Questions about making crown moulding

[Marcus Lawrence]

First of all - hi to you all, I have been reading this forum for a long time - lots of great information here.

I am looking at buying a moulder like the shop fox variable speed moulder - since we are going to be trimming out our house with some areas needing to be trimmed out in mahogany (crown and base), and the other areas in the same base and crown profiles only painted. I have a well equiped shop, minus a good way to do moulding, and I am thinking this machine might be the ticket. I have done searches on this machine and I dont find a whole lot of data on it (also the WH machine as well). So, any of you have experience with it..? Also, the crown profile we are looking at would be around 5", can this machine handle that ok..? The other question I have about doing crown is do I need to put a relief cut in it and also how do you do the bevel cut correctly - do I need custom knives for each crown profile to get the bevel cuts and the back relief cuts using the machine..? I am a little bit unclear as to what process I would have to use to get the crown milled correctly on both the bottom and the top and before I buy the machine I would like to have an idea of what I am getting into first. I can see a lot of uses for that machine, but if the crown is not something that is fairly easy to produce with the machine then I might have to pass on it.

One other thing while I am at it - anyone out there have any experience with the Steel City 15" deluxe planer..? I am finding it almost impossible to find any user information on that planer.

Thanks

Marcus

[Nancy Laird]

One other thing while I am at it - anyone out there have any experience with the Steel City 15" deluxe planer..? I am finding it almost impossible to find any user information on that planer.

Thanks

Marcus

Marcus, can't help you with the moulder, but we have an almost-new SC 15" planer, and we are more than happy with it. It came out of the crate well packed, all it needed was the infeed and outfeed tables mounted and levelled (a 10-minute job). The only little problem we had was that the battery was dead in the digital height gauge display, and when we called SC, they not only sent two new batteries, but a new display to boot. It's smooth, relatively quiet for a planer (we can still carry on a conversation while it's running), and we would recommend it to anyone wanting a new planer.

Nancy

[Per Swenson]

Marcus,

The W/H moulder will cut a profile up to 6 3/4.

Shop fox is a clone and will cut the same.

When cutting crowns there is a two knife set up. Top/ bottom.

Disclaimer. I don't own either.

We run a woodmaster.

This is a shot of 5 inch mahogany crown on the finish end.

Per

[Steve Jenkins]

Like Per I have a woodmaster. I put a single knife for the back cut with balancing blanks in the other two slots and 3 knives for the face. My woodmaster is a 12" so I can put the back and face knives in side by side. Run the back then flip the stock over and run the face. You can run two pieces at a time that way.

[Jim Holman]

I have owned the W&H and now own a SHOP FOX. I have cut 6" plus crown on both. Recently cut a 6 1/4" crown for a reproduction walnut wardrobe with the shopfox. Works hreat and the quality of the machine is teriffic.

[brent lenthall]

I have a W&H and have crown knives ranging from 3 1/4 to 5 1/2 crown. I run it in two passes using a sled with runners and cut the bevels on the table saw. With the variable speed option you should be able to slow down the feed to make sure you don't get any tearout. The Shop fox is a clone and should operate the same way, but won't have the resale of a W&H.

brent

[Marcus Lawrence]

Thanks for the replies, I think I might take a shot at it. I could see using it for other things as well. When you cut the bevel on the TS - what do you set the angle for your bevel cuts?

Thanks

Marcus

[Charles McCracken]

The most common spring angle is 38°. Set for that angle and cut one side on edge and the other flat for the complementary angle.

[brent lenthall]

I use 45 degree spring angle. Run molding through the machine then cut a short test piece at a 45 degree bevel leaving the right thickness of stock at the bottom of the molding. Repeat for top side.

[Marcus Lawrence]

Anyone use a router bit to do the bevel cut? If so, is there a router bit set for doing the bevel cuts at different bevel angles..? Thanks for the replies - I put in an order for the moulder, should be here in about 4 weeks, when I made the order they were a little bit backordered.

Thanks

Marcus

[Paul Johnstone]

Marcus,

I have the Jet verison of the planer/molder. I bought the knives for crown molding, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

If you are doing most or all of a whole house in crown, I suggest that you buy the knives to cut the back profile. You've got a lot of crown to make, and I think you could easily justify the 100-150 for the set of back cutters (I don't remember the exact price, but you get my point).

Remember, you want to cut all the pieces exactly the same. If you cut the back angle a little bit differently from piece to piece, your job will look like crap.

[Marcus Lawrence]

I dont disagree with that, I do have a lot of crown to make so I think I will try to go that route. Do any of you have any recommendations of where to purchase the knives? I found a few places doing searches, but am more interested in doing business with someone who comes recommended.

Thanks

Marcus

[Paul Johnstone]

http://www.woodmastertools.com/

That's the place I used. Just make sure to tell them your planer specs, and they will make the cutters up for you.
They aren't the cheapest place, but they have a good rep.

I wish I had used them to give you some feedback, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Bill Wyko]

I actually made my own crown moulding. I made a fence diagonal to my table saw and raised the blade a little at at a time. Change the angle of the approach to the blade to increase or decrease the radius of the curve. Then 45 the top and bottom with a v cut in between the curves. It works great. There is a special tablesaw blade made to do this. It's available from Rockler or woodcrafters.

[Charles McCracken]

Anyone use a router bit to do the bevel cut? If so, is there a router bit set for doing the bevel cuts at different bevel angles..? Thanks for the replies - I put in an order for the moulder, should be here in about 4 weeks, when I made the order they were a little bit backordered.

Thanks

Marcus

We now make a 38°/52° bit for the crown edge. Freud item# is 99-421.