Using the moulder part of a Foley Belsaw planer moulder

[Jerome Sidley]

I purchased the Foley-Belsaw planer moulder a couple of years ago and have used it for planing but not as of yet for moulding. it came with a couple of profiles, one knife and some weights to balance the other two slots.
I have a project coming up where I need to reproduce the base moulding in the century house we live in. I lucked out and found a profile copy shaper so I can grind my own knives.
would I be better to grind 3 knives? my thinking is it would give a better finish and each knife would be taking a smaller cut.
while I'm at it any tips or running this machine as a moulder would be great.
Thanks all.

[John TenEyck]

Three knives will cut smoother and last a lot longer than one, but getting all three knives perfectly aligned is a bit of a challenge. I never used the stock bed board and side guides much with mine. It was easier to take a piece of plywood and screw wood edge guides onto it. That allowed me to customize it for the job at hand.

That is such a simple machine that you will learn how to use it for moldings in short order. Unlike the Williams and Hussey molder I now have you don't have to take full depth cuts with the Foley Belsaw. The feed rollers will engage much sooner which allows you to take shallow cuts which is very helpful when working with some woods. If you are going to run thousands of feet with it be sure to move the knives around on the cutterhead for each job to avoid excess abuse to only one area of the rollers.

John