On Jan 19, 2024, at 6:03 PM, David P. Best <dbestworkshop@...> wrote:

?

I spent something like hour and a half in the showroom today.
I definitely know that I don’t want the shaper in the saw.?

Changing from saw to a shaper is PITA and the shaper fence is heavy.
A dedicated Felder shaper will cost ~10K compare to additional 6K I would need to invest going from K to KF model.

I agree - the difference was much less a few years ago - like $3,500. ?Yes, the 240 shaper hood is heavy, but it’s easy to tilt it forward onto a towel laid on the sliding table, and then off onto a wheeled cart such as the FAT 300. ?For me, the bigger hassle was the power feeder setup.

it is a bit BS that if I want a machine with a metric scale I need to pay extra to get a real world measurements.

For about $20, you can buy a high quality sticky-back metric or combination metric/imperial tape. ?The Felder-supplied rule is a removable aluminum strip, so you can flip it over and apply the new tape to the back side of the aluminum strip. ?Here are some examples:

https://oregonrule.com/orc/product-category/metalrulessc/fractional-metric-metalrulessc/?

A new question raise now is whether I want the saw with 800mm rip fence or 1250mm fence.
My current K3 has 800mm and I have really used the extra rip capacity, but I wonder if anyone here use the extra rip capacity??

If you do panel work you will want the ability to cut to the center of an 8-foot panel, which means you will be restricted in your saw guard choice. ?You either have to make do with the Euro saw guard that attaches to the rivving knife/splitter, or have the support post for an overhead guard positioned at the 49-inch position so a panel cut in half will clear it on the right of the blade. ?It is possible to special order a K700 with 800mm rip fence and an overhead guard post at the 1250mm position (which is what I had on my K975 and have now on my Kappa 400 xMotion), but it will mean a custom build and probably different pricing and a longer wait. ?If your panel processing needs are moderate, you can of course break down big panels with a track saw.

David Best
DBestWorkshop@...
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