1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: A New Tool–MiniMax FS35 Jointer/Planer!

The more cabinetry I do, the more I’m realizing the limitations of my Shopsmith combination woodworking machine. While the Shopsmith bandsaw, 12″ disk sander, and horizontal boring and shaping functions are excellent, the jointer–at only 4″ wide, with a 28″ table–is simply too small for the job. I’ve been scanning craigslist for months and missed a couple of good machines, but then a MiniMax FS35–a beast of a combination 14″ jointer and thickness planer–showed up in Baltimore during the week before Christmas. The seller wasn’t especially good at communication, and it seemed as if it had sold…then it was still available, but only for the full asking price…then there was flexibility in the price. By Saturday morning, the eve of Christmas Eve, I’d already made the trip from the house to the boatyard when the seller sent me his address. The heater on the boat had just started warming up the salon when I shut it all down and hit the road for Baltimore. I ended up buying the MiniMax, loading it into my truck, and taking it down to my house in Southern Maryland. For the second time in two months, a whole weekend went by without anything getting done on the Roamer. But this machine will make it that much easier to do cabinet face frames in the near future.

800lbs of fun

Because it was unclear if the machine was still for sale, I’d left the house for the boatyard without bring straps or a cover. Fortunately, I’ve always got 1/2″ and 3/4″ line in the back of the truck. The seller had a loading dock, which is ~50″ high–14″ higher than my unloaded truck bed– so we “went Egyptian” and used scraps of lumber and plywood to make a ramp to slide the machine into the truck. The loading operation went surprisingly smoothly.

Taking heavy bits off the top

I used my engine hoist to lift the planer beds off the machine, one by one.

Both jointer beds off

That 14″ cutterhead is the biggest I’ve ever seen. With the jointer table in place, you can true up to 13-3/4″ wide solid stock from the top side (Model FS35 = 35cm =13.75″). The thickness planer bed is below the cutter head, and it can handle lumber up to 9-1/2″ thick. This is a beast of a machine.

The paint’s not in bad shape for an old machine

Planer feed roller drive wheel has a dent where it was left engaged

Fortunately, the dent in the rubber drive wheel doesn’t seem to affect the feed roller function.

Time for the big lift out of the truck bed

My Harbor Freight engine hoist has been one of the greatest tools I’ve bought from them. Well worth the money.

After lifting the MiniMax out of the truck, I had to decide how to get it into the workshop. If I go through the garage, there’s a big step down into the workshop out back, which would mean more ramp building. Instead, I decided to load it onto a mini trailer and pull it around back with my Craftsman garden tractor. First gear at idle speed, and within a couple of minutes it was in the shop.

Reassembled in my workshop

10 seconds to convert from jointer to planer

Brand new carbide-tipped knives

So, now I’ve got a machine big enough to joint the boards I’ll be using for upcoming cabinetry. Because the MiniMax is down at my house, I’ll have to cut lengths of mahogany lumber slightly oversize for whatever I’m going to make, bring them from the tent to the house, joint and plane to thickness, then finish up machining the wood back on the boat. I predict there will be some frustration along the way, but not nearly as much as trying to use the little 4″ Shopsmith jointer with its tiny little bed and fence.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: More on the Galley Pantry

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: New Tool–Dewalt DW734 Thickness Planer

As I learn more about woodworking, I’m finding that I need more and more toys tools. This time around, I got myself a new thickness planer. I decided on a Dewalt DW734 as a new tool-of-the trade, and I’m happy with it so far. But after problems I had with snipe when using an old Delta planer, I decided to make an infeed-outfeed table extension. Snipe is the unfortunate removal of precious wood that happens when the lumber isn’t fed into planers perfectly in line with the planer table. There can be several different causes of snipe, including cutter head movement, shaky hands, short infeed/outfeed tables. When the board doesn’t go in straight and smooth, the blades dig out a little hollow a short distance from the ends of the board. It can be cut off or sanded out, but it’s better just not to have snipe to begin with.

My brand new Dewalt DW374

This unit has a lot of slick features that are a huge improvement over the old Delta: three blades vs two; bigger integral in- and out-feed tables that fold up rather than storing separately; a locking mechanism for the height adjustment; much better dust collection; real handles; and a very handy cut depth gauge.

Out of the box, the feed tables needed adjustment

The gap under the straight edge indicates the extension isn’t in line with the main table.

Gap’s gone…good to go

Material Removal Gauge is pretty slick

One pass cleans up some old mahogany

Two passes makes it look nice!

This piece of mahogany was part of the accent strip that goes around the cabin top exterior. It hadn’t been varnished in 30+ years. The planer took off the oxidized wood and left a very smooth surface that’s ready for varnish if I wanted. I was pleasantly surprised to see no snipe even with just the factory feed tables. But this is a lightweight board and I’ll be working with long pieces of 8/4 (~2″) thick mahogany for some of the things I’ll be making soon. A proper feed table should help ensure I get no snipe.

One sheet of 3/4″ pine plywood will become the extended in- and out-feed table

I ran the side pieces through the planer to make them exactly the same height.

Pocket screws will hold it all together

That’s a lot of pocket screw holes front and back

I use the interior screw holes to attach the sides to the bottom. Then I put the top on and use the exterior screw holes to fasten it.

Boom…done

I think I’ll end up using epoxy on these joints and also to seal up everything but the infeed and outfeed surfaces and the surface where the machine sits. The height of the table top perfectly aligns with the planer now. I’m concerned that a couple of coats of epoxy could throw it off, which could lead to snipe.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making Solid Mahogany Corners for the V-berth Cabinets