Hello,
I’m looking to start up a custom molding business. I have a good supply of wood and I have a couple of houselots that I am bidding on. I also have and old Williams & Hussey that works great, but I would consider “stepping up” to a machine with wider capacity (Willams and Hussey is 7″ and I see a lot of other brands advertised at 13″)
Any advice,or information on the plus and minuses of starting up full time would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Connor
Replies
invest about 60K for a Weinig 4 head moulder, and attend the classes to learn how to run it.
Faster than a speeding bullet and quality unsurpassed.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
What are dreadlocks made from?
Used molders are cheap Weinig and Wadkin are both good. 5 heads are actually the best for a custom operation, that fifth head set to climb cut will give a finish no one can match. Stay away from the Italian machines there is a reason they are cheap.
Biggest plus for anyone in the molding business is the ability to produce radius pieces in matching profiles.
I ran a 4 head weinig many yrs ago. Never saw a 5 side..is it something relatively new? Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
What are dreadlocks made from?
Not new. I bought a new one at least 15 years ago in Atlanta at the International woodworking show. Paid 65k for it then and I can tell you there is no used market for them, I didn't get squat for it when it sold.
I know iof a guy who sp[ent fifteen grand at auction for one and then spent half a year refurbishing it.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
You can get them with nine or eleven heads if you want, something like that, even put saws in there....there's also a universal head that moves position, but is fussy. The big moulders can also have the ability for 'jointing', so you can grind the cutters to a perfect cutting circle on the machine.......allows you to run at top speeds. Agree on 5-6 heads for moulding; also agree on Weinig (or Waco, also a Weing company that makes big mutha moulders). Agree that if someone wants to be competitive, that's the type of machine required, not a W&H.
Lots of other gear required for custom moulding though; grinding room equipment, probably ripsaws, and most of the companies I deal with into moulders move pretty quickly to a double-sided planer also, so the moulder is just doing the profiles.cabinetmaker/college woodworking instructor. Cape Breton, N.S
Ditto on the Weinig machines. My favorite mill shop runs about 6 of them side by side. You need earphones over your earplugs to even go in there, but they turn out perfect moldings from stock that's hardly surfaced. That type of quality is what you are competing against if you start producing moldings.