The Framers Forum

Hello All. Having recently moved, I am in the process of re-fitting my workshop. Having decided where things fit, I now have to install my Fletcher 3100 wall cutter. The only problem is that the wall it is to go on is plasterboard. The solution I believe is to put a large sheet of 18mm ply against the wall and mount it to that.

However, the brackets for the left and right arms are greater than 4ft apart, assuming I put a piece of 8x4 to the wall. My question would be, should I mount the main column and left (fixed) arm to the sheet and the right arm to a separate smaller piece.

Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers, Tim.

I don't see much benefit from using a full sheet of anything. A 200mm strip of timber / mdf either end and perhaps in the middle carried down to your floor would transfer the downward weight / thrust, with a 200 x 200 pad at the top simply to hold it back. You could fix them slightly on the splay to stop sideways movement if you want. That's essentially the set up for my Excalibur, but it comes with legs (the strips)

mine is attached to the wall using 4*2 planed timber battens

As most studs in a plaster board walls should be on 400mm centers, I would cut the ply to cover at least two sets of the studs, so you are fitting to something solid, and then you can fit the Fletcher where-ever you like on the ply, the same for the two side brackets.
With my Excalibur, I have a very rough stone wall, very uneven, not very good for fitting it to, so I fitted a 18mm ply board about (400mm square) to the wall, used wedges to get a flat surface, ready to attache the Excalibur to. I also so fitted a length of wood (old bit of moulding) along the floor in front of the legs, to keep them in place, if they move you will find the the Excalibur goes out of square.

Steve