Replies

1. 
   RW | May 09, 2003 06:35am | #1

   This is going to be a "I don't own one but know a guy who. . ." - and I think you're spot on with your perception. It's a neat thing, and caters to the crowd that can't afford (financially or in space) to have multiple machines sitting around. It takes time to convert from one operation to the next. The guy I know leaves it pretty much set up for cutting small orders of moldings. He can be competitive with bigger places where the setup fees make smaller orders overly steep. The end result is respectable. Not super high end, but better than you'd get off the shelf at Menards.

   "The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb "      lyrics by Roger Waters

2. 
   hmthomas | May 09, 2003 02:39pm | #2

   John, Like RW, I too have a friend who owns  the 4 in 1 Woodmaster. He used it to plane all the wood when he built his house. Its pretty impresive considering he milled everything from the 2x6 studs to the baseboard trim and moulding.

   I've helped him occasionally and the setup is cumbersome but the result is pretty good.  Depending on what kind of work you will be doing this may suit your needs.

   I did help him once when we sanded several hundred feet of cypress and the result was pretty good but what a mess. There was no provision on his machine to set up any kind of a dust collector, maybe that has been improved since he bought his.

   Bottom line is the machine will do what its advertised to do, quality of the finish is good, not super good.

3. 
   Clay | May 10, 2003 06:39am | #3

   I don't have the 4 in 1 version, but I did buy a Woodmaster planer/molder when I was setting up to make picture frame moldings (23 years ago).  I subsequently bought several Foley-Belsaw units and much preferred them.