W&H Molder-It works!-Pics

[John Miliunas]

And so, we come to the final chapter in the restore of the W&H Molder, which I dug out of the "Woodshop in the Woods". Turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. The "finishing touch" was adding on some chip collection, which works pretty dern well. And, upon my friend's suggestion, I went back to the "Woodshop in the Woods" and searched for the "plastic tackle box", where he thought he'd left some cutters for it. I did and he was right! They too had a healthy coat of rust on them, but 3 or 4 of the sets had obviously not even been used! In all, I ended up with 10 sets of cutters, plus the planer knives (which I doulbt I'll use.) So, was the restoration fun? Surprisingly yes, in a real certain way it was fun. Would I do it again? Heck yeah, even if I paid twice the price! :D The attached pics speak for themselves and thanks for taking a peek! :cool:

[Jim Harsha]

Good Score!! That shop of yours must be filling up pretty quickly.
p.s. how's the sprayer?

[John Miliunas]

Good Score!! That shop of yours must be filling up pretty quickly.
p.s. how's the sprayer?

Yeah Jim, it IS filling up! Still need to get a table setup for the vacuum press, though I think I might just find a spot on the wall and hinge it out of the way when not in use.

Fired up the sprayer a couple weekends ago! Works just fine, though my own technique leaves a bit to be desired! Tried out the Target Coating water-based lacquer. Nice stuff, though I need to throttle back on the volume, as my vertical panels dig get some runs. The ones laying flat up turned out just fine. Practice, practice, practice! :cool:

[Walt Pater]

John- Congrats on getting it up and running! I think that the "restoration gloats" deserve the highest praise. And what a score on the knives. Waht a find! Walt.

[Dale Thompson]

John,
You must be an immigrant. REAL Wisconsin folks don't have that kind of talent. However, since you are demonstrably good at removing rust and restoring a fine edge to old, over-the-hill stuff, would you mind stopping by and giving me a quote on ME? :eek:

Nice work. Nice molding. Nice guy! I'll bet that you don't even HAVE a scrapbox. ;)

Dale T.

[Jim Becker]

Great job on that molder, John. It should prove to be very useful in your shop...despite the high price! :D Congrats!

[Chris Pasko]

Dude, thats sweet, I would love to have that machine =). Awesome job! Great addition to the shop!

[John Miliunas]

Thanks to all your your kind comments! Not even sure I'd have thought about asking him nor, even attempting to do the refurb, were it not for the suggestions and encouragement of my fellow Creeker's! It *is* a sweet machine. I thought it might be closer to the speed of my planer or drum sander. Wrong. This thing really cruises! I'm still going to make a sled or two for the platten, so that guide setup is faster, easier AND safer, which should help in the efficiency, as well.

Oh, and Dale, I *am* an immigrant, though I consider myself to be a REAL Wisconsinite, seeing as to how that "immigration" happened 31+ years ago! Since then, it's been cheese, brats, beer and the Pack! :cool:

[Jim Becker]

You know, once you learn how to mill the straight stuff, it's on to curved moldings, etc... There be a lot of neat projects in that there machine!

[Mark Singer]

John,
It is nice to see a great guy get a great deal! Which is not always the case....but, even those things that start out a little bad sometimes end on a very positive note. ....soon! ;)

[John Miliunas]

You know, once you learn how to mill the straight stuff, it's on to curved moldings, etc... There be a lot of neat projects in that there machine!

"Curved moldings"??? Sheeeesh....I kant herdly spel kurved mouldins! :D But, it does show how to make the jig for it in the manual I received from W&H. In the meantime, I need to perfect this straight stock molding, first! :cool:

[John Miliunas]

John,
It is nice to see a great guy get a great deal! Which is not always the case....but, even those things that start out a little bad sometimes end on a very positive note. ....soon! ;)

Mark, thanks for the kind words! Yeah, every now and again, it truly is nice to catch a break. Now I just need to figure out a nice gift for the donor of this machine. The guy simply doesn't "need" anything, although I do know he's a Disney freak, so I may have to approach his wife and see if there's some collectible which he doesn't have. (Fat chance on that, too!) :cool:

[Mike Cutler]

Nice job John!!. It's great to see that a machine of that quality was "rescued" restored and returned to the service it was intended. It's apparent that you put alot of effort into the project, and it shows. Once again. Job well done.

[Tyler Howell]

Ok..... I agree with the rest it is nice even if you used cheese to get the rust off:rolleyes:. Do you want me to sharpen the cutters when I bring it back or do you prefer to do it yourself??:cool:

[Stan Smith]

Good for you John. Nice that you have the talent for such an endeavor. There's a combo mill/museum, in Eureka, Ca., where the guy literally went out and rescued abandomed equipment from the blackberry bushes that local mills had discarded. He's got a lathe that can turn a 16' ballister and a hand machine that cuts curved points on boards for picket fence. The guy is a blacksmith as well and has made stuff for the Whitehouse. His main business is restoration of mouldings, bannisters, etc. for victorian homes worldwide. Just think where you can go from here, John ;) ;)

Stan

[Brad Hammond]

holy crap you did a good job!! that was some tedious work and my hat is off to you!
great job!

[John Weber]

SWEET! Man that is about the best gloat I've seen in a long time. Great selection of cutters. Super job on the restoration, I should add it to my restoration web page.

Wat to go - John

[John Miliunas]

You guys are WAY too gracious! Let's see if I can properly address the remaining comments.

Mike, "rescued" is probably a good term. Too much longer and that poor, old building will collapse in and around itself! The effort was worth it.

Tyler, .....What can I say? You just don't give up, do you? :D

Stan, I honestly didn't know I had a "talent" for doing something like this! I never considered myself a mekanik, so it sort of surprised me, too! That fellow doing the major restores sounds like *he's* the one with the extreme talent! Mine started as a way to fulfill a need and ended up being a labor of love. Heck, I've got a brand new Leigh D-4 and VacuPress both, which I received during the course of the restore and neither of which are yet setup! The W&H is in "production" mode!

Brad, yes, it was kinda' crappy when I got it and nothing "holy" about it! Fact is, during the process, some rather "un-holy" things were muttered! :rolleyes:

John, I admit it: My own personal "best" gloat to date! It'd be an honor to have it on your page, but it's not a Delta/Rockwell. It *is*, however, completely built in the good old US of A! It was great just pulling out my SAE set instead of the Metrics or, as in a lot of cases today, BOTH! :rolleyes:

As an aside, while going through the manual, there are instructions for making different height guides and for using a sub-base for cutters which require cutting down completely to the bottom of the stock (round-overs, for instance). Anyhow, after a bit of checking, I found that all the cutters (for straight molding, at least) index from the same starting point. Lining up the guides each time to be exactly parallel is a PITA. So, I cut a couple sub-bases, with Melamine laminate, then dadoed a permanent slot in them to accept a standard width guide. Now, I just slap the sub-base on, put in the indexing guide and use my stock to line up the opposite guide. 100% on the money every time! Actually, don't know why they don't include instructions like that in the manual. If this old cheesehead can figure it out.... :D Thanks again, guys! :cool:

[Charles McKinley]

Hi John,

That machine looks like new! I hope that it provides you many years of gereat service. I hope your friend will let you rescue the rest of his tools after he sees this. After getting him something from the store make him something really nice that comes from you. I'm sure that he will appreciate it.

[John Miliunas]

After getting him something from the store make him something really nice that comes from you. I'm sure that he will appreciate it.

Thanks Charles! I certainly DO intend on crafting something nice for him. I need to get some more info from his wife, first. I thought maybe some type of display case for part of his Disney collection. :cool: