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Thread: Planer/molder question

  1. #1
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    Planer/molder question

    I'm thinking of purchasing the new Grizzley g0477 15" planer/molder,
    does anyone here have some experience with this machine or another one like it?

    I'm assuming when using it as a 15" planer I could expect results similar to my dw735, my real question is in cutting moldings, do these machines do really nice cuts to make crown moldings or am I better off still buying them predone?? Any advice or comments on this machine is greatly appreciated.

  2. #2
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    Atascadero, CA
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    I also would like to know. I thought about getting one too. I wonder if you can get custom made molder blades any where? Good luck and hopefully someone will chime in.

    Josh

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Monson
    I'm thinking of purchasing the new Grizzley g0477 15" planer/molder,
    does anyone here have some experience with this machine or another one like it?

    I'm assuming when using it as a 15" planer I could expect results similar to my dw735, my real question is in cutting moldings, do these machines do really nice cuts to make crown moldings or am I better off still buying them predone?? Any advice or comments on this machine is greatly appreciated.
    Moulders are a tuff game to follow. In the old world, you have stuff like 8000 pound super precision engineered mattisons and in the new world you have stuff like 130,000 dollar Wynigs which are to some extent the baseline for the moulding industry today. You also have stuff inbetween like the SCMI machines.

    Then you have machines which are small. You have the Logosol planer/moulder which is a light weight but very nice machine and you have single head machines like the Williams and Hussey which run on single phase and can be schlepped onto a work sight.

    Also bear in mind that most moulders dont like curvy thingies. So if your doing curved mouldings, your going to need another solution. Ironically, that is one of the strong suits of the Williams and Hussey. It can do an excellent job on curved mouldings.

    And then you need to ask how many cutters does the grizzly spin? One, Two or four? What kind of feed roll adjustment do you have? I once picked up a load of quarter sawn 3/4 in flooring and had to return it. The moulder had been set up so badly that the flooring looked like it had been milled by a drunk driving a hand plane. The surface finish was excellent. Just that there were no straight parallel edges.

    And how about depth of cut? Your going to need to reconcile the cutters you can use with the proprosed depth of cut needed. Some crown is rather deep in its profile. This may require multiple cutter head setups or one really big hunkin log of steel! And how about the relief cuts on the back? Got side heads?

    In some cases running crown can take as many four passes if your moulder is not setup to do it. Most commercial high quality crown was run on moulders costing as much as much as new hummer or more. Its very hard to compare some of the smaller moulder-wanna-bes to these machines which is what your doing when you compare output to output. It can be done and with excellent results. I run mouldings on my shaper frequently but I do so when its the last option. Often its cheaper and quicker to have an architectual mill yard just run it on the wynig!

    Hope this helps and is not that discouraging.
    Had the dog not stopped to go to the bathroom, he would have caught the rabbit.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Josh Goldsmith
    I also would like to know. I thought about getting one too. I wonder if you can get custom made molder blades any where? Good luck and hopefully someone will chime in.

    Josh
    Yes Josh. A set of two corregated HSS moulder knives will cost about $120 to $179 dollars per pair. There may be a template charge as well. You will also need the head which can cost about $200 to $400 depending on bore, diameter and height.

    I use a 40 mm bore Wynig moulder head on my shaper all the time and it works great. I was lucky that I have a 40 mm spindle and that some Wynigs use 40 mm bores. Imperial sizes are totally wird like 1 13/16 etc. although there is a 1.5 inch in use too.

    These are slow feed heads that run about 6000 to 10,000 RPM depending on machine. As my head is steel and 4.5 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall, I run at 6000 RPM. No way I am pushing to 10 K!!!!!! And with two knives, the feed rate is rather slow. You can use four knives in some of these heads too if you desire. Others can more than that with 6 or more knives per head.

    But the higher knife count means you need to buy more knife pairs. Gets pricey fast. Also, on super high speed moulders, the cutters have a profiled stone hone jig which is serious bucks now. This is to allow the moulder to launch lumber out the back end.

    For most smaller, hobby type light moulders, your going to use two steel knives with a profile or some of the new euro carbide insert tooling which is interchangeable between shapers and moulders. After all, a shaper is nothing more than a one spindle moulder with no feed works.
    Had the dog not stopped to go to the bathroom, he would have caught the rabbit.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
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    Houston, TX
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    LOML practically forced me to buy the 13" Jet Planer/molder over the Jet 15" planer that was the same price. She is an artist and wants me to make hardwood picture frames. We've bought one knife set from http://www.woodmastertools.com. Look at their online catalogs. They are pretty expensive but have a great selection.

    It works fine for what we are using it for and we've already paid for the planer (picture frames can get real expensive). However, I would never want to make all the crown molding for a house. It would simply take too long. The quality of the cut is fantastic on the few frames we've made. The cutter set we have is 3.5" wide but without much vertical difference - maybe 5/8" vertical. I don't think we even sanded much if at all.

    In the planing function, it works like any other planer.

    Dev's second post came in as I was writing this one. The Jet is a 3 knife cutterhead. Woodmaster sold me one molding knife and two weights to keep the cutter head balanced. In the jet, you simply remove the planing knives and drop in the molding knives, no cutterhead change is needed. Woodmaster sold me the one knife set because the vertical difference was so small. On moldings with a large vertical difference, they would only sell me a 3 knife set. The one knife set was $115, the 3 knife set is 3x $115.
    Last edited by Tom Jones III; 04-24-2006 at 1:49 PM.

  6. #6
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    Ditto the above.

    I am looking seriously at the 718 18"woodmaster planer/molder/sander combo. A really nice machine and put together excellent. The testimonials are all positive which is to be expected in a packet they send out to prospective customers. The idea of a morse taper to change heads is kinda nice and makes changes simple.

    I would most likely make window and baseboard molding and picture frames. 6 miles up the road is a shop with a 6 head molder where I can buy all the hard to make stuff like crown. Not cost effective to make multiple passes for the amount of crown I would use.

    Joe
    JC Custom WoodWorks

    For best results, try not to do anything stupid.

    "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause." - Padmé Amidala "Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith"

  7. #7

    G0477

    Did anyone ever get one of these? If so, what do you think?

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