Router table v spindle moulder v overhead router

[Farmer Giles]

I have a trend router table, and an Elektra Beckum TF100 spindle moulder, which needs the motor rewinding. I'm hoping to get rid of one of them and was weighing up the pro's and con's when I looked on eBay for wadkin and noticed their overhead routers.

Not having used one before I have no idea if they are suited to a home workshop. I have the space and 3 phase is not an issue and they can be had for 300 quid with large rise and fall tables.

Anybody got opinions on these? Yes I know it depends what you aim to do with it, I do general woodworking, sometimes making architrave and skirting, never very fancy mouldings, usually just bullnose. Plus a bit of kitchen cabinetry and furniture making.

 

[transatlantic]

By overhead router, do you mean a router mounted in an XYZ table? so basically a CNC type setup but without the automation? I had a look for 'overhead router', and that is what came up.

There is also the side style router (multi-router?) to look at, oh, and also the Pantograph machines. If I had the space, I'd get all of them!

 

[RobinBHM]

Overhead routers were popular in cabinetmaking shops.

Their main use is copy routing, a jig is made for the shape and a metal pin sticks up from the table. You lower the router by foot pedal and follow the shape around.
These machines becames obsolete in factories as CNC machinery came in, around the 1980s I would guess. Hence why such a machine is available cheaply these days.

For straight mouldings, a spindle moulder is better as the larger diameter tooling massively improves chip clearance and the larger cutting knives have better geometry for straight work.

However if you are into furniture making and are likely to cut shapes, stopped rebates etc an overhead router is very versatile. Wealdon do larger cutting blocks for cnc which are more like spindle cutters.

Bear in mind you will need to make your own fences and guarding system, to run strsight work safely

The 3 phase wadkin machines need a frequency changer, which looks like a massive motor so you need plenty of space.

These machines were around before the introduction of TCT router cutters. They tended to use single knife spoon bits which fitted in an eccentric chuck, you could adjust cutting diameter by the how much the cutter was offset.

I dont know how easily it is possible to obtain suitable collets that fit conventional modern 1/2" router bits -I would into that.

Manuals available here:

http://www.wadkin.com/products/view/179

The LS is a classic Wadkin cast iron machine, worthy of a Wallace refurb!

 

[custard]

For the mouldings you're mainly doing a spindle moulder is the best solution, with a power feed it's pretty much unbeatable in terms of safety, speed, accuracy, and cut quality.

I do have a kind of an overhead router (a Router Boss), which is great for stopped grooves and replaces a lot of the dedicated jigs I need for chairmaking, but for 99.9% of woodworkers an overhead router is just taking up time, space and money that would all yield a better return elsewhere.

 

[Farmer Giles]

Thanks guys, now I'm on my PC not my phone they look a lot bigger, this is one of the smaller ones :shock: I shall get the spindle moulder fixed

 

[Doug71]

Definitely stick with spindle moulder, those over head routers scare the hell out of me!

 

[worn thumbs]

I would rather use a spindle or an overhead router than a router table any day of the week.If further pushed,I would plump for the overhead router as it can cope with mouldings by using ordinary router cutters as well as having the template following capability.