Which planers can be used as molding machines? If so, how difficult would it be to get special molding blades made for, say, a Dewalt planer?
- posted
18 years ago
Which planers can be used as molding machines? If so, how difficult would it be to get special molding blades made for, say, a Dewalt planer?
Planer/moulders are customized versions to handle the moulding head/knives. I don't think it's feasible/possible to grind knives for an ordinary planer for moulding. Someone else may have some "trick" I'm unaware of...
The word "impossible" comes to mind...
Dave
Brian Siano wrote:
If so, how difficult
JET JPM-13, for starters.
Jet , Grizzly and Woodmaster machines.Woodmaster is the best in my opinion. mike
Actually, the Williams & Hussey is the best, followed closely by its Shopfox clone, but you have to be willing to put up with a 7" planing width. Blade changes for knives take about 2 minutes with 2 more added to set up the guides.
I'm partial to something on the order of
I have the Jet planer / molder and just for the first time this week made some moldings. Jet makes a multitude of matched set knives for the molder but I needed a custom knife. I originally started thinking I was going to need a matched set of three but when I talked to Ballew in Springfield MO, they had a great deal of experience with the Jet and convinced me that a single knife would suffice. I was making a 4.5" wide piece of molding so I had to remove the planning knives (for widths 2" and under the Jet provides you the opportunity to install the molding knives w/o removing the planing knives. Anyway, Ballew set me up with the custom knife and a gib for it as well as gibs and weights for the other two spots in the cutter head. Price was < $100. I was using 5/4 Cherry and it came out very nicely. It took me about 1 hour to set everything up but I needed to make the bed board and the guide rails. If I didn't have to do that, it would have been about 15 minutes. I'm not sure how long it will take me to put the planer knives back in.
Ballew was against trying to make 3 knives because they didn't have the ability to create a custom set of knives that were perfectly matched and balanced. They also said that most folks with the Jet, only order a single knife unless they're running over 600 feet of molding. But if you're doing that, then the Jet probably isn't the machine you want anyway.
When I ordered the Jet, I had a Delta 13" planer. I originally thought I'd sell it but I have both now. Since I work mutiple projects at once, I'm glad I kept the Delta. I'm still not finished with the molding as I ran out of Cherry but instead of running to buy more (don't feel like making the trip in this St. Louis heat), I just changed projects and am using the Delta to do the planing instead of removing the molding knife from the Jet.
Yeah, met, too, but I kind of doubt that's what the OP had in mind.
You could also use the "Delta Moulding Head" and knives on the TS/RAS.
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I've wished to start a millwork shop, but I'm in such a remote area there's just no demand to justify it... :(
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