I hope to start building my house this year. Last year I had about 1000′ of pine, roughly 1″ x 10″ milled from trees we took down when we cleared. Put it in the second story of a barn, stickered well. So far looks good- I have milled and planed some and I am optimistic that it wil be dry enough to use by this fall. This pine is hopefully going to be used to make much of my interior trim- baseboards, casings etc.
Have any of you ever used a molding machine ( Williams and Hussey or similar)? Would they be a worthwhile investment for trimming out one house (3500s.f.) Keep in mine the tool junky quotient which requires something less break even for justification. The alternative is thickness planer, routers and a shaper which I already own.
Comments?
Thanks,
Doug
Replies
It's a slippery road but I say go for it. Everyone I have heard of who buys one of those things seems to find more uses for it than they could have imagined.
john
That depends. How big is the house, how complicated are the casings, etc.
I'm in the middle of casing out a 3 story house without a wood molder. There's only one part where using a router is a real pain -- a complicated baseboard cap. Otherwise, it is all pretty straight forward and easy to do with a router table set up.
On the other hand, you can do profiles with a wood molder that are simply impossible with a router r a shaper. And certainly, it would be a lot faster.
The W&H is one of the best machines, and one of the best known. If you don't want to keep the machine after the job, you could probably sell it for nearly as much as you paid originally.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
Thanks John- that's good to know.
I have been making a few custom profiles for casing in my current house using a router table- the hardest part is making sure the wood is flat and straight as it is fed past the bit. Featherboards help but I am assuming that a molder has a powerfeed that works better.
Doug
The last time I looked W&H was selling for a little over $1800, and I would guess you could easily sell it for $1200 (and probably a lot more) after your job. Alternatively, Powermatic sells two models -- one is a big, HD thing, made to run on 220v, but a lesser one that will run on 110v, and costs about $900.Having run a lot of molding through a router table, after thinking about your question, I think I would spring for one of the molders -- assuming you have the coin. If you get the word out, you could probably pay for the machine by taking on other molding jobs. And if you don't want to do that, you could recoup most of your machine investment by selling it when you're done. It is the sort of machine, I think, for which you will find many other uses, if the the thing is sitting around.********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
I second that - about the hardest part being the feeding of stock through the router. I have been doing the same with a table mounted router and a pretty decent setup with featherboards. I have a good jointer and planer and have done ( I think) a good job of getting the stock straight and square. When I need a small molding (back band for example) I generally dimension a number of boards identically and route the profile on their edges, then rip them to the final molding size. But there are sometimes situations where I have to rip to final dimensions before routing the edge profile and have a thin piece of stock to feed through the router. The feather boards are a big help but very tiny variations or movements in the feed path of a long, thin piece of wood can cause imperfections in the molding. It's very annoying and requires a ton of concentration and scrupulous preparation.
I think a molding machine's power feed would certainly make life a lot easier and faster.
"I think a molding machine's power feed would certainly make life a lot easier and faster."U don't know how true that is!!!! Probably safer too.
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Williams and Hussey = money well spent
I don't use mine all the time, but when it gets used I have only good things to say about it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Williams-and-Hussey-W7-Planer-Molder_W0QQitemZ7577335512QQcategoryZ42283QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I know a lot of people have W&H and like them. The question I would ask... how are the mill marks? Sanding profiled moldings is pure torture, and installing and finishing unsanded moldings only to find out that the chatter is visible also sucks. An alternative is to have your stuff run by a shop that has a Weinig molder, which will give you really nice stuff that you'll hardly have to sand.
I'm in a tool junkie recovery program so it's harder to sway me into buying a new machine. Ten years ago I would have bought two, one as a backup.
I don't know about the wood molders, like W&H, but I do know you have to contend with mill marks on stuff run through a router table -- particularly the larger architectural molding bits. And you're right, it's no fun.********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
Router bits are very small diameter, compared to a molding cutterhead. It makes the mill marks 'deeper' for a given feed rate. I go as slow as I can stand when routing.
The mill marks are minimal, I do mostly stain grade moldings and most of the time the moldings are ready to finish.
I've had a W&H for a good ten years now. I do a lot of historical restoration where the only way to get the moldings to match is to have the knives ground to match.
If you are using sa nice design in your trim, the W&H is worthwhoile, but if you plan typical inewxpensive clamshell or colonial that can be had off the shelf, you can buy it as cheap as the investment you have just in the wood that is drying up there.
There are few mill markings once you learn to use it - that's another subject though.
The motor can be wired 220 or 110
The knives are expensive too
There is a good used market so you can buy used or you can sell later to recoup a percentage...
try a search here for this topic, we've had a few discussions on it.
Pine is actrually harder to mill than poplar - depends whether you are going to paint or stain/oil... Try to avoid the knots. Pitch from pine will build up more in pine and the knots will explode and dull knives.
I consider it a fine investment.
One of my subs bought two more when he saw mine...
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Thanks to all for the advice- I think I am going to go for it. I have a couple of custom profiles I want to use that I couldn't buy and the extra thickness of my rough milled pine will help give me the look I want.
The pine is decent but not clear. Since all the the millwork will be painted I was contemplating making a couple of routing fixtures to route out the knots and plug the holes with plugs routed from scrap stock- sand smooth and prime. A lot of work- yeah, but if I can save a ten foot 1"x 8" by plugging a couple of knots it will probably be worth it, expecially since I work for nada.
Thanks again.
Doug
"You can always resell it when you are done, then you only bought the depreciation. If you get a used one, the depreciation will be that much less."
Of course the difficulty with this approach is actually letting go of the tool once you have it.
for paint grade use bondo to fill after the milling. Not all knots are a problem, but those big hard ones can get exciting when they explode.
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BTW, with wide casings, you will need another thousand feet or so for that house, depending...
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
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how does everybody keep changing the font and color here, I have no font button, it makes it hard to read. 2+3=7
What browser are you using?I generally surf on netscape, but I had to use the MS explorer to compase my signature line, so I assume that this is how they do it. That reply window opens in a WYSIWYG ( what you see is what you get) format and tooling.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!