I've got a W&H molder that I bought about a year ago. I've run probably 2
0r 3 thousand feet of material through it so far. It's really great for doing restoration work or additions where you are trying to match an existing profile. Just take a small piece of the old molding down, cut it off square and trace around it and send it off to have the cutter ground.
I bought mine to make new trim for the interior of my home. So far I've made some 8" baseboard, 4" casing, 3-1/2" chair rail and 5" backer, and a 3 piece built up crown mold. All this was run out of 3/4" MDF. It looks great after painting.
I recently purchased and installed an aftermarket variable speed drive and elipticial jig. The variable speed drive makes a huge inprovement in the versitility of the machine, and does away the the stupid leaking oil cup on the standard feed roller drive. The aftermarket elepticial jig is much nicer (but also more expensive, but worth it) than the W&H jig.
Shop Fox recently came out with a clone of the W&H for about half the price. I have seen the sitting side by side and they are VERY similar. I don't know if the aftermarket equipment would fit or not, I didn't look that closely.
Rick