Machinery for Running Radius Mouldings
Woodworkers discuss equipment choices for producing radius flat arch casings and curved crown mouldings. March 3, 2009
Question
I will be heading to IWF and would like some input on who to talk with about producing radius mouldings and radius raised panels? I will be talking with the US Concepts and Mikron people. Are there any shops that I could talk to as well?
Forum Responses
(Architectural Woodworking Forum)
From contributor D:
I have the Mikron works great it has a 6 inch head. The US Concepts is available in a 6 inch and 8 inch . As for the radius doors neither machine is good for that.
From contributor R:
When you say radius moldings are you referring to flat moldings cut in an arch like trim on an eyebrow window, or like making compound radiused moldings like crown over and arched door? The first can be done on a Woodmaster or Williams and Hussey. The second is more in line with the machines you are planning to look at.
From the original questioner:
I'm talking about both styles.
From contributor L:
I have a Stegherr arch molding shaper (for doing casing and the like). It's an older model that I bought at an auction for $2,000. It required a little loving and care but has been a good machine. It is the machine that US Concepts started off imitating. US Concepts made some improvements to the design, increased capacity, tilt and power. A solid machine that I would have bought had the Stegherr not come along. For radius crown we have a very heavy tilt shaper. The jigs are made for it on a Komo CNC router. The shaper runs the same heads as our Weinig molder so we get exact matches. When we get into big complex moldings we program them for the Komo. I try to not use the CNC router for anything that is easily run on a dedicated machine. The router already runs over 8 hours a day on normal shop work. We have the program for the radius crown jigs in the computer as a parametric so all we have to do is tell it what radius and it can run the jig parts in a few minutes. A lot depends on how many curved moldings you will be running. Heavier more expensive machines are generally faster, and leave a better finish. The feed system can make a big difference, straight across rollers working against the curve don't work as well as rollers that track the work and always feed in the right direction. I think the standard USC machine has 5 powered (4 floating) rollers with two additional ones available running on top of the molding. Outsource if you are only doing one or two a week.
