How To: Spindle Moulder Use, Safety & General Operation

In this video I discuss the Spindle Moulder (shaper). I touch briefly on its use, the best type of tooling to use and how to operate them in a way that minimises your chance of accidents.
Spindles are a woodworker's best friend, they are the most versatile machine we can own, but they do pose a significant safety risk if used incorrectly.
If there is anything you wish to know that I have not covered, please leave a comment and I will respond in kind.
#woodworking #shapers #joinery #workshop #woodwork #spindle

[@izzeystarz7578]

Another top pragmatic video. Thanks man. "I don't have modern machines" just sounds incredibly cool to me.

[@DTJoinery]

Haha, thank you. Cheers.

[@TheLittleworkshop]

Great video. What would be useful is individual set ups, for particular or unique mouldings. Correct sequence for particularly difficult tasks.

[@DTJoinery]

Thanks. I'll see what I can do.

[@TheLittleworkshop]

Top man thank you.

[@DTJoinery]

@@TheLittleworkshop No worries.

[@johnsykes5464]

Hi there mate, if you look upon youtube and search 'basic spindle moulding' by Roy Sutton, he gives a very good run down on the typical operations youd use the spindle for. Fantastic video made by a real craftsman himself, so you know its worth a peek! 👍

[@johnsykes5464]

@thelittleworkshop

[@leop9021]

Very well done.

[@DTJoinery]

Thank you.

[@radiantbloom9799]

watch twice, thank you !

[@DTJoinery]

Pleasure.😊

[@andrewhills6535]

Just rebuilt one 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🙋🏼‍♂️👍🏻

[@DTJoinery]

Awesome.

[@philvale5724]

Hi, good basic territorial, I have been a machinist for approximately 50 years, I’m now retired, and I still have my fingers and I still have all my machinery or most of them, something that might be interest to you, or your other fellow followers, I used to work for myself in the UK, cutter block, square is illegal, and the fly cutter where you clamp, your two cutters down is should not be used, and I have got special mouldings to do I would put a baseboard down on top of the spindle bed and making sure that my in an outfit fence are nice flat straight and square and I would put a face onto them, mainly screwed in place, I would then wind the cutter block up through the baseboard and feed from the back of the back fences through a face, so you end up with just the part of cutter showing through that you are going to be using, Many years ago, I was working as a subcontract specialist joiner at a organ building company, and we had some very very fine mouldings to make and this was the only Safeway of doing it, to the point where I would make a box up that will go in front of the cutter block as there was not enough surface area for the power feet to operate it, And as you write essay, it only takes a split 2nd to make a mistake, Something else you should be careful of, as if you are machining, something that may have a knot in it , if they’re not comes out, the piece of wood will probably jump,, which means you will lose contact with your piece of wood. If it spits the piece of wood out from your hands, your hands will then fall back into the cutter blocks., I do remember somebody back in the late 70s early 80s, this guy was a professional machinist, and a huge lump of timber came out of the piece of wood that he was trying to machine and his hands dropped down into the cutter block, all he had left was his thumb and first finger, When doing profile work, where a piece of wood is clamped down onto a profile jig, make sure the wood cannot kick back off of it, and always have at least 5 to 6 inches of material in feed and outfeed before starting your profile, I hope this can be some help to somebody, stay safe, Something that I’ve just thought of before signing off is that I have always used Cutter blocks with a limiter on it, that is where the first cutter is back by about a mil , though it is still the same profile, it is facing the opposite direction, this gives a lot better cleaner cut, Now retired living in France I come from the UK originally, Phil from the moulin France .

[@DTJoinery]

Hi Phil, Yes, the square blocks are illegal in a lot of places these days, and for good reason. In saying that, though, when used with a feed unit, they are as safe as any other, just don't risk freehand. We also use some of the limiting cutter blocks, I also have many thousands of dollars worth of other heads too. Given all the Tooling I have and need, it's too expensive to replace it all, so we still use slotted collars a lot. The Spindle Moulder is a machine that really requires tuition before using them. This was really just an introductory. Make videos too long, and no one watches them. Thank you for the words of wisdom you have given for us to obsorb, it is much appreciated. Gary.

[@philvale5724]

Hi 👋, i’ll probably should’ve mentioned , Around 20 years ago, by purchased a Wadkin EKA Tenoner , it was very old, I rebuilt it , And I had to change all the cutter blocks as they were the squarehead ones, by the time I had purchased four new blocks, two for the rebate blocks And two for the scribe heads, from Leitz that was nearly £2000 , then, on top of that was all the knives and insert cutters , I’ll now have over 20 years worth , That is a serious amount of money , I wish you all the success for the future, stay safe, Phil from the moulin France .

[@DTJoinery]

@philvale5724 We used to have an EKA also, ours had circular heads. It was an old machine also, nit sure if it was ansquare head originally though. We had an ECA, too. I have 2 Wilson's now. It's an unbelievably expensive game buying heads/blocks and knives. It's great to hear your experiences, Phil. Take care.

[@Alex-lb5vt]

great video could you do an example of some ring fence work if you do another video thanks

[@DTJoinery]

Hi Alex. We have a couple of circular windows to make in the next few weeks, so I will address the ring fence then. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@jwvandehel]

Set your spindle speed according to your tooling diameter. And (less importantly) set the feed unit speed to mach your cutting operation. And enjoy the versetilaty of the spindle molder.

[@DTJoinery]

Yes, all valid points. Thanks for your input.

[@floydcrase625]

I used to make radius and elliptical casings for doors and windows on a shaper freehand

[@DTJoinery]

Yeah, any type of curved work, I use a ring fence freehand. I've seen people use a single wheel feed, but I dont have one.

