Unknown shaper cutterheads

[Patrick Kane]

Looking at a few used shaper cutterheads, and I’ve never heard of these brands before. Gladu, misenheimer, and EK Wood. Gladu, might be a Canadian company that looks like they make spiral moulder heads, but these are all insert heads. Can’t find anything in ek wood, and misenheimer might be a custom outfit out of TN, misenheimer saw company. Any of you folks know of these brands? Good, bad, ok? They are insert heads, so I don’t particular care if they are still in business or not, because I can have kniv3s made at a few places. Oddly enough, I think a few of them might be 40mm and 45mm.

[J.R. Rutter]

Gladu and Misenheimer are both good industrial grade companies. I just happen to get my cope and stick inserts from Misenheimer.

[Larry Edgerton]

I have Gladu, still in business and good cutters.

[Patrick Kane]

Good, I assume the other brands are decent quality if these two are recognized as solid manufacturers. Doesn’t make sense that a shop would have bought grizzly and high end custom tooling. 30 cutterheads are on their way, so we’ll see what I purchased when they get here. Thanks for confirming I didn’t buy crap!

[Phillip Gregory]

I'd expect a cabinet shop to buy both high-dollar stuff and cheap junk. They want to make money. They will buy an expensive Freeborn set for stuff they run all of the time so they can (and will) resharpen it 10 times, but buy a cheap essentially disposable Grizzly cutter for something they rarely use. You see quite the mix of top-quality stuff and absolute garbage in a cabinet shop. The thing that should not surprise you is that they extract every dollar they can out of all of it and everything they sell if they are still a going concern will be worn out/need a major overhaul. Expect very beaten up, poorly repaired, poorly maintained, and generally "bubba'd up" high end equipment and worn-out low-end equipment out of a shop. The only exception is if the shop went out of business, you may find some nicer stuff still with some obvious life left in it. I have bought some of the high end stuff out of shops and none of it was usable when I bought it but I was able to get it back in service with a lot of time and effort as nothing unrepairable was broken. Just know what isn't working and if it's fixable (new bearings, electrical/wiring issues, a good thorough cleaning to remove 50 years worth of crud, etc.) or not. The owners may be cheap but if it's fixable with a large amount of time, that's the same to them as unfixable as time = money and they won't fix it if it takes much time to fix.

[Patrick Kane]

This might be my ignorance coming out, but is it actually possible to wear out an insert cutterhead? The only thing that wears is a replaceable cutter. Unless you were talking generally about machines out of cabinet shops. In that case, i agree, and ive only purchased machines for dirt dirt cheap. The ones i have from auctions were purchased with the intent of stripping them down completely. I replaced the motor, belts, bearings, and electrical on my unisaw. Pretty much kept the top and the trunnions.

[Patrick Kane]

This follow up is mostly for anyone that might search in the future. EK WOOD is not a brand. Every cutterhead marked with EK WOOD is actually manufactured by riverside tool in Indiana. Hopefully helps clarify for people in the future going off limited information and photos like I did.

[John Kee]

http://www.napgladu.com/news-item-20150422.html, not Canadian, based in your country, they bought a mediocre sharpening/tool service in Toronto.

[Martin Wasner]

I'd expect a cabinet shop to buy both high-dollar stuff and cheap junk. They want to make money. They will buy an expensive Freeborn set for stuff they run all of the time so they can (and will) resharpen it 10 times, but buy a cheap essentially disposable Grizzly cutter for something they rarely use. You see quite the mix of top-quality stuff and absolute garbage in a cabinet shop. The thing that should not surprise you is that they extract every dollar they can out of all of it and everything they sell if they are still a going concern will be worn out/need a major overhaul. Expect very beaten up, poorly repaired, poorly maintained, and generally "bubba'd up" high end equipment and worn-out low-end equipment out of a shop. The only exception is if the shop went out of business, you may find some nicer stuff still with some obvious life left in it. I have bought some of the high end stuff out of shops and none of it was usable when I bought it but I was able to get it back in service with a lot of time and effort as nothing unrepairable was broken. Just know what isn't working and if it's fixable (new bearings, electrical/wiring issues, a good thorough cleaning to remove 50 years worth of crud, etc.) or not. The owners may be cheap but if it's fixable with a large amount of time, that's the same to them as unfixable as time = money and they won't fix it if it takes much time to fix.

Somebody has a sore taste in their mouth.

I say depends on the shop. I live and die by my tools so I buy the best I can afford and take as good of care of them as I know how. The other knuckle draggers that don't understand that though....

I've found cheap tools or tooling costs way too much.

[Phillip Gregory]

Somebody has a sore taste in their mouth.

I say depends on the shop. I live and die by my tools so I buy the best I can afford and take as good of care of them as I know how. The other knuckle draggers that don't understand that though....

I've found cheap tools or tooling costs way too much.

There's no sore taste, I've just seen a lot of used professional cabinet shop equipment and tooling come up for sale. Why would a business that is still a going concern sell a good, usable piece of equipment that has already been depreciated? They either no longer need it or it's no longer usable.

[Martin Wasner]

Why would a business that is still a going concern sell a good, usable piece of equipment that has already been depreciated? They either no longer need it or it's no longer usable.

Or they upgraded.

[Mel Fulks]

I've posted before about poor management over sight of machines and tooling. If a company fills any orders for custom
mouldings ,I think all tooling should be retained and all who can't find a place in the shop to store valuble stuff dismissed to seek their fortune else where. Being able to make a few feet of odd moulding by using existing cutters is a valueble skill. Even if it takes two or three set ups.

[peter gagliardi]

This might be my ignorance coming out, but is it actually possible to wear out an insert cutterhead? The only thing that wears is a replaceable cutter. Unless you were talking generally about machines out of cabinet shops. In that case, i agree, and ive only purchased machines for dirt dirt cheap. The ones i have from auctions were purchased with the intent of stripping them down completely. I replaced the motor, belts, bearings, and electrical on my unisaw. Pretty much kept the top and the trunnions.

The short answer is yes.
I bought some brand new flooring cutterheads when I got my Weinig molder made by Great Lakes Carbide.
You have to follow their torque values for clamping the cutter insert very specifically- I always thought it too much.
In any event, one day after replacing about the 10th or 12th set of inserts, the steel head would no longer reach torque value- always with a good quality torque wrench.
Called Weinig, they told me that was the end of the useful life of the heads. Didn't buy that brand to replace.
So, yes they do go bad.

[Alex Tonin]

A well-made steel body insert cutter should have a useful life in decades, not years. I work for Rangate (we make high-performance insert cutters), and we have cutters in shops that have been running at industrial production volume since we started 10 years ago, with no issues reported.