Profile cutterhead for spindle moulder.

[heimlaga]

I have an old Leitz cutterhead with replaceable knives for different profiles. It is a gibbed steel cutterhead with a safety screw that prevents the knives from being thrown suddenly. There is only one knife for each profile. Apparently it was supplied like this from new. There are a pair of straight knives but all the other original knives are one each. The previous owner (industrial use) used a straight knife as counterweight to keep it from shaking too much but I have found that the straight knives are the lightest of them all and consequently the head is a little unballanced.
Should I make a few slightly heavier counterweight knives so that I can choose a counterweight of roughly the same weight as the working profile knife? I worry that some gib screw could shake loose because of this unballance if I continue like this. Though it has been used like this for several decades.

 

[Jacob]

One cutter fine, within reason, balanced as near as you can. If it's too far out you'll know from the noise. Spindles are very tough.
Even with two matching knives it's sometimes easier to set one to cut and the other back a fraction to balance, if the block will allow it.

 

[heimlaga]

Thanks Jacob. I will make a couple of counterweight knives with different weight so that I can choosa one with roughly similar weight as the working knife.