Replies

1. 
   mike4244 | May 25, 2006 03:28am | #1

   I have seen the woodmasters in action, in professional cabinet shops. Have not personally used one, wished I had bought one instead of the Jet planer-molder.

   An aquaintance of mine started with the 18" woodmaster, now has two more 24" I believe. They are 5 hp main motor ,I think there is a smaller motor for the powerfeed.

   From what I saw they do an excellent job of planing, molding and I understand they can be used as a drum sander and ripsaw.

   mike

2. 
   creekwood | May 25, 2006 04:56am | #2

   I can give you some info next week. I have an 18 inch model being delivered on Friday. After seeing one in action, I concluded it was what I needed. I have a 15 inch import, and have used it for several years with success. But the Woodmaster gives me the capability of moulding, which I'm hoping will be a side income for my other woodwork.

1. 
   joepez | May 25, 2006 08:53pm | #6

   Creekwood,

   I am really interested to hear from you after you fire it up and run some bf through. I thought about also doing some moulding work for a supplement, but for now, I'm concerned about the planer. Interested to see the finish it leaves. I'm wondering if it is on par or better than standard planer?

   thanks Joe P

1. 
   creekwood | May 25, 2006 09:10pm | #8

   Joe, I'll be happy to let you know what my experiences are. I feel like that kid going to the candy store. A while back I found someone with one, and they ran some curly maple through it for me. This wood chipped out on my planer, but this guy slowed down the feed rate on his Woodmaster, and it came out smooth as glass. I was very impressed.

   If you don't hear from me in here, remind me.

3. 
   Ronaway | May 25, 2006 05:41am | #3

   I have an 18 and a 25. I have owned the 18 since 1988 and it is still in good running order. I bought a 25 that was purchased in 1990 and it is still running great. I bought a new head for the 25 that has the 14mm insert cutters, it is much quieter and the dust collection is near 100%. The customer service that I've received from Woodmaster over the years has been wonderful, I just don't think you could go wrong with the Woodmaster.

   Ron

1. 
   JMartinsky | May 25, 2006 07:32pm | #4

   Dear Ron,
   i know that the 18" has a feed of up to 16 fpm. Is there any way to increase that? Also, the "indexed" cutterhead, is that a Byrd, how does in install, does it have the "Morse taper"?Thanks,John

1. 
   Ronaway | May 26, 2006 05:04am | #9

   The indexed cutter head does have a morse taper just like the original head. As far as the feed rate goes I never used the full speed of the feed motor on either machine. The real nice things about these machines is the fine control of the feed rate. I decided to put the insert head in the 25 for one reason, that was to cut down on maintenance time. To keep standard knives in good working shape there is a good bit of time invested in sharpening and setting knives. I haven't had to take a day to set new knives in my planer since I purchased the insert head. I am due for rotating the inserts but in the same amount of time I would have had to sharpen and reset knives 5 or 6 times. The insert head does leave some fine lines down the length of the board but these are easy to deal with a well tuned hand plane. Given that I would probably improve any machine planed surface with hand planes this was really not an issue for me. In my opinion no surface straight out of a machine is suitable for finishing so the insert head has been a real time saver for me and besides that it runs much quieter.

1. 
   JMartinsky | May 26, 2006 06:15am | #10

   Thank you for the info, one last question: did you have the cutterhead custom made or is it a stock item?Thanks!John

1. 
   Ronaway | May 26, 2006 03:01pm | #11

   It was a stock item but I was under the impression that they did not keep a lot of stock of these heads as the demand was not very large at the time. That could have changed.Ron

2. 
   joepez | May 25, 2006 08:59pm | #7

   Does it give a good planer finish? Is the Bryd head worth the extra $$ in your opinion?

   Thanks in advance for the info.

   Joe P

4. 
   Rennie | May 25, 2006 07:45pm | #5

   Looks like Woodmaster is having a sale.

   http://www.woodmastertools.com/s/price.cfm

   Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.
   Frank Lloyd Wright