable of to fill my 2 extractor bags (250 litre each) in 30-45 minutes easily when doing D4S on a 5 x 1. you either have to have a briquette press ready or have your waste disposal sorted before going into D4S. I didn’t, and I was constantly stopping cos my extractor bags are full and no place to dump them. I now have 12 x 250 litre bin to mitigate this. But every hour I still need to stop and tip the 2 bags

Using the AD951:
Noise is my primary concern when I was shopping for an upgrade from my previous Combo, the Robland NX410, the Robland used Tersa straight knife. Quick to change knife but it is very noisy. I was also interested in SCM’s Xylent cutterblock, but SCM NZ did not have any available and the nearest 510mm+ JP combo with Xylent cutterblock was in Italy. The wait if I order? 6 months + no one can wait for 6 months, I can wait for 6 days, maybe 6 weeks. Felder had 2 of the AD951 freshly arrived. I took one and the other one was sold within 2 weeks.

The 951 is easy and straight forward to use. Mine comes with Power drive and a 7.5hp motor, when not under load it is whisper quiet, I cant hear it going if the extractor is on, when under load planing a 500mm wide board taking off 3-5mm, the noise is significantly less than my 410mm Tersa cutterblock taking 2-3mm off across 400mm wide board. My wife cant hear the Felder when she is in the kitchen. but she can definitely hear the Robland.

The Auxiliary fence on the 951 is accurate and easy to use. Initially I had my doubt as it’s a lot shorter than the fence on my Robland, but I was proved wrong, I don’t need a monstrous fence.

Possible improvement:
1. Knobs, sticks out of the machine. Easily damaged if not careful
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2. Dust port, factory 150mm would be ideal
3. Emergency button, there is an emergency on the right of the machine - For jointing so you can use your knee if something happened, but no emergency button on the left for thicknessing.
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4. Plastic protection that slides off under the fence bridge should be redesigned or/and have this section rubber coated or better finished/fitted. photo is slightly out of focus but you can see one strip is missing. it comes off quite easy when changing modes. the strip is currently somewhere under the machine - Its like under an aircraft carrier, I will probably never get to it.
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Cut quality:
I have been lazy and used fastest speed for planning. The finish quality is not so good when you are planing at 14-16m/min, but very helpful for sizing. if I slow it down to the slowest setting, say 4-5m/min, sanding is almost not required.

Overall I am glad I have bought it. Felder makes the laborious thicknessing and planning comfortable and enjoyable, The super wide planer has changed my way of working, the after-sale service was great. I look forward to my next Felder machine - Possibly a Profil 45 Z. I am just working on the excuses.

[Albert]

After owning this machine for 4 years. I have sold it to a woodworking friend.

The Felder worked faultlessly in the time I owned it, when I sold it 95% of the knives are still on its first edge, the remainder 5 % were on its 2nd, only 2-3 knives are on its 3rd.

Possible improvement of the AD951 from my expeirence, apart from what has already been mentioned above,
1. The black/blue face panel are plastic on mine, I think Felder has moved to metal on newer version? or this only applies to Format machines?
2. Hinge mechanism, this could be improved, I have seen a picture of an earlier version with cracked frame around the hinge. Felder added a bolt in newer version to increase the strength of the structure in this area.
3. Fence, AD951 does not have the best fence design. it will flex under load.

If Felder kept the prices low then this is your go to machine if you like the idea of a combo(very long table for surface planing) and has limited space.

Because of increased workload I moved to standalone unit, although the Felder had electronic up/down, flipping table and changing heights of the table is affecting the workflow.

here is my new thicky. might post an user experience with it later. Just finished the wiring and extraction.
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