Crown Molding - Woodmaster or Freud or Williams Hussey

[John Craig Brown]

I would like to mill some crown molding 4-6 inches and I was wondering is anyone had any experience with the Woodmaster, Freud bits, or Williams Hussey.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi John, although I haven't used the W&H molder, it's well regarded by users.

In order of preferrence for making crown molding I'd select;

- multi head molder

- W&H molder

-shaper with power feeder

When I worked in a wood industry, we ran tens of thousands of feet of molding per shift using gang rip saws and multi head molders.

At home I've made a few hundred feet of molding using a shaper and power feeder. The shaper will require multiple setups, however at least the feeder keeps your fingers safe, and produces high quality surfaces.

People simply aren't strong enough or consistent enough to push material through at a constant feed rate, and apply enough pressure in two directions at once to keep everything flat.

I simply don't make enough moldings to justify a molder, however that's the way to go if you do make a lot of moldings.

I did make hardwood flooring using a jointer, planer, tablesaw and shaper, and boy was it a stack of work. Made me wish I could go back to my old workplace for an hour!

Regards, Rod.

[Steve Jenkins]

I have a 12" woodmaster that I have run a lot of crown and other moldings through. It works fine. I've also run many feet of curved casing for window trim.

[Chip Lindley]

I have always wondered about the Woodmaster, RBI and Craftsman/Belsaw type moulding attachments. With the one knife, how many passes are required to produce a finished profile in hardwood? (white oak being arguably the hardest)

Williams & Hussey/ShopFox, with two cutters seems a smoother set-up. Your input pleeze!?!?

[Neal Clayton]

i run two passes on my woodmaster. one down to a 16th or so, and one finish pass. of course you can order multiple knives if you wish, but i haven't found it necessary yet. i would say it's 80% finish ready after cutting, a couple of passes through a mop sander cleans up the rest. this is with old growth longleaf pine, which is prone to tear a bit, so more stable and consistent woods would be much easier. new pine/poplar/etc. comes out smooth enough to finish in one pass.

the woodmaster is nice since it has a gang rip head on it, which allows you to create 16 foot blanks from twisted/bowed/etc lumber, that's why i wound up with it instead of the other low end molders.

[Jim Hager]

I have the W&H molder now but years ago I ran molding on a foley belsaw/craftsman planer molder. The W&H is a great little machine and does a supurb job making molding. If I had the $$ I'd have a multihead molder but for what I do the smaller machine is a great little tool. Setup on the W&H is easy and the knives are reasonably priced, it does a good job and doesn't have a huge footprint to take up lots of room. I don't regret having purchased mine, had it about 6 years now and have run 3-4 houses full of molding plus everything I do in the shop.

I have run a lot of poplar molding for paint grade stuff and also lots of oak and maple for stain grade molding. The machine handles just about any species I have thrown at it but believe it or not it did not do too well using pin knotty spruce. Dulled the blades something awful.

[Steve Jenkins]

I just have the planer head in my woodmaster and run three knives for the molding profiles. If I'm running crown I will put a single back knife and two counterweights on one end of the cutterhead and the three face profile knives on the other end. I can then run two pieces at a time.

[Chip Lindley]

Steve, please allow me to pick your brain! Seems like setting up 3 knives in a planer-type head would be very tedious at best, with no jack screws for each knife, and the knives are not indexed such as corrugated moulder knives are. These issues have kept me from considering one of these type planer-moulders. But you have seen success! Hmmmm...

[Neal Clayton]

if you use the straight knife planer head on the woodmaster for your molding knives, there are jack screws.

[Steve Jenkins]

Chip, actually I just bottom out the knives. When I have them sharpened I tell the folks that do my sharpening that I can't set them individually and they take extra care to make sure they match. I have had quite a few custom knife sets made and have had no problems with them either.

[John M. Smith]

I made crown using the Freud cutters on a router table. It came out needing no sanding. I did however use a power feeder. Much cheaper than buying a moulder or shaper cutters. I am going to make all the crown for my house this way.

[Dave Bureau]

I have a W&H machine and like it alot. not to repeat what others have said. I have run some 3 1/2" cherry crown through the machine along with some Jatoba. Very nice finish and no tearout.
Dave

[Chip Lindley]

I understand (To Neil above) there are two jack screws per slot, toward either end of the cutter head, but imo these would be useless to adjust a 3" wide knife.

Steve, thanks for explaining how you bottom out your moulding set, thus each knife must be machined exactly the same height to succeed on this machine. I am sure that is what a good grinding shop gets paid for. When resharpened, is the profile reground, OR the back ground to produce a new edge? One of those Questions that makes me go ....Hmmmmm???

[Steve Clardy]

I just have the planer head in my woodmaster and run three knives for the molding profiles. If I'm running crown I will put a single back knife and two counterweights on one end of the cutterhead and the three face profile knives on the other end. I can then run two pieces at a time.



Same machine here, same procedure. I also run 3 knives in the planer head.

Thats the way I got started when I used my old belsaw 912, and I just carried over and use the same knives and setup.

[Joe Von Kaenel]

John,

I have a woodmaster 712 an with a single knife it does a very good job with crown molding. WM also sells a high production knife holder that runs to knives, they can make and balance 2 sets of knives, jibs to work together.

One of the key issues is WOOD MOISTURE. If it is greater than 14% then it affects the molding quite a bit.

Are you starting with rough saw lumber? If you are able to get it cheaply then that is great. If you are buying lumber from a lumber yard then it is usually cheaper to purchase premade crown molding at one of the big box stores. Hope this helps

Joe

[Neal Clayton]

I understand (To Neil above) there are two jack screws per slot, toward either end of the cutter head, but imo these would be useless to adjust a 3" wide knife.

Steve, thanks for explaining how you bottom out your moulding set, thus each knife must be machined exactly the same height to succeed on this machine. I am sure that is what a good grinding shop gets paid for. When resharpened, is the profile reground, OR the back ground to produce a new edge? One of those Questions that makes me go ....Hmmmmm???

i have the 18" woodmaster, there are 3 per slot on it, one on each end and in the center. assuming the back of the knife is square, i don't see why you couldn't use them to adjust the height of the knives on the planer blade height screws (although like steve i just bottom mine out).

they do have a shaper style straight knife head that fits on the thinner shaft they give you with the woodmaster, although i haven't used it since i have the spiral head for planing, and therefore no use for the straight knife planer head other than molding knives. it might have height screws on it? dunno, i tossed it in the bottom of a toolbox and never looked at it.

[Brian Coe]

Neal,

How does the spiral head work for you in the Woodmaster? I have one of the 25" units, and I have thought about getting the insert cutterhead for it. I get a little more snipe than i want with the standard cutterhead, and I was wondering if this was reduced with the spiral head? Thanks for any reports on how well it does or doesn't work.

Brian

[Neal Clayton]

it won't reduce snipe, i still get about 3-4 inches of snipe unless i follow with a sacrificial board.

it will give a smoother cut, and by nature of the beast eliminate any 'rippling' that you might get from the straight knives, but due to the rubber rollers having a bit of flex, any board with any semblance of weight will still snipe a bit (unless it's perfectly flat and perfectly supported full length, but i haven't ever seen a 16 board that's the former, and don't have the means to accomplish the latter ;))