Spindle moulder advice

[Deej]

Never seen any need for a spindle moulder really as most of what i do can be managed at a push with my router table, but i've seen them at good prices second hand and wondered if one might be useful.

as i've never used one or seen one working i really don't know much about them so any advice would be great.

main question is what is a limiter? seen that you can buy cutters or limiters or both.

 

[Steve Maskery]

A limiter is a dead cutter behind the main one. It prevents the user from taking too big a cut at a time. It doesn't cut itself, it just stops you from being too heavy-handed.
S

 

[heimlaga]

Are you talking about the small table top spindle moulders sold to hobbyists or about the full size thing? I only know the full size ones so I am only able to discuss full size floor standing spindle moulders.

So......any advice?..... well.....my combination machine has a spindle moulder in it and I often wonder how I could make do without it before. It has 30mm spindle diameter and 2,2kW three phase motor so it is not a particularly big one but it is surprisingly useful. There is nothing you cannot do equally well without it but it gives you an ability to make small consistant runs of rather similar parts in almost no time compared to other methods.
One window sash can be made as fast or maybe a wee bit faster by hand but a batch of 3 with similar cross sections (not necsessarily similar window sizes) can be made on a spindle moulder in little more time than making one.

So.....the main uses for a well equipped spindle moulder:
-Cutting rebated and grooves and chamfers and mouldings of all kinds along the grain. Preferably along the full lenght of the workpiece but stopped mouldings can be made if the batch is large enough for making a jig. The main limiting factor for this is the prize of cutters. They tend to be rather expensive. Beware of the old square heads that turn up secondhand everywhere. Some newer spindle moulders have a tilting spindle which usually can be tilted forward 0-90 degrees to facilitate the cutting of a grated variety of mouldings ans chamfers. There are also heads with tilting blades which can be used to achieve the same result in a fixed spindle machine and within their limitations they also do a good work. There are also wobble saws which can be used to cut any width of groove both along and across the grain. Their usual range is 4-20mm. For longer runs of muolding or rebates an overhead feedwork is nice to have.
-Cutting tennons and finger joints (terminology?). The corners of winow sashes is a typical excample of this but just about any tennons can be made. Tennons for chairs and small panelled doors for instance. This requires a tennoning sled and a set of s-cutters. Most tennoning sleds run on a dovetailed way that is bolted down on top of the table along the front and unbolted when not in use. Some newer madels have a built in sliding table which can be locked when not used for cross grain work. Deep tennons like those used in the frame for full size panneled doors are a bit tricky to cut because those big s-shaped cutters require an extra support for the spindle. Otherwise the spindle can break off. Those large diameter s-cutters (about 300mm in diameter) are considered rather dangerous and I am not sure if they are legal any more. They are always used in pairs.
-Making runs of similar curved pieces. This requires a jig and an overhead guard.

There are many different styles of power transmission.
-The old ones have a thick shaft with the spindle on top. The flat belt from the overhead line shaft is turned horixintal by a pair of idler pulleys behind the machine and runs directly on the thick vertical shaft which works as a pulley. There is only one speed on theese. Most of them have gotten some home made jury rigged motor over the years.
-Not so old ones usually have a vertical motor in the back with a stepped pulley on top and a flat belt that powers the thick shaft directly.
-Rather new ones have stepped v-belt pulleys on the lower end of the spindle shaft and similar on the motor which is suspended from the quill. The motor travels up and down as you crank the spindle up and down.
-Heaven knows how the transmission works on modern spindle moulders.............There are buttons enough to scare a computer engineer and all kinds of electronics whose names and uses are unknown to me.

This is most of what I know......and English is not my native language but I hope you can decipher most of what I have written.
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