Axy do "Spindle Moulder Handbook By Eric Stephenson"
and the "Shaper Book by Lonnie Bird" (american).
I don't have either so don't know how good they are.
I was taught at college and in the shop as an apprentice years ago, and actually prefer to do ring fence and ring bearing guided work to straight work, it's more fun.
With a ring fence the fence itself works as a lead in edge and can be more difficult to set up dependant on the machine/make. Due to the shape of the ring fence being more ovoid than circular.
Ring bearing guides need a lead in pin or adjustable arm to aid the approach of the workpiece to the cutter block. If the the approach is to aggressive: i.e. the cutter is confronted with too large a "bite" of the wood,
you will get a heck of a kickback that can cause damage to you or the work.
It is often worth taking several passes at a task that you would normally be happy to do in one pass when performed on the straight fence and power feed roller, be aware of you human limitations we are not all built like Mr Universe!
Make a non powered run after checking and double checking your set up, is the whole process comfortable, is there anything acting to obstruct the flow of work?
A lot of "dropping" the work into the cutter comes from experience but can be assisted by making the template/jig slightly overlong.
Large workpieces can be run without a template and the piece itself run against the guide dependant on the task, not for novices this method though, as some experience of the practice is very advisable.
In all it is like using an oversized router table with a bearing guided cutter,
just bigger, faster, louder and takes fewer prisoners. Safety, safety and safety are the mantra of the day.
Don't be afraid of the tooling, nervousnes bites back, just be very respectful and think the job through.
Rob.
