Shopsmith Forums

Can anyone tell me where I can find a complete list or chart of the original style of molder knives? I have about 20 sets of knives but I think there maybe another 20 or so sets that I am missing.

The picture below is from a 1955 catalog at the bottom of page 2. It is the earliest reference I have for the Molding Knives.

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Besides having these knives, I also have knives from other brands. Having other brands may be how you are getting more knives. Besides being made for the Shopsmith Tools like the Mark 5 with the Magna name, Magna Engineering Corporation made their Molder Head and Knives under the PowrKraft name for Montgomery Ward.

The picture below shows two versions of the Molding Knives. The one on the left is the earliest version and the later one on the right has the black protective coating. Notice the difference in the hole the set screw goes into to hold the knives in the Molder Head.

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Prior to Shopsmith discontinuing selling the Molder Knives they changed the Molder Head to fit Knives from other suppliers. In all there have been five Molder Heads made for the Shopsmith tools. The first four are shown below. The top two being, from left to right the first and second versions. On the bottom left is the third version and the same as the second version but with the black protective coating that began in 1964.

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Below is the most recent Molder Head. This one is different as it was the first one that required an Arbor (505506 Molder/Dado Arbor) to use. The earlier four Molder Heads could be attached directly to the Shopsmith Spindle.

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Thank you for your informative reply. From your descriptions, I think my molder head is fourth generation, probably made by Corob Cutters and sold by Shopsmith as part no. 505553. The knives I currently have are numbered by Shopsmith as 505XXX, 515XXX or 555XXX. I belive they were made by Corob Cutters but were not interchangeable with Corob Cutter knives.

I am looking to augment my collection of these cutters so if anyone has molder cutters in these series that they no longer need, I am interested in buying non-duplicates. I am most interested in knife sets contained in their original boxes with original Shopsmith labels. You can email me at hprout@msn.com.

AIUI(IIRC) the last version of the knives are a different thickness than the earlier version.

JPG is correct. The last Knives were a different thickness and therefor the Molder Head was different. The 2 Knife versions I show in the picture above are able to fit in all four of the Molder Heads (top 2 part numbers 12 375 pre 1964 and bottom 2 part numbers 505533 1964 and later) in the group picture. The last Molder Head (part number 556213) was made for the Knives Shopsmith was buying and I believe howard is correct in that they are Corob Cutters. That last Molder Head and those Knives are ones I do not have. When that change came a few years ago I already had all four of the previous Molder Heads (those in the picture are mine) and most if not all of the different Knife patterns.