Usefulness OF A Sliding Carriage Table On A Spindle Moulder

UKworkshop.co.uk

Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pollys13

Established Member
Joined
19 Apr 2009
Messages
1,206
Reaction score
2
Location
Swindon
How useful would one of these be, what could I use it for, what could I do with it, as opposed to, if I didn't have one?
Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • Sliding Table.jpg
    Sliding Table.jpg
    84.1 KB · Views: 44
Used mainly for cutting end grain features like tenons. Not many SM's have this as a standard feature but I do have this facility on my combo where it is mainly used for crosscut or panel sawing. There are other ways to cut tenons so it wouldn't be a priority feature if I were buying one as a separate m/c. If that is a permanent fixture on the Sedgewick, I would find it very intrusive for normal operations.
Brian
 
Useful if it can be locked in place for supporting large board edgework or for big production runs of styles etc. Otherwise as has been said would probably be a pain in the butt by getting in the way.
 
Given the option I would take a spindle with a demountable one over one without every time, because it effectively adds a single ended tenoner to the workshop for no extra space or expense.

As with the other posters, demountable is the important factor here (although you could always remove and store or sell it if you like the rest of the machine).
 
That looks like a very useful piece of kit, mine is the older model without the sliding table, I made one to fit out of wood and drawer sliders, it works surprisingly well but apita to set up. If it’s reasonably priced I would go for it. It’s possible it has an inch and a quarter shaft whereas new ones are now 30 mm, but don’t let that put you off as the tooling is still completely available. Ian
Ps or were are you asking a much more general question about what use is a spindle moulder, what could you use it for? And is it worth having? Well I certainly wouldn’t be without mine but it depends what you make.
 
As folk have already mentioned, the carriage is useful for joinery, especially tenonning. At my old work, we did a fair few bridle joints, which a carriage like that would be ideal for as you can do both the tenon and the "mortice" on it, the mortice being open ended of course.

The Yanks would do such things with a dado stack on their table saw, but the saws we have here tend not to have the length on the arbor for such things, which is where a piece of kit like this comes in handy.

Looking at the picture though, I don't see a fence which would be good to have if you plan to do such operations on it. I'm sure you'd find a workaround, but you can't beat a dedicated fitted fence if you're working on thin sections like rails or stiles.
 
Back
Top