…and others too if they want. Hammer, I saw your post in the mini-stock-feeder thread and wanted your opinion on something. To wit, would it be worth it to make my own 1/4″ quarter-round molding or not?? I’m currently purchasing it, in hemlock, at 20 cents/LF. The price is right — way the heck less than all other suppliers I called — but it’s not very consistently sized, and that is causing me to lose alot of time.
What’s your take on the advisability of trying to produce it myself? The only reason I would consider doing that would be if I could produce much more consistent stock at the same $$cost. An additional advantage would be that I could use poplar instead of hemlock, which would be preferable.
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
Another proud member of the “I Rocked With ToolDoc Club” …. :>)
Replies
I often make my own moldings, primarily, because of availability of shapes or species. 1/4 round is the easiest to make of all of them. Use a corner rounding bit on flat stock and rip away what you don't want. I would not try to shape the edge of a 1/4"x1/4" piece, but I would round all four corners on a 1"x2", then rip off the corners. You can often use scrap rips and pieces, so, you aren't really spending anything for the material. You can take advantage of grain direction and usually eliminate the chattering machine marks and splintery edges you find with manufactured moldings. The cost factor depends, mostly, on the lineal footage you run, once you have set up for the cuts. I'm pretty sure I can set up and run a few hundred feet in less time than it takes to drive to the lumber yard.
Whether I use my own or manufactured, I try to wrap corners with consecutive sections from the same piece. If there are any irregularities in the profile, they don't rear their head at the miters. The only issue with very small pieces is providing support so they don't slip under your fences. If you use your chop saw for the miters, make an L shaped sacrificial table so the piece is fully supported. You'll get a more accurate cut and you can use the kerf in the table to line up your marks. Pardon me for throwing in my usual safety comment on miter saws, Regardless of what you are cutting, leave the saw down until it stops. You won't snipe the piece as the blade rises and it's very hard to cut your fingers this way unless you put them under the blade.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Pardon me for throwing in my usual safety comment HAY we all forget sometimes.. Mind needs refreshing every so often!
Will; What saftey comment?
Walker1
I 'think hammer said//// Pardon me for throwing in my usual safety comment on miter saws
Thanks, Hammer! This molding is being used for miniature picture frames for an artist. I buy 1200LF at a time in 8' to 10' lengths, so for me using scraps isn't an option (I don't have scraps in that quantity!) One of the advantages of using poplar would be fewer problems with grain, right? The hemlock has that alternating hard/soft thing going, a pain when routing.
I guess I need to work out what size stock is the best to start with and the steps to get the most out of it. Would want to set it up to minimize any "screwing up" that makes a length of 1/4-round unuseable. At the beginning of this project, I really resisted the idea of making my own molding, but I'll tell ya, the inconsistencies in what I'm getting result in huge amounts of wasted time and a level of frustration that's beyond what I want to deal with.
Thanks again for your help.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
The inconsistencies in what I'm getting result in huge amounts of wasted time and a level of frustration that's beyond what I want to deal with.Forest ... I had kids too!
Hemlock moldings, eh? I feel for you, hope you have some good tweezers. Poplar would be an improvement but you still want to run with the grain. Picture frames are no piece of cake, you have enough to worry about just getting four corners to fit without dealing with bad stock. If you are going to be doing a fair amount of repetitive work like this, you would appreciate having an automatic feeder like the Versa Feeder. The even speed and consistent pressure give much better results than you can get by hand, bits seem to last longer, too. Beats the heck out of feather boards and other devices. I think everyone from Grizzly to Delta sells the same one in different colors. Mine is one of the best accessories I've added to the shop. Cheap materials get expensive when they cause frustration and extra work. There's no sense in trying to shine a turd. It's still a piece of you know what, when you're done.Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Hemlock moldings, eh? I feel for you, hope you have some good tweezers. JUST LIKE MOST OF them 'fancy' hardwoods I use.....Killers but SO NICE!Hemlock is under rated.. Just me.. Like Hickory.. Nobody uses it and a wonderful wood if ya 'CAREFUL'...
