The source of many a cockup
Having used the powerfeeder to run the boards through the planer ..really makes life so much easier and with a consistent finish..I needed to put the edge on. These boards are a couple of metres long and katellwood over on woodworkuk mentioned using a rebate block on the spindle moulder with the power feeder to get a good result so thought I'd give it a go. Result ! The sliding table is a real boon as I can get almost the whole length on it. You can also take off a sizeable chunk in one go as well if you need to.
I know that the finished edge looks ragged but it's the camera.
You have to set up the spindle moulder properly otherwise you get snipe on the last few inches but that is easily done with an adjustable outfeed fence. Nice having a scale that is repeatable and so providing I use the same rebate block then all I need to is adjust to the same setting and away I go. I went for the Hammer fine-adjust option on the spindle moulder shroud/fence and this has two locating pins that guarantees that it goes back in the same place.
Here's the scale for fine-adjustment of the fence. I think the thread has stripped though Need to give Felder a call next week once the country has got back to working again.
With this moulding it is essential that a false or sacrificial fence is used. Hammer doesn't provide any easy means of adding one so I resorted to tapping some 6mm threads into the front of the fence. First time round, I should have checked up inside the extrusion as I couldn't work out why the pilot drill was wandering. Managed to hit an internal rib I'm not convinced of the longevity of this solution as the aluminium is very thin. May adopt what Jonathan over on woodworkuk has done which is to insert some wooden blocks into the ends of the extrusion.
How do you use such a fence ? Well, after making sure that the cutter is at the correct height for the moulding that you want to achieve (note to self - get it right next time ) you start off with a blank piece of ply or MDF fixed to the fence. Fire up the spindle moulder and then gradually ease the fence back letting the cutter breakthrough keeping your fingers well clear.
Here it is starting to breakthrough
and finished
I then ease the cutter up and down a tad to make sure there's no unnecessary wear between the edges of the cutter and the fence. And because there is an excellent digital height adjust option on the spindle, it means that I can dial back to my datum point.
And here's one live..
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(No idea why there is all this white space)
I'm taking it in stages to check how much further I need to push the fence back. Another minor criticism of the Hammer is that the fence is very jerky when you push it back..no idea why. Think it might have something to do with the fine-adjuster. I mark up the false fence with details such as fence setting, spindle height, timber width etc
Remember that the architrave needs two cutters and so two passes. This is after the final pass with the first cutter.
and I immediately realised that I had a problem. The height of that half-round is lower than what is on the opposite edge and so I had no easy way to support the timber as it was passed over the second cutter. DaveR's suggestion in another thread is perfectly viable but to my mind a bit fiddly, getting the right height etc, risk of bruising the top of the half-circle...
So my solution was to make the timber oversize thus giving me a shoulder at each edge the same height so keeping the timber fair and square against the fence.
So Second Try. I tend to be a bit cautious when spindle moulding and nibble away rather than take great chunks. It takes longer and is incredibly boring even with the powerfeeder. May well bite the bullet next time and hog out a lot more at a pass.
and after several passes...
And now we're starting to mould using the second cutter.
and finally...
..complete with missing quirk
The last thing to mention is outfeed support. The spindle moulder table is pitifully small. So I got some aluminium channel and bolted it to the end...clearance for the 12mm bolt hacked out using the Evolution saw !
and a nice 2 metre length of aluminium channel that slots over the top. Et voila, Hastings ...
It's really handy as it also supports offcuts from the table saw.
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