The Beast is Out of the Cage: Minimax FS30 Initial Setup
by Patrick Harper - Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust
Last night, I powered up the Minimax FS30 Jointer/Planer for the first time.
The Minimax FS30 initial setup is straight forward. Minimax secures everything to a wooden pallet. They even nail down the fence and accessories. The real trick is getting her off the pallet. This thing is heavy.
I stacked 2 x 8 scraps next to the pallet and carefully walking her off. Once on the scraps, I employed the help of my lovely wife. Check out her blog at sewsassycreations.com. We lowered the Minimax FS30 to the ground by lifting one side and removing a board until she was all the way down.
Removing cosmoline is the most tedious part of the process. Anyone who has ever received large machinery knows what I’m talking about. I removed most of the goop with a plastic putty knife. I removed the rest with lots of rags and a liberal amount of mineral spirits. With the goop removed, I gave the beds a light coat of Boeshield T-9 and a coat of paste wax. Don’t forget to get into all the nooks and crannies. The cutter head and in-feed rollers hide lots of the stuff.
The Minimax FS30 doesn’t come with a power cord, so you will have to make your own. I used a 10-2 rubber coated cable and 30a twist lock connector. Everything hooks up to a junction box on the side of the machine. There are two hot junctions and a ground. It doesn’t matter which hot wire goes to which hot terminal. Just make sure you connect your ground wire to the green ground terminal.
From there, it was just a matter of installing the knives and accessories. These Tersa knives are great. They install in a matter of seconds.
This thing purrs like an angry kitten. I’m really impressed with the build quality. The castings are beefy. The base is constructed of heavy-duty sheet metal. The fit and finish are excellent. I haven’t been able to put her through the paces yet, but the initial cuts impressed me. The only issues I’ve discovered is that the fence has a very small concavity along its width. It’s very subtle and I don’t believe it will affect edge jointing in practice.
Stay tuned for a full review.
Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust 
I dunno about that concavity in the fence. If I paid for a tool in that price range and found anything that wasn’t dead-nuts perfect, I’d be on the phone (or email) to the vendor/manufacturer for them to replace the part – AT THEIR EXPENSE. You paid for a straight fence. If they balk at making it right – I’d insist they take the whole machine back, issue a full refund and then I’d spend my money elsewhere.
One additional note – when you get the new fence – CHECK IT RIGHT AWAY. Sometimes manufacturers have been know to have a rash of incorrect parts – their QC should catch it – but occasionally a few slip thru.
We’re talking thousandths of an inch here. I don’t think you’ll find any aluminum extrusions more accurate than this. I just don’t think they can be made any better. It’s the nature of the beast.
[…] tuned. I will have a quick video of the Minimax FS30 in use very […]
Hi Patrick,
Do you run this on a 30 amp circuit? I think that’s the spec, but I was wondering if it would work on a 20 amp circuit.
Thanks much,
Jarrod
Yes, I ran a 30a circuit. My concern with a 20a circuit would be the startup draw. That’s about the only time you’d be in danger of tripping the breaker
Hi again Patrick,
I finally bought one of these! May I ask you a couple basic questions about setup? My email is jarrod (at) jarrodbeglinger.com
I would appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Jarrod
Sure, what questions do you have?