[@gordoncrates3508]

Great video with sound advice. Square head and slotted cutter blocks are banned here in the UK. We use euro cutters blocks which have a limiter too. Do you have to have the machines electronically braked as we do here so they stop within 10 seconds? I've been a joiner/cabinet maker for over 40 years and still have all my fingers 😊

[@DTJoinery]

Hi Gordon, We have some heads with limiters, too. We don't have to have electronic braking here. It sounds like you have it pretty tough in the UK with regulations. It's great to hear you have all your digits. You obviously have mastered the skill of unrelenting concentration. Thanks for your comments. Have a great day.

[@artdealba8362]

Great advice can you show some of the jigs can can use on a shaper

[@DTJoinery]

Yes, we can do a video on different jigs and fence arrangements.

[@sheldongribble3363]

Yeah good mate, I have an old Wadkin too! Great machine Be good to talk about speed for certain cutters and how to change them. I am having trouble changing the speed, the guy I bought it off said it's only one speed but I can see you can move the belts .I can see what I need to do but am having trouble moving the motor in too loosen at the back. Its probably never been moved before. Any help on how to do this would be awesome. Cheers

[@DTJoinery]

What model Wadkin is it? My 2 EQ's are 4 speed, 2 speeds on the switch, and 2 speeds by belt change. My EP is a 2 speed belt change only. If you want to join out FB page we can discuss and post pics etc a lot easier. facebook.com/groups/779554520639744/?ref=share_group_link

[@justcruisin109]

Thanks for the video. There isn’t much available on their use so any video on typical operations would be good. Cheers

[@DTJoinery]

Ok. I will put something together over the next few weeks whilst I am machining. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@johnsykes5464]

If you have a look on here, there is a fantastic video 'basic spindle moulding' by a chap named Roy Sutton. Great information with basic safe set ups and additional advice on bearing work and ring fence work for curves etc. He also does videos on routing. Very good videos!

[@michaelgildow2668]

I live in the USA where can I purchase spindle moulder. I looked on Amazon can't find it. Thanks..

[@DTJoinery]

I can't answer that for you, as I live in Australia. Perhaps look on Craigslist or if you have them, 2nd hand machinery dealers, Facebook marketplace, etc. Good luck with your search.

[@markpannell4058]

Do you have a french head shaft for the wadkin EQ and do you use it ?. Great video.

[@DTJoinery]

What do you mean by French Head, I've not heard that term before? Thanks.

[@DTJoinery]

Do you mean the shaft that has the slot for a single cutter to go through?

[@markpannell4058]

Yes, has a bolt in the top of the shaft to hold them down, very old fashioned now days and can be dangerous but I was taught them back in the 80's at college.@@DTJoinery

[@DTJoinery]

@markpannell4058 I don't have one. I do remember my Dad showing one to me once, but it wasn't ours. He wasn't a fan of them. What's your thoughts on them?

[@markpannell4058]

Well they can be very useful, just need to grind up one cutter to do a small job and I have used mine a few times but you have to be very careful as cutters have a habit of flying out, never happened to me , they are illegal in Europe since the 90's.@@DTJoinery

[@mikeholgate3600]

I see used shapers quite often. Some look heavy but seem to have low power 1.5 hp others have 3-5 or more hp. How much power do you need? Some have 3/4" spindle, some have 1.25" or metric equivalent. What are advantages / disadvantages of these spindle sizes. Considering purchasing a shaper but don't know what I don't know. We have single phase and 3 phase here also. So what to consider when purchasing new or used shaper?

[@DTJoinery]

So, in a nut shell, anything single phase is aimed at the handyman, generally a light duty machine with smaller spindle diameter. 11/4" was the standard for all industrial spindles until the European market started to come to Australia, we then started seeing 35mm shafts. As far as HP goes, the smaller HP can suffer from lack of power when running heavier timber or deep moulding runs, for instance, one of my spindles is around 3hp and struggles when I double up rebating heads to do a double rebated jamb. 2 of my others are 5hp and will have no issues at all. As far as what to get, it really depends on what you want to do with the machine. If you are just doing small mouldings at slowish speeds, then the 2-3hp machines are perfectly adequate. I would recommend going 3 phase over single as the 3 phase are far superior. Are you in Australia?

[@mikeholgate3600]

Thanks for reply. I'm in Canada. Home shop would be rare to have 3 phase as that's commercial here. Would have to use phase converter.

[@YouGotsTheRabies]

Once you get Moulder, then you need Scully.

[@DTJoinery]

😅

[@47GreenJeans]

Hi there. I've bought what I think is a Robland K21 combo machine, which includes a spindle moulder, and I'm trying to figure out how to change the cutter head and blades. Of course there's a bolt on top that takes an Allen wrench, but there should be some way to lock the spindle so the thing doesn't move whilst turning the bolt. Could you please illustrate or comment? Thanks.

[@DTJoinery]

Hi, There should be, as you suggested, a lock to lock the shaft. I'm not familiar with the machine, but if you would like to take some pics and jump onto our DT Joinery community group on FB with them, I'm sure we can help you get it sorted. The FB link is in our channel description, I tried to copy and paste it for you, but it didn't work for me.

[@47GreenJeans]

How do you do this process on your machines? It's probably similar.

[@DTJoinery]

@47GreenJeans On my Wadkins, they have a handle on the front of the machine that locks into the shaft. One of my others has a pin that gets put into the shaft through the front of the pedestal.

[@47GreenJeans]

@DTJoinery Thank you so much. I haven't been able to find a video of anyone actually changing spindle moulder tooling in real time. Maybe it's a good project for you.

[@DTJoinery]

@47GreenJeans No problem. In 1 or 2 of our build videos , I do show the cutter setup but I don't think I capture the locking of the spindle.