Hi Jim:

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I know you asked for “recent” owner experience. My Dual 51 was bought new almost 20 years ago now. It has some amazing features, and some not so good features. Overall I have been happy with the machine.

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In brief, the key aspects of the machine which are NOT amazing have to do with the table design issues as outlined by David Best. The jointer/surfacing tables do not hold calibration and have to be recalibrated at least once a year if not more often.

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If you proceed to buy one, I strongly recommend you purchase the Digidrive option. It seems expensive but very few people actually have it, and do not know what it really is. In brief, it is an electronic interface that allows the following:

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• Short-cut programming that moves the thicknesser table to a parked position for changing machine modes. I do not have to stand by and turn a knob or hold a button or wind a wheel. I press one of the programmable function buttons and let the machine do its thing (usually while I fuss with changing over the dust extraction flex).

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• I can enter an exact number and have the thicknesser table move to that position. For example, if I want 21.0mm I can enter that, and the table will move to that number by itself. Again, no standing around waiting for it to finish moving (usually I’m picking up my board for machining, and getting ready to feed it).

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• In addition to the ‘absolute’ mode mentioned above, when batch machining rough stock to a final thickness I have multiple programmable function buttons that allow for ‘incremental’ positioning of the thicknesser table. For example, if I have a board that is 25mm thick and I want it to be 19mm thick, I can first enter say 23mm in absolute mode and then hit start. The table moves to 23mm ready to feed the stock through, removing 2mm of material in so doing.

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With an old-school thicknesser, after receiving the board (now 23mm thick) I used to walk back to the in-feed side, rotate the up/down wheel a bit for the next pass and proceed. With Powerdrive, of course this process is a bit easier because the knob can be turned briefly and the user can see how much the table moves. But as we all know, it takes a bit of practice to hit the intended 23mm, and doing this while holding stock is not always easy. In particular, if the stock is long and heavy, I would not like this process. Once or twice maybe, but not fifty times for a big machining session.

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The key benefit of Digidrive is the programmable presets. By selecting incremental mode, I can press one of the function keys: F1 (1mm), F2 (2mm) or F3 (3mm), or whatever you want – that’s just what I’ve got them programmed to – and the table moves up by one of those amounts while I am moving the stock into position for the next pass. So, I feed the stock (e.g. now 23mm), retrieve it from the out-feed side, hit start (F2 is already selected previously), the table automatically moves to 21mm, feed stock, hit start, the table automatically moves to 19mm, feed stock.

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?????????????? The time savings here is substantial.

??????????????? The convenience is huge.

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I know of no other machine on the market with this kind of system. Martin certainly does not have it. I don’t know about

SCM but would love to know.

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Cheers.

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M: 0413 013 115

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