charnwood spindle molders

[Alexfn]

Does anyone have experience of the charnwood spindle molder? They have big discounts on them this weekend.

At the price im tempted to take a chance.

http://www.yandles.co.uk/mobile/spindle-moulders/c634
Thoughts?

 

[heimlaga]

They seem to be very lightweight and with little power.

The spindle moulder in my combination machine has a 2,2kW three phase motor and in my oppinion anything less would be underpowered even if hand fed. I find a larger table and stiffer frame to be a great improvement safetywise because long workpieces on a small table tend to go astray especially if the machine flexes or moves around. Hand feeding is normally sufficient for hobby use though.

If you want to run a stock feeder with rasonable speed you need a 3 or 4 kW motor at least.

Honestly I look forward to the day when I can put my l'Invincibile T160 to use. Larger table and stiffer frame than the little spindlemoulder on my one and a half ton combination machine.

Somehow I think a small lightweight spindle moulder would be a compromise having most of the diadwantages of both a router table and a spindle moulder.

 

[Alexfn]

My thinking is that at £600 quid its not much more than a decent router table! And will make a pretty bad ass one at that, then im thinking i wouldnt be able to get anything bigger into my workshop on my own. I have all my machines on wheels and like thw fact i can roll them all out of the workshop into a spare space for storage if need be

If i aim to use one as a router table and do light moldings then????

 

[TFrench]

I think if you look at it as a beefy router table rather than a spindle moulder you won't be disappointed with it. Only thing is that it doesn't spin as fast as a router can.

 

[heimlaga]

Spindle moulders can do a lot of things that no router table on earth can do. They can take deeper cuts and a much wider variety of tooling. It is possible to custom grind tooling to make just about any non-standard profile. They can be used for tennoning with large tennon cutters and they can be fitted with a sanding drum and used as a makeshift spindle sander.

I just have some serious doubts that the Chanwood is big enough to have all theese advantages........ What do you others think?

 

[RobinBHM]

My first spindle mould was a kity machine with an aly table. I was able to do lots of work on it, even though it was a light weight machine.

I kity back then was probably European made, I guess the Charnwood will be a Chinese machine. I think if you a are prepared for some fettling, it may turn out to be a useful machine. Hopefully someone on here has experience of one and can give some feedback.

One thing you will find with a spindle moulder, having tooling with a much larger cutting circle than a router, it is capable of much cleaner cuts. You will of course need tooling, but a rebate block and a decent euro 2 pin block will give you lots of options.