European Combination Machine
Several companies in Austria, Italy, France and Belgium manufacture what is commonly known in North America as a Euro(pean) combination machine, which typically contains a sliding-table saw with a scoring blade, a shaper, a thicknesser, a jointer, and a mortiser. These machines generally have 3 motors, one for the table saw, one for the shaper, and one shared by the thickness planer/jointer and mortiser.
European combination machines are geared for the serious hobbyist or professional woodworker or cabinet maker. They are constructed of cast iron and heavy gauge steel, weigh from 1000 to 2000 lbs., and range in price from around $5,000 to over $30,000 (2010, U.S. dollars).
Manufacturers include Felder (Felder and Hammer brands), Kitty, Knapp, Lurem, Mini-Max, Robland, Rojek, Veba and others. Rojek and Robland manufacture entry level models, Hammer, Lurem, MiniMax and Veba mid-range models, Felder and Knapp high-end models. Robland purchased Knapp from the Metabo group in 2000.
The European combination machine allows efficient processing of both rough-cut timber and sheet stock (i.e. plywood). The sliding table can work in conjunction with either the table saw or the shaper. Outfitted with an 8-foot sliding table and outrigger, a single person can cut 4'x8' plywood very accurately and efficiently. Changing between most functions takes only a few seconds.
The sliding table allows a straight edge to be cut on rough lumber, without the use of a fence. It also allows a cut to be made accurately at any angle across a sheet of plywood in just seconds - something that cannot be done nearly as easily, if at all, on a table saw. Used in conjunction with the shaper, the sliding table allows molding, door panels, rails and stiles, to be milled quickly and more accurately than a stand-alone shaper.
Read more about this topic: Combination Machine
Famous quotes containing the words european, combination and/or machine:
“We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“I am opposed to writing about the private lives of living authors and psychoanalyzing them while they are alive. Criticism is getting all mixed up with a combination of the Junior F.B.I.- men, discards from Freud and Jung and a sort of Columnist peep- hole and missing laundry list school.... Every young English professor sees gold in them dirty sheets now. Imagine what they can do with the soiled sheets of four legal beds by the same writer and you can see why their tongues are slavering.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“The American people is out to get the kaiser. We are bending every nerve and every energy towards that end; anybody who gets in the way of the great machine the energy and devotion of a hundred million patriots is building towards the stainless purpose of saving civilization from the Huns will be mashed like a fly. I’m surprised that a collegebred man like you hasn’t more sense. Don’t monkey with the buzzsaw.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)