WGM Toolworks

[Mark Gibney]

Anyone know this company? Their website shows nicely machined cutterheads, but I can find no other reference to them on the world wide web.

https://www.wgm-toolworks.com/

Have they been in business long? Are their products made overseas (or here, doubtful). Is the quality dependable?

thank, Mark

[Richard Coers]

With sentences like this, it may just be a cheap import business. "We have capable mechanical engineers available to help our customers design helical cutterheads and provide engineering advices"

[Mark Gibney]

I think you might be on to something there Richard !

[Brian Gumpper]

Some quick research led me to a Chinese name so I'm going to say imported. I assumed so at those prices. They remind me of the original Grizzly spiral heads that didn't have a shear angle.

[Mark Gibney]

Well spotted Brian, I hadn't noticed that.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Whenever I see a business that uses a gmail account for email, I'm always suspicious.

Yep - the address they list is a UPS Store. That pretty much pegs my scam meter.

[Patty Hann]

With sentences like this, it may just be a cheap import business. "We have capable mechanical engineers available to help our customers design helical cutterheads and provide engineering advices"

HAHA...excellent! No doubt using a stock photo as well.

[Mark Gibney]

I kept and still have the little label that came with a cap I bought twenty something years ago. It reads -

Jae Won cap
Always does his best
The model for which all cap

No way I could throw that poetry into the bin of history.
Like all great art it poses more questions than answers.

[Charles Shore]

I have purchased six cutter heads from WGM TOOLWORKS GREAT cutter heads at a very reasonable price. I have been very satisfied with the cutter heads I have one in a Powematic 225 planer one a Powematic 180 planer one in a Delta RJ 42 jointer two in Grizzly G1021 planers one in a 8 inch Jet jointer they all give a very smooth finish. My latest cutter is for a Porter cable 653 versa plane can't wait to see how it does. Sam Guo at WGM Toolworks provides great customer service the longest I had to wait for a cutter was 4 weeks fast service with a great product.

[Tom M King]

Interesting first post. Thanks for the advices.

[Richard Coers]

I have purchased six cutter heads from WGM TOOLWORKS GREAT cutter heads at a very reasonable price. I have been very satisfied with the cutter heads I have one in a Powematic 225 planer one a Powematic 180 planer one in a Delta RJ 42 jointer two in Grizzly G1021 planers one in a 8 inch Jet jointer they all give a very smooth finish. My latest cutter is for a Porter cable 653 versa plane can't wait to see how it does. Sam Guo at WGM Toolworks provides great customer service the longest I had to wait for a cutter was 4 weeks fast service with a great product.
Let's see the pictures. Highly unusual to have 4 planers and 2 jointers. I'm very skeptical, but your English isn't perfect yet unless you changed the company name to WGM TOOLWORKS GREAT.

[Charles Shore]

I have a cabinet shop in Silverhill Alabama this is just some of the equipment I have . I have 2 Ritter R 10 Shapers 1 Ritter R 30 Shaper 1 Ritter R 46 Line bore machine 1 Delta RS 15 Shaper 1 Weaver Shaper 1 Delta 20" Bandsaw 1 43" SCMI Wide belt sander 1 Ritter pocket hole machine 2 Powematic 66 Tablesaw 1 Powematic 27 Super Shaper 1 Delta 10" right tilt Tablesaw 1 Blum hinge bore machine. I easily have over $200,000.00 in equipment come to Silverhill and I will show you what I have!!!

[Richard Coers]

But why 4 thickness planers? Probably a couple of those should be replaced with a 5 head Weinig machine that will do 10 times the work of 2 thickness planers.

[Kent A Bathurst]

But why 4 thickness planers? Probably a couple of those should be replaced with a 5 head Weinig machine that will do 10 times the work of 2 thickness planers.

Mayhaps, but not necessarily. LFPM throughput would be lights-out difference. BUT - small custom lots with multiple profiles are fast to set up on the thickness planers which are dirt cheap comparatively.

Setup can be interminable on a Weinig, et.al. And there is a big difference in skill level. Process design and throughput was my raison d'etre for dog years in softwood manufacturing for a lotta big players, lotta multi-head molders, yada yada. Doesn't make me any kind of a wizard, Richard - just a cat with bruises and splinters.

The game isn't won by fastest molding/planing speed, it is won by lowest total cost out-the-door.

