Magic Moulder on Sawstop?

[J.R. Rutter]

Anyone out there using the LRH Magic Moulder on a Sawstop? If so, how?

I needed to run some V-groove panels today, the first time since changing to Sawstop. I ended up with a 10 gauge copper wire attached to the dado break cartridge and bent close enough to the arbor to pick up the signal... Not elegant, but the warranty is intact, as opposed to wiring in an override and breaking the seal on the contactor. I hated to defeat the safety system, but The MM is such a versatile cutter, and I don't want another saw dedicated to it.

[david kramer]

JR,

I don't get the bit about the the wire and the signal etc. But it sounds like you're defeating the stop mechanism using a home-grown solution. You can disable the sawstop mechanism, check your manual.

David

[Steve Jenkins]

J.R. look in your manual for bypass mode. It will tell you how to start the saw without the cartridge working.Keep in mind though that if you shut it off and restart without going through the bypass process the cartridge will be enabled.

[J.R. Rutter]

No can do on the bypass. The cartridge absolutely has to detect the blade teeth within 1/16". It will not go into bypass mode if the blade, or in this case moulder head, is not close enough. I called Sawstop to discuss this and they said your only 2 options are 10" saw blade or 8" dado set.

In the end, the fastest way to get around it was to fool the system into thinking that all was good and running in normal mode. It was a bit of a shocker to find out about this limitation.

[Chris Padilla]

Interesting. I guess using one of those table saw sanding disks might present the same issue?

[Richard Bazemore]

Can you report on how well the MM / SS combination performed? How did the SS handle the extra mass? Cut performance?

[J.R. Rutter]

Hmmm, I used to run an aluminum sanding disk in my old saw. Since going to a big edge sander, I don't see myself using it much on the SS. Not sure if it has to be steel to pick up the current or not...

The MM worked very well. Nice smooth cuts even at a moderate feed rate. No chatter marks. The vibration is a non-issue with the MM. It is a well made head. The hardest part was making a zero clearance insert because of the combination of hold downs and leveling feet on the SS. But it worked out just fine.

[Mike Heidrick]

JR,

Once you fooled it to pass diags - could you then put it in bypass mode? I would think running it in normal mode you have the risk of the brake firing and ruining the MM?

I don't plan to try this but I appreciate you letting us know how you did it.

[Scott Myers]

JR,

How about a post showing us your wire jury rig. It makes sense what you are saying and I don't know if I would ever need to do what you did, but its good to sock away such info in the memory banks.

Thanks.

[Kevin Groenke]

Clever work-around J.R., we used to use an old craftsman molding head occasionally which I'd assumed we'd be unable to use it anymore. So, were you running the wire you mention so that it's within 1/16" of the tips of the molder or the side of the molder?

I don't think using a sanding disc would be a problem on the SS, as long as you can get the brake within ~1/8" of whatever metal is attached to the arbor, the cartridge should detect the current and the saw motor should spool up. I wouldn't run a sanding disc without bypassing the system, the likelihood of a ground seems pretty high and I doubt the brake cartridge would stop a disc without teeth on it anyway.

The brake cartridge has quite a bit of adjustability, we sometimes use 7-1/4" blades which the 8" dado cartridge has just enough travel to get close enough to.

-kg

[Brad Shipton]

JR:
Not to get off topic, but hows the new shaper?

[J.R. Rutter]

Good point on the bypass mode - if the wire shifted into anything, maybe that would trip it.

All I did was strip the end of the wire, kink it enough so that it press fit into one of the holes in the aluminum block of the brake, and bent it up and around. I found that having it sensing the end of the arbor worked better than trying to get it right up to the aluminum body of the MM. It got put back into service as a saw right afterwards, so I didn't take any photos.

[J.R. Rutter]

JR:
Not to get off topic, but hows the new shaper?

Oh man, the new shaper is great! Although I did discover that one of the spindles is a 30mm, which meant that I had to go find a second, even more super duper version with electronic positioning for fence and spindle that comes with 10 spindles (!!!) I will be extra gloaty with pictures when it finally arrives....

[Brad Shipton]

JR: Looking forward to hear how much more efficient you think the full digital works out to be. No worries about the gloating, pretty darn sweet machine you picked up.

Brad