Multico tm1 tenoner

[acewoodturner]

I recently purchased a tm1 which was made in 1973 and in as good as condition as it was when it left the factory. For a machine which is 37 seven year old its amazing It works really good as saves a hell of a lot of time as the first job was to cut 80 tenons. Whilst it only took 30 mins to actually cut the tenons it took quite a while to set it up accurately. I read the recent thread on wixey guages and thought that this could slove the problem. Has anyone tried anything similar and could help me shorten my trial and error adventure?
As a wee aside it will be interesting to see how some of today's machinery will last and if people are willing to part with good cash for them in 10 years time never mind 37 years later!

Mike

 

[JonnyD]

Hi Mike I have had a tm3 the same as yours but 3 phase for about 6 years now and its a great little machine. You get used to setting it up and what used to take an hour of messing around setting up takes 10-15mins. I generally keep sample blocks of the tenons i cut regularly which makes resetting the machine easier. I dont think a wixey guage would make it a lot easier to set up as you get used to how much to turn the handle to make it a tight or loose fit.

Are you using the original type of blocks or the newer type whitehill limiter combi blocks? With the whitehill type i usually scribe the tenon i want to cut on a setup piece with a mortice guage and raise the heads so the scribes on the block meet the guaged lines by rotating the block by hand. If you need to set the blocks parallel to each other for straight shoulders i find it best to move the blocks together so they are almost touching and then its easy to set them level to each other then you can just move the heads up and down to line up the cut for the tenon cheeks. You can also use blocks thicknessed to your mortice width to stick between the blocks when you are setting it to help with the setup.


Just out of interest how much did you pay for the machine as someone i know is looking out for a single phase one?

cheers

jon

 

[acewoodturner]

Jon

I paid £800 and £74 for a pallet delivery. I got it on ebay and it came from a window company. It certainly hadnt been used a lot and it came with spare blades. The blocks on it at present are the original blocks but as I work on my own I'm not breaking any regulations. I will get round to buying new Whitehill blocks for it some time but I'm not in any rush.
I think it was a bargain as most of the Multicos go for well over a grand and are 3 phase. That would add about £500 or so for converting it to single phase
Back and forward adjustments arent too difficult as I have a cast iron 90 degree square which is pretty good. I did set up my trial piece with the tenons scribed on them but it was still a bit of a pain in the arse. I think I will pursue the Wixey planer/thicknesser guage to make my life a wee bit easier.
By the way my mate who is also a cabinet maker as well reckons he could have cut all 80 tenons on his Hammer bandsaw quicker than I could have on my TM1. Im not convinced!

Mike