Tooling for Radiused Corners on S4S Lumber
The right cutterheads can make producing eased-edge, surfaced-four-sides lumber a one-pass operation. June 9, 2007
Question
I run a great deal of S4S for one of my best customers. Recently he asked that I put a radius on all four corners of a certain material. The finished material varies in thickness from batch to batch. I have been doing this in a separate operation with a roundover cutter and a bearing. Are there any standard cutters out there to do this in a single operation? They would have to be adjustable for thickness.
Forum Responses
(Solid Wood Machining Forum)
From contributor T:
You're in luck. There are a great deal of products for your application. You can get carbide tipped tools called "Adjustable Double Easing Cutters." These can be ordered to accommodate a very large range of thicknesses and are adjustable using spacers and shims. The better option, however, for your application would be insert type tools. Some of these tools can use multiple different radii and be adjusted for materials far thicker than a carbide tipped cutter could be. Some of the insert tools can even run high speed steel knives as well as carbide.
From contributor J:
I use high speed steel corrugated back knives on my moulder and have different sizes on hand - anything from 1" to 2" for the stock required. One pass through the moulder and you are done. I don't use these often, so I don't go to dedicated cutters, but I think Terminus offers a quick change head with such an application as yours. They have helped me in the past with other apps.
From contributor Y:
My customer provides me the unadjustable profile cutter (S4S with radius corners - E4E) for the job. We have been facing the problem that the r is too small for the required thickness. If we give it a plus 0.5mm thicker and the r is nice. Either this is the problem of the cutters or the setting of moulder.
From contributor B:
While the adjustable E4E cutters are nice and versatile (for smaller jobs), I think you might find a type of planer heads with one set of radius knives on one side for each of the four spindles. This way you don't need to change the tools when switching jobs/sizes - only move the spindles.
