Back cutter in Tersa Planer?

[Larry Edgerton]

On my old Powermatic 180 I had a set of knives made that would cut three backcuts in trim at the same time with a adjustable guide I made that bolted to the table.

I now have an SCM with a tersa head so I have been doing backcuts on the shaper, a slow proposition. I would like to do the same with the new planer but have never seen or heard of any custom knives for the Tersa head being made. At 72ftm with enough room for four pieces the SCM would make short work of a pile of trim. Anyone heard of such an animal? I think I could do an 1/8" larger projection which would be fine for a back relief cut. But the tersa knives are so thin, too thin for me to weld or machine and there is no height adjustment. May have to buy an old school planer.

I just picked up a house with all custom trim and would like to get this figured out if possible. Wish I had kept my old planer around really, but hindsight.............

Larry

[Jeff Duncan]

Silly question.....but how are you making the trim? I would think you'd want something along the lines of a W&H molder to make the trim, which would be my first choice for the back cuts as well?

JeffD

[Peter Quinn]

Have you tried giving wood tech tooling a call? My instincts say its not possible given the knives are only 2.3 mm at their thickest, the projection isn't listed but looks like its just under 1/16", probably can't exceed that given knife thickness. We did similar to what you did on the powermatic with an old Buss planer to put reliefs in 20"+ flooring, works like a charm on a traditional head. I do it for a few items on a Hussey now, not as quick as the planer but set up is a no brainer, chip collection is good, and a monkey can feed the thing.

[Larry Edgerton]

Took a closer look today and I am not going to take a chance. Tolerances are just too tight and I can't afford to mess up this planer.

When I downsized I sold my big molder, not enough room or power at my new location out in the sticks. This is a three piece trim that will be made on the shapers, copy of one in the 1870's house the owners have downstate. I have been thinking of buying a Shop Fox copy of a W&H, but they are slow for this operation compared to a planer set up for it. Problem is I have no real tool budget these days, work is still hit and miss here.

Thanks for the replys, Larry

[Peter Quinn]

I have the older shop fox model. 18FPM max, it feels like a crawl compared to a planer, but it might be competitive with a shaper, very easy set up for sure. You might do a little better with a used dc-380 or similar, maybe 26 FPM plus two boards per pass. I wonder if you couldn't purpose an extra 6" jointer with a feeder for the task. I had looked into setting up my 8" for just that, never wound up doing it but it seemed possible. Good luck with it. My own tool budget is zero presently, even if a job has money in it I need to figure a way to get it done as possible with what I have.

[Larry Edgerton]

Peter, keeping overhead low for guys like us just seems the prudent thing to do right now.

I thought about a used 380 or similar as you could do three at a time, but I hate those things. Have been looking for a steal on a large PM, but not too seriously. I had a weak moment and bought a 1967 Volvo Amazon wagon last week, wreaked havoc with my tool fund. But hey, it's really cool! Looks good in front of my schoolhouse.....

I had a large Porter Jointer that was set up by Porter to be used as a moulder and often thought of having a set of knives made for that purpose, the tables slid back to accommodate. The thing was huge and took up too much real estate for the new space, so it had to go.

I'm finding its harder to get along without things you had than things you wish you had. But soon I will be where I want to be and all will be well. I plan on PMing you when I am not so tired, hasn't happened lately.

Later buddy, Larry

[Jeff Duncan]

Well if your going with the shapers for the trim I'd say that's the way to go for the back cuts as well. The nice thing is the steel is pretty cheap, and you can crank up the feeder speed to as fast as you can pitch and catch for such a shallow cut;)

I think one of the toughest things to balance for a small shop is how much space you really need? I can't fit a real molder in my shop, not even close. And I wouldn't have the power to run it if I could, I'd have to invest in upgrading the 3 phase panel:( So I generally don't do too many large trim jobs, just easier to sub them out. Once in a while, when it's an emergency I'll do a run for one of my contractors and it's on the shapers. Right now I'm trying to decide what's going to go as I want to bring in a vertical panel saw. It's tough deciding what you can't keep, but one of the Martin shapers is going as well as one or two other machines. I wish I had the space for all of it, but the budget doesn't allow it so sometimes we have to make do with what we have:o

good luck,
JeffD