If you are running one specific profile for a lot of footage, then sure. Get that rascal set up, tee it up, and let it rip. The secondary processes come into play as well - if you run it at 150 - 300 LFPM, then you gotta feed it that fast, you gotta stack it off that fast, and you have to pull the waste that fast. Many times the 5-head molder was cheaper than everything than the other parts needed to make it effective.

But it does do what it does do, if that is what you need it to do. You're dead-on about that, Sir.

[Richard Coers]

The game isn't won by fastest molding/planing speed, it is won by lowest total cost out-the-door.


Exactly. And lowest total cost out the door these days is based on less labor. That means more speed on the machine and less people running the machines is how you dramatically reduce labor costs and achieve that lowest total cost out-the -door. And I'm not always talking molding. You can set up a Weinig with straight knives and get a much higher quality product out the end with S4S lumber in one pass. Throw in depreciation on the new machine on taxes and he would be way ahead in short order.

[Warren Lake]

these convos are pointless in a way non of it is this or that. old guy ran 12 stickers a day with a bigger shop than anyone here x 20 and that company still went down years after he left. Have lots of jointers and planers so what. The lowest price out the door is not right either. id be gone if thats the case, Choose your sandbox wisely.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Exactly. And lowest total cost out the door these days is based on less labor. That means more speed on the machine and less people running the machines is how you dramatically reduce labor costs and achieve that lowest total cost out-the -door. And I'm not always talking molding. You can set up a Weinig with straight knives and get a much higher quality product out the end with S4S lumber in one pass. Throw in depreciation on the new machine on taxes and he would be way ahead in short order.

I was attempting to recognize an expanded universe which includes short run, custom products, requiring frequent changeovers. 5-head changeover on a Weinig is non-trivial in terms of consuming machine time and expert labor. Low-volume moldings, for example. This changes the cost equation. As in 4-5 setups per shift - done that too many times.

On the planet of long-run S4S, the machine setups will remain unchanged for long periods. Heck - I worked with one process where the setup never changed - only for swapping in cutterheads with newly sharpened knives. I mean never in a 2-year period. And it wasn't S4S - it was moldings.

We are talking past each other, it seems. Be well.

[Charles Shore]

When you have a area making cabinet doors a area making face frames and a area making interior and exterior doors you need the straightest material. A machine that does s4s lumber will not straighten and flatten material that is why I have the 2 jointers and 4 planers and if one goes down you have backups. You get the highest quality when you do things the right way. You can't make a eight foot tall door with a machine that does s4s in one pass.

[Warren Lake]

Charles originally I got a back up machine when the General broke likely 3 diff times when i had tight deadlines. SCM came up from a special guy and hoped for no issues. Bought a second same another special guy thinking just in case. Neither ever let me down.

you are thinking with work station areas. Martin that was here had work stations around his shop fully equipped all the stuff for the function its own dust collection etc. You stroll in do the work then off to the next place all set up for that function. That is smart thinking.

I buy machines before I need them or in case I need them you read often people cant find a machine for sale when they want them. Finding used is an ongoing job. Had to buy a wide belt drum sander part way into a job as the material was not consistent. Paid the most for that of any machine but had to have it right then.

[Ronald Blue]

Maybe someone else wouldn't feel this to be important. Looking at the 8" cutter head for a Delta DJ-20 compared to the Byrd Shelix it only has 4 rows of 8 inserts rather than 5 rows. So 32 versus 40. Somehow I feel this has to lower the finish quality. Buy once cry once IMHO.

[Pierre Chartier]

I have a cabinet shop in Silverhill Alabama this is just some of the equipment I have . I have 2 Ritter R 10 Shapers 1 Ritter R 30 Shaper 1 Ritter R 46 Line bore machine 1 Delta RS 15 Shaper 1 Weaver Shaper 1 Delta 20" Bandsaw 1 43" SCMI Wide belt sander 1 Ritter pocket hole machine 2 Powematic 66 Tablesaw 1 Powematic 27 Super Shaper 1 Delta 10" right tilt Tablesaw 1 Blum hinge bore machine. I easily have over $200,000.00 in equipment come to Silverhill and I will show you what I have!!!


How do you like that Ritter R 30?
Im looking at a used one online and really have no idea if its a decent machine. We are a small custom cabinet shop in the Northeast and we make Face Frame, inset cabinets.