I bought the Aussie variant of the Makita ( FC not FCXK ) last year to mount permanently in a router table. It's an excellent, well made tool, still made in Japan. It includes a bolt for raising and lowering the router from above when in the table.
I'd like to get another at some stage for...
When I had a bench top thicknesser I would joint one side by hand with a no7 then run it through, seemed quicker than faffing about with sleds and wedges.
The biggest problem I had was the noise from the thicknesser ( think small jet engine ) , made my family cranky and peed-off the neighbours...
Hi Ollie, I own an A3-31 with helical head, the machine performs pretty well ( I don't like the fence ) but make no mistake this is a high end hobbyist machine not a pro machine. I could see a 1 person shop making 1 off small to medium furniture pieces with an A3, but from the work you describe...
I'd add a Minimax Fs30 to your considerations, can be had with their version of helical head.
I have an A3-31 I bought last year mainly due to the numerous reviews and general info about them, it's a good machine for sure. The fence however isn't as good as it could be, having to pull forward to...