W&H type Molders

[Ben Abate]

Hello,

I have a question about the W&H/Shop Fox type molding machines. I have recently purchased one and have a question about results. I was practicing with it today and was wondering about Crown Moldings. I was cutting a piece to see how it would come out. It came out fine but I was wondering about the back cutters or for that matter the profile cutters.....Here are my results, I cut the profile and since the profile sat flat on the table I thought I'd cut the back cutter on the second pass. What I was left with was a small amount on the edges.....So, I cut the profile side again to see if I did not cut it deep enough the first time and it did come out almost perfect except for a small amount on each side of the profile....Now, am I using too wide of a piece? I measured the profile and then cut my wood to that width. is that wrong? The way this machine is made I can't go any lower because of the guide rails. They are a 1/2 inch thick and I know the fellow that I purchased it from made crown with it because he gave me the knives and I talked to him about it. My set up was 2mm above the guide rails for the profile on the final cut and the same for the back cutter.....I know; ask him about it but he is not available so I thought some of you have a lot of experience with these machines......I'm impressed how nice the cut is, no knife marks, no snipe, really a nice end result except for the extra edge in each side.....I'm sure I'm missing some thing.....pilot error i'm sure.

thank you for you input
Ben

[Ben Abate]

Hello again all,

I thought about what I originally posted and went back to the shop. I thought about what I was doing and followed this procedure. I cut the back first with the back cutters at 1.5 mm above the rails. Then I cut the profile at 3.5mm above the rails and then made a final pass at 1.5 mm. But what I also did differently is; as the wood departed the machine from the back cutters I turned the board over counter clockwise. This was my thinking, the back cutter has two different angles and the depth of them are different. One has a longer leg. In order to get a complete cut of the front profile I would have to use the longer leg on the shorter profile side....is this making sense to anyone? Any way it came out what I think is very nice. I think i got the right spring angle on the botton and the proper one on the top. I think....If you can decipher any of what I'm talking about let me know if I'm doing this correctly.........

by the way, I did use a piece that was a 1/4 inch less in width than the first attempts. I stayed within the profile of the knives and not out on the outer edges as I did in the beginning......

thank you
Ben