Stacked Tooling On Multico Tenoner?

[pollys13]

I'm curious I saw this Multico tenoner on Ebay. In the listing photos I see stacked tooling. It might be the machinery sales people, who picked this machine up also bought a couple of blocks from the original seller at the same time.Then not knowing any better, thought they fit on the Multico, then added them to the Multico.
If not, then how would stacked tooling be used on the Multico and to do what? What type of tooling would be used?
The listing number is 183674659266
Cheers.

 

[Trevanion]

People do use stack tooling on a Multico tenoner, but it isn’t ideal in my opinion as the machine really wasn’t designed with it in mind and lacks the power for the amount of surface area these blocks take off. Plus it’s a right pain to swap out the blocks.

Looks like tooling for making comb joints on casement windows. Ideally you need 5hp minimum to run decent sized stacks.

 

[pollys13]

I seem to recollect comb tooling for the spindle moulder is prohibitively expensive. What blocks, size would be used on the Multico for making comb joints and method?
Cheers.

 

[Trevanion]

You would have to ask Whitehill for prices, but they’ll probably tell you not to waste your time and get a machine that can handle the blocks first. Something like one of the Wadkin EKA, ECA, SET or JET tenoners or a SCM Ten220 is the most ideal.

I wouldn’t be suprised a set up like that is over £800 worth of blocks for both sides of the comb joint.

If I remember rightly, your multico is single phase. I very much doubt a three phase machine handles them well, let alone a single phase one.

 

[pollys13]

I see he has a set of Whitehill Multico top and bottom scribe heads, but the other two, what are they?
SCM Ten220, these types of machines would be far too big and far too pricey for my home workshop.
Cheers for input.

 

[Jacob]

For a fancy modern window joint by the look of it. Some expensive kit there!

 

[pollys13]

Doing tenons on the bandsaw is straightforward enough. Must be the same regards comb joints?
Stacked tooling on the Multico can do comb joints, though probably quite expensively. What else can stacked tooling do on the Multico? Roy Sutton in his Safer Wood Machining DVD, says the Multico tenoner is one of the safest machines one can use.
Trevanion says some people do use it with stacked tooling, though not designed to do that. Does that mean is a dodgy practice and wise to stay away from it?
Cheers.

 

[Trevanion]

Trevanion says some people do use it with stacked tooling, though not designed to do that. Does that mean is a dodgy practice and wise to stay away from it?
Cheers.

It's more impractical rather than dodgy, so to speak. Multico Tenoners are very good at what they were designed for, square shoulders and scribes. Anything other than that wasn't really in mind when they designed the machine, the blocks require quite a lot of power to run through timber with any sort of efficiency and a Multico doesn't have that. Besides, unless you're making windows every day you don't need a comb joint set, a regular mortice and tenon or bridle joint is just as good.

I thought I had seen this exact machine elsewhere, and I was right. It was on a Bidspotter auction back in January: https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/handi/catalogue-id-home-a10303/lot-d09c7d88-dd08-47b0-954d-a9d700dbb131 He's probably making a tidy profit on it.

 

[pollys13]

OK cheers.