I'm giving SERIOUS thought to buying one of these.
I have a Delta JT360 jointer currently, and it's a dovetail style machine, not parallelogram which means adjusting and dialing it in for true accuracy is basically not an option. I recently rebuilt it with new bearings throughout (including motor), a thorough cleaning, and the best I could do getting the beds coplanar (near impossible with a Chinese made dovetail style jointer). It also has the three knife cutter head which no matter what one does, is a pain in the fucking ass to set the knives for.
I also have a DeWalt 734 portable planer. This machine has been more accurate and overall good to use over the years. I rebuilt this too with new bearings throughout, cleaning, and dialing it in.
I have a garage shop so space is at a premium. For most things I do, the machines stay put and it's not an issue. However, I'm building new interior doors for my house and having to run 7 foot boards through the jointer is especially is a fucking pain. I need to move the jointer, run around the table saw to support the boards coming out of the planer, etc. I got these machines right around 20 years ago, and spent under $1,000 for both of them combined.
Enter the Hammer A3 31 jointer planer combination machine. I am REALLY thinking about getting one, and plan to stop by the local (sort of) showroom tomorrow to check it out and get a quote.
Does anyone have one of these? If so, any positive things to report other than the space savings, low noise helical cutter head, Austrian made, etc.? Perhaps more importantly, any negative things to report? Would running 7' boards on the jointer and through the planer be asking for trouble? Reliability issues?
Cost will be about $6k for for the machine at current pricing, including shipping, tax, and a couple of accessories. I spent $3K on my new Unisaw 11 years ago and have never regretted it. Would this be the same?