OT wood butchery

I have been gifted a 1960s Dominion combination planer/thicknesser/saw/moulder but can't find a pic or manual on the net. Any ideas? Its presently a large pile of bits in the kitchen with the base on the second floor up a no-no flight of steps so a local farmer's bale lifter is being arranged. There may be lots around come Friday when some new regs kill them off. Before anyone jumps I've already had the 30 minute lecture on NEVER using old square cutter moulders. (Thanks Matt :-) regards

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven
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Go on Roland, what is a square cutter moulder and what happens if you use one???? Regards

Philip T-E

Reply to
Philip THornton-Evison

Remember that I am but a hammer-chewer. The moulder is intended for production runs of things like architrave or skirting in a single pass. The variously profiled cutters are made from 3/8 or 1/4 HSS and bolted, in sets, into blocks of various thicknesses which replace the saw blade and whizz round at x thousand rpm. As I understand it the large relatively thin cutter projection makes it all to easy for the cutter to dig in and wrench the wood, and the users digits into the spindle. You may imagine the results for yourself. A fair comparison might be with climb-milling Alu with a two tooth cutter! Modern tooling is designed to reduce this potential hazard. No doubt Matt/John will correct/elaborate as necessary. ttfn Roland

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Roland, Try rec.woodworking NG. They're mostly American but a helpful friendly bunch with a lot of contributors.

John

Reply to
John Manders

Please reassure me its nothing like rec.cretins.metalworking! ta Roland

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Here's a useful US site. They refuse to discuss UK machines, but some of the general stuff is useful.

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Some terminology:

UK American jointer jointer surface planer jointer thicknesser planer

router router shaper ? spindle moulder shaper

Don't forget news:rec.woodworking too

Unlikely. Although these regs have been rumoured to do so, it seems that most specific bits can be met with some small changes, or by being ignored through various exclusions. There certainly don't seem to be loads of cheap machines looking for homes in non-commercial workshops.

The square cutter problem is for surface planers, and it's good advice. However I've never even seen one of these things and a 1920's Army woodworking manual I have describes them as already thoroughly obsolete and too dangerous to be used by squaddies.

Moulder heads are a different problem. Square heads are rare, but they're not something I'd rule out to the same extent as on a planer. Moulder heads are interchangeable and easily replaced, planer heads are a fixture on the machine and you'd have to make one from scratch.

There are two regulatory issues with spindle moulders that need looking at.

One is that modern knives _must_ use a positive locking arrangement (a dowel) and not just a clamp. If you have an older head (even from the early '90s), you'll now have trouble finding knives to fit it. It's also good practice to use a head and knives with cut limiting (look in the Axminster cat for lots of useful pictures)

The second issue, and a recent regulation, is about spin-down times for woodwork machines. They must either coast to a stop quickly, or they must have braking added (mechanical or electrical). For this reason, moulder heads are now switching to aluminium rather than iron.

The details are on this site

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There's a lot more good advice on there, especially about guarding.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Reply to
Phil Dando

Thanks Phil It has the two-cutter blocks and the 11 pairs of cutters, and two blocks, appear to be in good, and sharp, condition. It's going to be well after Xmas before I'll be able to reassemble it as the base is still in the first floor joiners shop. Its awaiting a local farmer to extract it with a bale loader. Heaven knows how they got it up there as I can barely walk up the "stairs". ttfn Roland

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Had a visit today from the chippy that installed and ran this machine until his retirement about 10 years ago. Showed me exactly how it removed his R index finger! ttfn Roland

Reply to
Roland and Celia Craven

Yes........ One moments lack of attention and respect and the machinery will jump all over you. I managed to cap the end of my finger (which was too far through the flywheel) on the base of the Lister B. This was during turning it over to check the valve clearances.

Simon Taylor

Reply to
Simon Taylor

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