Edited 10/29/2005 2:49 pm by WillGeorge
I can't agree with you on hemlock being a "nice" wood. We used to use it for framing, once upon a time. I had to be green because drying would turn it into rock hard pretzels. I remember well, hand over handing 2 x 10 x 20' frozen hemlock rafters, while balancing on top of a 2 x 4 top plate, 20 feet in the air. Those things weighed more than I did. Half the sheetrock nails (no screws in those days) would pull or pop about a month after the house was finished. That old hemlock would twist so bad when it dried out. The only lumber that was worse was hackmatack. At least there wasn't any saw dust blowing around with the green lumber. Just a wet mush that stuck to everything. Ah, the good old days!Hickory is trying to make a come back. Kitchen cabinet manufacturers are using it for it's rustic properties. I installed a couple units in a display area back a while ago. I don't know how well it has been selling.Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Sorry.. I just recycle old hemlock I get from demolitions..Yes it is HARD... SO is Pine that old!My favorite woods are Hickory and Ash.. Just me...
Hey Gurl, Several years ago, I had to run a bunch of small molding using a router table set up. To feed the rectangular stock past the router profile, I hand made two 'tunnels' from wood.
The first(Infeed) was a block of wood with a rabbet cut on the underside to a 'snug' fit for the stock. This was clamped to the fence and positioned close to the cutter, but allowing for sawdust and chips to vent.
The outfeed block was similiar, but profiled to fit the finished end of the stock also clampd to the fence. The entrances to the 'tunnels', should be flared for easy entrance for the stock. Works fer me!. Stein.
Thanks, Stein. All of these ideas are being put into the hopper. I have some hemlock left before I have to make a decision on the next 1,000 units.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I have found that Stiens tunnel system works well to produce 1/4 ,3/8 and 7/16 quarter round ,both on a shaper and a router table,just hand feeding and butting the stock together.However with 3/4 " stock I have a complex support system and power feed square stock using a 4 wheel 1hp powerfeed.I find that I loose a bit due to snipe at the ends but as most of it comes from waste offcuts who cares
Hi Jako, thanks. Unfortunately, Google choked on "Steins tunnel system." Can you provide some more info? Either a precise company name, model number or other things that would help with a search string, if there's no web site name handy? Thanks!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I trained as architechural Joiner. When doing my apprentiship one of the things I had to make was window beading it sounds similar to what you want. To do it we would thickness the boards to the finished thickness as wide as you have sometime you will only get two pieces of each board. then I would set up a spindle moulder(shaper) with a power feed. If the pieces were small I would use a false fence with a zero tollerance cut in it and a false table top all clamped or bolted properly. There is no reason you can't do the same for a router table and use feather or finger boards to get the pressure. After I put the timber through I would set up the saw with a zero tollerance piece of mdf and set the fence then cut of the moulding.Use the finest blade to get the best cut. It is helpful to have an assistant and noone else in the shop wanting to use the equipment. I have run thousands of metres this way. good luck
Peter
Thanks, Peter. I'm getting the feeling cutting my own molding just might be worthwhile. I'm paying $2.00 for a 10-foot piece. How many can I make in an hour is the next question, I guess. The rest of the project is much slower than I had anticipated, so I might be able to make up the hourly "downfall" by milling. These posts are encouraging (still have some hemlock left, so have time to think about it!)forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I'm paying $2.00 for a 10-foot piece.?? Dang girl what ya want? I never saw any hunk of wood 10 foot long that cheap!
Hi Fg , Here is a pic of one of the tunnels .Crude but effective.The fence is not shown and the cutter is not elevated to the tunnel height as I just piled the stuff on one of the shapers to take the pic.This one we just stuff the wood in by hand butting the pieces togther.The trick is to be very consistant with the milling
Thanks for the pic, jako.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Fg ,Whats all the 1/4 round for ?Most of ours(in the smaller sizes) is for window glass stop
It's a crazy and mind-numbing project. An artist who had to switch presentations for her mini-paintings, and she decided mini-frames was the way to go (they used to get done in 3D by laser). I was desperate for work and took on the project. Am 60% through my first 1,000 frames! Of course, now I have a bunch of stuff coming up that's way the heck more interesting, not to mention more lucrative (neither of which is hard) -- and they all need to be done before Christmas. But once I've commited, I don't back out.
On the side, I'm interviewing laser people -- see if I can get her back into that format!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
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