Moulding head cutter

[Ed Blough]

Does anyone have some real experience with moulding head cutters made for Tablesaws or Radial Arm saws?

I have a moulding head cutter that I tried on my SS and do to user error (to deep of cut) I managed to shoot wood all over my shop. It shook me up enough to pack the whole thing away.

However I need to get some moulding cut in maple . I have a pattern I want.
The moulding would be 1 1/4 -1 3/8 inch wide and 3/4 inch thick.
It would have a 1/2 wide/high bull nose with shoulder reveal on either side. This would be against one edge and then a transition off the interior shoulder to 1/4 cove that would end on the edge with a thichness of 1/8-1/4 inch.
I think I have to do two cuts the first with a bullnose cutter then another pass to cut the cove.

If I knew how to post a picture I have a diagram.

How would you do it?

[Ed Blough]

47732

I think I add a diagram of the moulding I wanted to make.

[Richard Wolf]

A couple of things; Those cutters are not designed to make the cut in one pass, use multible passes. Also, do not cut your molding to size and then profile it, keep your stock as large as possible, once you have the molding done, cut it from the main piece.
If you need to hold the wood in a vertical position to do some of the profile, you must use an additional fence on your saw. You can not depend on holding it plumb using the rip fence only.

Richard

[Ed Blough]

I also have a router table and a radial arm saw.

If I use the router I'm not sure how I would make the cuts.

I have just thought of the radial arm with a moulding head cutter. I could turn the power head so it runs parallel to the fence (in rip mode) and then construct a jig to allow the wood to slide through but be held down and against the fence. Then taking light cuts let the wood pass under the cutter. It would be like a horizontal shaft moulding cutter only without a feed rollers.

Now I have got to figure which side to feed from one side would pull the wood in and press it down on the table the other side would push the wood back at you and tend to lift it.

I think I would feed it in the same direction that rips are made on a RAS.

Or would I be better off sticking to a my tablesaw or getting the router bits and doing it on my router table.

I need the moulding in maple and my local mill charges a $40 setup and $1.85 per ft. plus the wood which now going a $6 a bd foot for 4 inch wide stock.

Help I need advice.

[tod evans]

ed, you can profile with just about any machine that`ll spin a cutter, not knowing what cutters you have availabe for which piece of equipment makes it hard to offer set-up advice......richard has given you sound advice on how to cut your profile into a piece larger than what you need and then rip off the excess......one thing i`d like to add is that regardless of the tool it`s wise to build a trap jig that will totally support your work leaving no room for human error. all you want to do is supply feed pressure, the jig should hold the work in relation to the cutter. i would also advise against climb cutting without a feeder, you may waste a little more wood but you`ll keep your fingers;) .....02 tod

[Jim Becker]

Personally, no. But if I were buying one for the TS, I'd go for the Magic Molder. I have seen it in action--my cabinetmaker neighbor owns one--and the results are both outstanding and vibration-free. He uses it mostly for creating his own paneling effects that are in scale with the project at hand rather than making do with molded panels that can be purchased and are quite boring, etc.

[J.R. Rutter]

I'll second the magic moulder. I use it to make beaded panels for cabinet doors, and it works great.

For your moulding, I would probably get a beading bit for the router table, and cut the cove with a cove raised panel cutter. tod's advise on trap fences is right on.

Depends on how much you need, your budget, existing tooling, etc.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I own several of the Sears ones. I use them mostly in softwoods. Biggest problem I have is forgetting to empty barrel on DC. The cutters need to be sharp. To sharpen them, flatten the backside just like you do a chisel. Don't try to sharpen the bevels. When using on radial saw, don't trap stock between the table and cutter though.