Would you buy these Spindle Moulders?
- Thread starter Selwyn
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Trevanion
Greatest Of All Time
Selwyn":2zesvriv said:
Used to have one of the Charnwood spindle moulders set up for tenoning glazing bars where I used to work and I couldn't knock it for the price new. Never actually used it as a proper moulder so I can't tell you if it had the power to take out a decent sized rebate but 2HP should b plenty enough for most work. (Make sure you buy aluminium blocks and not steel if running on a 2HP motor as it will struggle to get steel blocks up to speed.) Apparently the customer service and warranty on Charnwood stuff is pretty good as well.
If you were just looking for a good priced spindle moulder that will do whatever you throw at it you can't beat some of the older smaller machines on Ebay such as your Sedgwick SM3s or Wadkin BRS'sand they usually fetch in the £400-£800 range and you will have something that will last indefinitely so long as you look after it..
Mike Jordan
Established Member
They certainly look like a lot of machine for the money. I have owned a 2hp sedgewick SM3 for over twenty years and have never experienced any problems running steel blocks up to speed. I frequently run a 125 X 50 steel rebate block together with an alloy limiter block to cut a rebate and mould in one pass. 2hp is quite sufficient.
Trevanion
Greatest Of All Time
Mike Jordan":kwh7bcpr said:
Use an SM3 all the time, Hence why I recommend it over the Charnwood. As you say, on an SM3 you can run much larger cutters but that's because it's a 2.2Kw machine not a 2hp. It's just about 3hp which makes a hell of a difference.
That being said, motor quality makes a huge difference. A Brook Parkinson/Crompton motor will output a hell of a lot more power than a cheapie Chinese motor will.
There are two machines I would recommend, the first is the Sedgwick as highlighted. Lovely machines and extremely useful if you can get one with a sliding table already attached.
The second is a SCM T100 L’Invincible it’s a small machine like the Sedgwick but should come with the sliding tables standard. They are two speed, which is fine as it covers anything your likely to use it for excerpt routing. The build quality of the L’Invincible machines is absolutely brilliant, better IMO than Wadkin. There is a machine occasionally advertised when ever there is an offer on selling that’s located in Wales. I’ve bought a machine off the chap and seen the machine which is absolutely brilliant. It has the sliding table and is shown with a power feed and is 240V. I would have bought it as well if I could fit another spindle moulder into my shop.
Of the two, th SCM is IMO far more machine for the same money.
What ever you plumb for, start saving up for a powerfeed. They not only make the machine far safer to use, but also produce far superior results.
Don’t dismiss 1 1/4” spindles, it’s easy to get tooling and often it’s sold for a lower price than 30mm tooling on eBay. If at some point you want a 30mm spindle you can either wait for one to come up, or if you have bought a Sedgwick you can buy one from the manufacturer still. The other option is to simply have the spindle turned down which won’t cost that much from any machinist.
I would go and have a look at a Sedgwick, SCM and a Wadkin Spindle moulder at a dealer to see what you get and compare it to the lighter hobby machines. The quality of the cut / finish is dependant on the many things, but taking the cutters out of the equation the machine needs to have enough power not to slow down the block when cutting, be rigid enough for nothing to flex as large forces can be exerted, have enough mass to reduce vibration down to the where you can balance a penny on its edge and it won’t fall over when machining. I may be wrong but most hobby machines aren’t rigid enough / have poor setup. Don’t get sucked into machines with digital gauges etc, setting up a machine is simple without them and unless your in a production environment a few extra minutes doesn’t make any difference.
The second is a SCM T100 L’Invincible it’s a small machine like the Sedgwick but should come with the sliding tables standard. They are two speed, which is fine as it covers anything your likely to use it for excerpt routing. The build quality of the L’Invincible machines is absolutely brilliant, better IMO than Wadkin. There is a machine occasionally advertised when ever there is an offer on selling that’s located in Wales. I’ve bought a machine off the chap and seen the machine which is absolutely brilliant. It has the sliding table and is shown with a power feed and is 240V. I would have bought it as well if I could fit another spindle moulder into my shop.
Of the two, th SCM is IMO far more machine for the same money.
What ever you plumb for, start saving up for a powerfeed. They not only make the machine far safer to use, but also produce far superior results.
Don’t dismiss 1 1/4” spindles, it’s easy to get tooling and often it’s sold for a lower price than 30mm tooling on eBay. If at some point you want a 30mm spindle you can either wait for one to come up, or if you have bought a Sedgwick you can buy one from the manufacturer still. The other option is to simply have the spindle turned down which won’t cost that much from any machinist.
I would go and have a look at a Sedgwick, SCM and a Wadkin Spindle moulder at a dealer to see what you get and compare it to the lighter hobby machines. The quality of the cut / finish is dependant on the many things, but taking the cutters out of the equation the machine needs to have enough power not to slow down the block when cutting, be rigid enough for nothing to flex as large forces can be exerted, have enough mass to reduce vibration down to the where you can balance a penny on its edge and it won’t fall over when machining. I may be wrong but most hobby machines aren’t rigid enough / have poor setup. Don’t get sucked into machines with digital gauges etc, setting up a machine is simple without them and unless your in a production environment a few extra minutes doesn’t make any difference.
