Spindle Moulder Choices

[AndyPandy]

I don't have Triple Phase in my shop and am looking to get a Spindle Moulder. Does anyone have any experience of the Kity 429 or similar type models? I'd look at anything that ran on 240v to be honest. Its not for industrial type use, just small shop work and so on.

 

[Loz_S]

I'm sure I read someone around here has one of these little Kitys so hopefully they will be along to help.

In the mean time I could scan a review from F&C 122 if you are interested. For its size and price it was given quite a good review. They have reviewed several moulders recently but this one has to be the cheapest I have seen.

 

[AndyPandy]

That would be really useful - thanks. What are the issues for those reviews? Im sure I can get my hands on some of then if I have to

 

[Steve Maskery]

I think Roger Sinden has one. I dare say he'll be along shortly. My guess is that it is reasonable quality but limited capacity. It all boils down to what you intend to do with it. Remember that tooling is a) expensive and b) limited for the smaller machines.

I have a Scheppach. It's a fine single phase machine, but I never use it as almost all of the work I do is handled more easily on my router table. I was thinking of selling it last summer, but I have some exterior joinery to do this year, so I'll probably wait until that project is over first.

All the best with your search.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Loz_S]

The most recent issues of F&C have covered the Kity (F&C 122), Jet 34LX (121), Sheppach 3000 (120) and a couple of articles about spindle moulding in general, what to look for and how to use them safely (119 & 120).

I'll scan them and send them off this evening.

Cheers,
Loz

 

[RogerS]

I think Roger Sinden has one. I dare say he'll be along shortly.

Almost right, Steve :wink:

I have the 1629 with sliding carriage and power feed

 

[ProShop]

hi AndyPandy,

I wouldn't be too worried about not having 3 phase. You can get digital inverters to run 3 phase machines nowadays and as a bonus you get electronic speed control which is very good news on spindle moulders.

No more belts to change, plus you can tweak the speed to suit the cutters & timber type to get a really high quality finish.

This also opens the door to buy some very good s/hand machines and more choice of machine.



Toolings not that expensive either, in most cases cheaper than router cutters and you can get or make your own special profiles easily.

Single phase machines are limited by horsepower which in turn limits the cutter block size you can use. 2hp is the absolute minimum imho, the most your likely to get single phase is 4hp, but they come at a higher price, but enabling you to use much bigger blocks.

BTW, 3phase 3hp is more powerful than single phase 3hp.


hope this helps

 

[Steve Maskery]

Almost right, Steve :wink:

 

[Scrit]

Remember that tooling is a) expensive and b) limited for the smaller machines.

AFAIK if you are looking at simple profile work then £70 or so for a cutter block may seem expensive, but the £12 to £15 per 40mm profile set that you use in a cutter block (generally with 2 different profiles per set) can turn the financial balance in favour of the spindle moulder once you've purchased 4 or 5 sets, especially as you'd struggle to find many 40mm high profiles for a router. It's much easier to get a set of knives ground for a spindle moulder than have a custom profile cutter made for a router, not to menyion cheaper. Then add to that the fact that even a 2HP spindle (with induction motor) has a lot more torque than any router and can therefore take a bigger cut and get less bogged down than any router and I can't see why you don't use the spindle moulder more.

BTW, 3 phase 3 hp is more powerful than single phase 3hp.

True, but when run via a static (i.e electronic) inverter any 3-phase machine probably loses about a third of the torque. Even so they're not bad. The only downer is the cost of a decent size inverter

Scrit

 

[ProShop]

BTW, 3 phase 3 hp is more powerful than single phase 3hp.

True, but when run via a static (i.e electronic) inverter any 3-phase machine probably loses about a third of the torque. Even so they're not bad. The only downer is the cost of a decent size inverter

Scrit

Scrit, True, but the manufacturers of the new type digital inverters are claiming no loss of torgue. Had a demo of one a couple of months back and was impressed .

 

[Keith Smith]

John, have you read this about digital inverters?

 

[AndyPandy]

Thanks everyone - a lot of reading and planning due now!

 

[ProShop]

John, have you read this about digital inverters?

Many thanks Keith, Yes I did read it some time back and I also read the reply from the firm in question, which made very interesting reading and puts a balanced view on the issue.

I have it on good authority that the digital inverters are safe to use and from what I can glean from various manufacturers digital inverters are the future. incidentally they use less power too than the older types. I have a small one running at the moment and it works very well.

I've looked into inverters etc quite a lot recently and imho it's a cost efficient route for 3 phase, compared to hard wired which as you probably know is now prohibitively expensive. And also a lot of the utility companies won't put it in unless your on an industrial estate.