Advice please. Woodmaster planer/moulder

[thomas prusak]

I have a powermatic 8" jointer, a 13" Dewalt planer and a 38"woodmaster drumsander. I'm considering getting a woodmaster 18" planer moulder. I want to be able to make my own mouldings and I would be gaining 18" planing capacity. Knowing what machines I have would I be better off buying a dedicated moulder and pass on the woodmaster? Or will I be gaining more options with the woodmaster 18"?

[Jim Andrew]

I use my woodmaster mostly as a planer. Have the extra attachments, and have only used it as a molder and planer. The drum sander attachment is too much trouble to change to for sanding, and I use my tablesaw to rip pieces to width, having never used the woodmaster to rip. I do have the insert cutterhead, and use the 3 knife cutterhead for molding. The molder works very well considering you only use one knife, and the knife stays sharp much longer than I expected. I cut the 4" dust outlet off and welded on a 6", and my 2 hp cyclone does a pretty good job of cleaning up after it. Maybe a chip or 2 left after planing.

[Neal Clayton]

i use mine as an every day planer. it does have some snipe due to the rubber rollers. not a lot you can do about that outside of the usual methods (boards end to end, light on the last pass, etc.). people seem to complain about the straight knives. i had the spiral head since day 1 so can't comment on that.

as a molder it works fine for me. obviously won't be as fast as a tens of thousands of dollars dedicated multi head molder, but for the price it's fine for my purposes.

someone else commented that a competent welder/machinist could build one with a trip to grainger for pulleys and parts and a weekend of spare time ;). i agree. it's a pretty simple machine, the small bed is the only cast part, the rest is welded steel and off the shelf parts. but the upside of that is easy maintenance, and it works, so i'm happy with it.