Roller Durability on a Williams and Hussey Moulder
The yellow rollers last longer than the green ones. October 19, 2013
Question
I'm running a 1 1/8" x 5 1/2" poplar casing elliptical head. Narrowest is 4-0, widest is 8-0. Height is 14". I am running on a W&H with a Boneyman jig. Hussey is set up for multipass. Inside profile is a 3/16" radius bead. Outside edge is flat 1 1/4 across.
I am making 3 passes per head. Everything goes along fine except the last pass starts to grind away the roller, which is green. If I am only running 7 or 8 heads it is okay. Last job was 32 and it was a real pain. Next job is 14 heads. Do I just have to figure in a couple outfeed rollers per job or am I doing something wrong? I was thinking a VS motor would help.
Forum Responses
(Architectural Woodworking Forum)
From contributor J:
You might look into their yellow rollers. They are a little harder. My W&H had the green rollers originally and I wore through them pretty quick.
From contributor B:
We'll run hundreds if not a thousand or more curved mouldings with the yellow rollers before replacing. They wear but I don't replace them until the thin spot gets close to the steel core. No reason to, as they still grab fine. The last set on our primary W-H went several years before replacing them a few months ago.
From the original questioner:
I was under the impression that I should run green on the outfeed (green is harder than the yellow) but I will switch it out with a yellow and see how it goes. Thanks for the input. Do either of you have the vari-speed on the Hussey?
From contributor B:
We have the variable speed on the primary machine and the old style gear box on the second W-H. If you get the variable speed unit, buy the one direct from W-H. Even though Schmidt came out with it first, the W-H is a much better unit. At least that's how it used to be. I haven't seen a new Schmidt unit in a number of years and they may have improved the design.
From contributor R:
Are you putting paste wax on the bed? Reducing friction on the bed and helping with some hand pressure on the feed can help.
