Trevanion
Old Oak
After a long time of searching I finally managed to find a cutterblock setting stand. It’s a late Wadkin “MMT” setting stand for use with their planer moulders, though this is the first one that I’ve ever come across.
It’s smaller and significantly lighter than the earlier Wadkin “FDT” setting stands that were very solid cast iron units where the MMT is steel weldment construction, it’s ideal for what I want as I only work with smaller blocks and I don’t need anything as large or heavy as the old setting stands, though I wouldn’t turn one down if I came across one for the right price!
Information about these MMT stands is pretty much non-existent, it would be nice to have a manual of some sort but I think it’s straightforward enough. You have the top scribing plate which you can use to set cutters in the block to by setting one cutter, and then scribing around the cutter and setting the second cutter to the scribed line. Another method of setting up the cutters is if you have an existing moulding to replicate you can set it up in the clamp and then set your cutters to that. There are also two rollers mounted on rods for setting straight planing knives for four-sided planer moulders.
Clearly, the shaft that came with it isn’t the correct shaft as it has unequal turned portions so the shaft doesn’t sit level in the stand, so I bought a 13” piece of 30mm Silver Steel to replace it, and turned the ends down to 25mm so that it slots into the stand securely with no play.
One thing that was noticeable when trying to use the scribing plate of the stand to set cutters relative to each other is when you flipped the plate out of the way to pass onto the second cutter, there was no way to keep the level of the plate consistent so you could end up with variable settings of the cutters.
To solve this I made an attachment with a screw adjustment so I can set the screw to the correct height for the cutter block so that the plate is level with the cutter, and then when the plate is swung out of the way and put back it references against the head of the screw and sits in the exact same place. It was a good excuse to play with my milling machine which I haven't had much opportunity to use this year so far.
One thing that the scribing plate makes clear is that my cutter grinding isn’t perfect! It's very difficult to get an exact pair when free-hand grinding on a bench grinder, but you can get the cutters pretty close.
Once you have milled a section, you can then keep a sample for setting up the cutters again for future runs to produce the exact section again.
One very useful function of the setting stand is for setting multiple cutters, either in the same block or in multiple blocks to produce a single moulding, here I'm using my 4-wing Dominion wedge-lock block to produce a more complex bespoke moulding utilising two simple cutters.
View media item 1
This will be a very useful piece of equipment in my workshop and will make my life a lot easier when it comes to setting cutterblocks, setting them horizontally on a stand with reference scribes or sample timbers is significantly easier than trying to set them vertically on a spindle moulder with one eye shut and your head laying on the table whilst holding the cutter and clamping it with the spanner!
It’s smaller and significantly lighter than the earlier Wadkin “FDT” setting stands that were very solid cast iron units where the MMT is steel weldment construction, it’s ideal for what I want as I only work with smaller blocks and I don’t need anything as large or heavy as the old setting stands, though I wouldn’t turn one down if I came across one for the right price!
Information about these MMT stands is pretty much non-existent, it would be nice to have a manual of some sort but I think it’s straightforward enough. You have the top scribing plate which you can use to set cutters in the block to by setting one cutter, and then scribing around the cutter and setting the second cutter to the scribed line. Another method of setting up the cutters is if you have an existing moulding to replicate you can set it up in the clamp and then set your cutters to that. There are also two rollers mounted on rods for setting straight planing knives for four-sided planer moulders.
Clearly, the shaft that came with it isn’t the correct shaft as it has unequal turned portions so the shaft doesn’t sit level in the stand, so I bought a 13” piece of 30mm Silver Steel to replace it, and turned the ends down to 25mm so that it slots into the stand securely with no play.
One thing that was noticeable when trying to use the scribing plate of the stand to set cutters relative to each other is when you flipped the plate out of the way to pass onto the second cutter, there was no way to keep the level of the plate consistent so you could end up with variable settings of the cutters.
To solve this I made an attachment with a screw adjustment so I can set the screw to the correct height for the cutter block so that the plate is level with the cutter, and then when the plate is swung out of the way and put back it references against the head of the screw and sits in the exact same place. It was a good excuse to play with my milling machine which I haven't had much opportunity to use this year so far.
One thing that the scribing plate makes clear is that my cutter grinding isn’t perfect! It's very difficult to get an exact pair when free-hand grinding on a bench grinder, but you can get the cutters pretty close.
Once you have milled a section, you can then keep a sample for setting up the cutters again for future runs to produce the exact section again.
One very useful function of the setting stand is for setting multiple cutters, either in the same block or in multiple blocks to produce a single moulding, here I'm using my 4-wing Dominion wedge-lock block to produce a more complex bespoke moulding utilising two simple cutters.
View media item 1
This will be a very useful piece of equipment in my workshop and will make my life a lot easier when it comes to setting cutterblocks, setting them horizontally on a stand with reference scribes or sample timbers is significantly easier than trying to set them vertically on a spindle moulder with one eye shut and your head laying on the table whilst holding the cutter and clamping it with the spanner!
