Saw blade, moulder and arbors...what to get?

jm51 · Post by **jm51** » Mon May 02, 2011 8:15 am

No arbors or saw blades came with my SS, just a dado set minus arbor.

I fancy having a molder head with glue joint knives, would let me reclaim a lot of scrap. What other knives would you consider worth having?

Also, what saw blade will give the cleanest cut in baltic birch plywood?

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon May 02, 2011 11:32 am

jm51 wrote:No arbors or saw blades came with my SS, just a dado set minus arbor.

I fancy having a molder head with glue joint knives, would let me reclaim a lot of scrap. What other knives would you consider worth having?

Also, what saw blade will give the cleanest cut in baltic birch plywood?

Beware the moulder!!! It is a dangerous animal! Ok if treated with respect!

FWIW, the moulder head can be mounted directly to the quill shaft with no arbor!

You will need to make a fence attachment to allow moulder cutters to recess properly into the fence. Easily done!

Ron309753 · Post by **Ron309753** » Mon May 02, 2011 3:54 pm

I think you are confusing a molder with a shaper. I haven't used either yet, but as I understand it the molder is used to cut shapes into the face of a board, but the shaper is used to cut shapes on the edge of the board.

Also, how would you secure the molder head directly on the quill shaft since it doesn’t have a set screw like an arbor does?

Sincerely,

Ron309753

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Mon May 02, 2011 5:16 pm

Ron309753 wrote:I think you are confusing a molder with a shaper. I haven't used either yet, but as I understand it the molder is used to cut shapes into the face of a board, but the shaper is used to cut shapes on the edge of the board.

Also, how would you secure the molder head directly on the quill shaft since it doesn&#8217]
Sincerely,

Ron309753

The molder heads does attach direct to the 5/8" main shaft and is secured by a setscrew just as does an arbor.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/ms_molderhead.htm

Ron309753 · Post by **Ron309753** » Mon May 02, 2011 6:18 pm

Thanks Dusty and JPG, it's a good day when I learn something new!

Sincerely,

Ron309753

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Mon May 02, 2011 7:03 pm

JM51, it's hard to recommend a specific saw blade because I'm not familiar with what's available in the UK. The other point being that Shopsmith arbors sold here in the U.S. are 5/8" in diameter, and perhaps over there you're using metric-sized arbors. So unless you can find blades with a 5/8" arbor hole, you may need to have them shipped from here. Perhaps your best bet would be to contact the Shopsmith distributor for the UK and see what's available.

For me, Freud makes a nice blade for plywood. Their LU85R 10" blade with 80 teeth cuts through plywood like butter.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon May 02, 2011 7:19 pm

pennview wrote:JM51, it's hard to recommend a specific saw blade because I'm not familiar with what's available in the UK. The other point being that Shopsmith arbors sold here in the U.S. are 5/8" in diameter, and perhaps over there you're using metric-sized arbors. So unless you can find blades with a 5/8" arbor hole, you may need to have them shipped from here. Perhaps your best bet would be to contact the Shopsmith distributor for the UK and see what's available.

For me, Freud makes a nice blade for plywood. Their LU85R 10" blade with 80 teeth cuts through plywood like butter.

FWIW, a 16 mm hole is within 0.005 of 5/8".

Also the 'English' are the original source of inch/foot/pound!

SDSSmith · Post by **SDSSmith** » Mon May 02, 2011 8:41 pm

jm51 wrote:No arbors or saw blades came with my SS, just a dado set minus arbor.

I fancy having a molder head with glue joint knives, would let me reclaim a lot of scrap. What other knives would you consider worth having?

Also, what saw blade will give the cleanest cut in baltic birch plywood?

I have and like this Freud blade for BB plywood. I have not tried the 60 tooth thin kerf version.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Mon May 02, 2011 9:26 pm

JPG, if you take a look (as I did) at some blades available in the UK, you'll see that arbor holes of 30mm and 20mm seem to be the norm. I didn't see any 5/8" ones, but then I didn't look too deeply. Freud UK doesn't show the same blades the sell here, but perhaps you can do an exhaustive search on the subject and get back to us.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Mon May 02, 2011 10:54 pm

pennview wrote:JPG, if you take a look (as I did) at some blades available in the UK, you'll see that arbor holes of 30mm and 20mm seem to be the norm. I didn't see any 5/8" ones, but then I didn't look too deeply. Freud UK doesn't show the same blades the sell here, but perhaps you can do an exhaustive search on the subject and get back to us.

Did not know that! Not sure I would know where to look!;)