Moulder Knives

[Greg M]

For those that use a Williams and Hussey or Shop Fox moulder where do you buy your knives, catalog and/or custom knives?  Are there any knife features that I should look for?

I could also use some tips on how to use my Shop Fox 1812.  I bought it 2 years ago (got a clearance price on a new one) but haven't gotten around to using it yet.  I've been reading up on it and watching what few videos there are on it.  I see that some knives require you to use a bedboard and others don't.  Looking to get enough info before I start using it so that I don't damage it.  Got it to make my own moulding for cabinets that I make. 

 

[jmarkflesher]

Take a look at  www.template-services.com  MARK

 

[Rollin22Petes]

These are great little machines for no more than cost we have two of them in shop for all of our moulding needs. I would definitely us a bedboard to protect the cutters from damage as depending on the profile some will need to cut into the board. As for cutters I have a local guy who does my cnc tooling make and sharpen them if you check some of the local cabinet shops I'm sure there's somebody in your area. One of the things to watch is to make sure they are made of .25'' material some are made of .1875'' and they tend to vibrate and can give you a poor finish on larger profiles one other thing to consider if having custom knife made is the swing of the knife you have to make sure there's proper clearance. You could also get cutters directly from Williams&hussey they have a pretty good selection of stock knifes and can also make custom profiles to your specs there really good people to work with. As for running moulding don't try and make it in one pass a few lighter passes will give a better finish and is easier on the machine just make sure the feed rollers engage the work piece you can get a nasty kickback if there not engaged and the cutter make contact with the material been there done that. One last thing to note I would not run anything shorter than about 18'' in my experience it's harder to control I hope this helps once you get the hang of the machine you'll love but you can sink a small fortune in cutters very fast. Good luck Chris

 

[Knight Woodworks]

              www.cggschmidt.com

I've tried a few suppliers including W&H and prefer Schmidt for both stock and custom knives.

As was mentioned, a bed board is a really good idea. Make sure both feed rollers are in contact with the work piece. Multiple passes are good.

Expect to sand your moldings.

Once you get started you may find that the cost of the machine is just a down payment on cutters.

John

 

[Greg M]

Do you guys make your own bed boards or do you buy them?  If you make your own do you have to wax them so that the moulding will side easier over the wood bed board?

 

[justinh]

I make my own and out of a combination of 3/4" ply and 1/2" mdf.  I have t-track bedded in to add guides or sleds. Ply forms base and mdf spaces the surface up for the tracks.

 

[Knight Woodworks]

Mine is 3/4" melamine a few inches longer than the base, no need to wax. Drilled and tapped the cast iron base to screw it down. For fences, I use narrow strips which have been notched to accomidate the rollers and clamp them to my sub base with C clamps.

John