Once in a while I browse certain German websites, you know the ones I mean.
No, not those ones — I mean sites with used woodworking machinery for sale. One thing I observe about German woodworking equipment in general is that it is beefy, to say the least. If the dictionary had an entry for “built like a brick sh*t house”, a picture of a German woodworking machine would provide an excellent illustration.
More than just stoutness though (the same could be said in general for pre-WWII woodworking equipment produced in the US), the German equipment, by and large, is very well-made. They don’t shirk when it comes to quality, at least when it comes to industrial-grade equipment. Sometimes though I come across stuff, that as some Australians I once knew used to say with some frequency, is over the top. I mean, even beyond the pale. Mind-blowing even.
Now I consider a 12″ jointer to be a minimum size of sorts for the sort of work i tend to do, and a 16″ or 20″ would be preferred. And, the longer the infeed table the better, so long as it is well supported. This jointer in the picture below takes w i d e to a new level however with a working surface that is 860mm wide, nearly 35″:
I’m trying to imagine how a human being is supposed to feed some 34″ stick across the top of that unit, as no feeder is evident. That table looks to be 5~6″ thick!
Then there’s this one, where planer meets gargantua:
A 2-meter (6’+) wide planer with eight different motors, 4 dust collection ducts, weighing in at some 8000kg (17,600 lbs.). That’s not a misprint folks- 8 tons for this machine. Apparently it is specially made for planing large glu-lams, though I imagine one could nearly put a family sedan though it.
Both machines are for sale, so if you’re looking for a nice addition to your home shop…
It looks like the 2-meter planer can rotate on its base, that's 8 ton extra for a concrete base and rail. Rotating is probably for small shops, you feed it while facing the door and rotate it while planing to align the outfeed with a window 🙂