Magic Molder or molding router bits?

[GaryA]

Anybody have one of these or know much about them? I watched the video, and it looks great....just dont feel real good about:

1. the safety of the insertable cutter heads and the speed at which they rotate on a TS
2. Looks like it can get REAL expensive when you start adding cutter heads. At first I thought....wow, approx $300 and I can do all of those different moldings....then saw that each cutter head beyond a starter set is $76!!!

Looks like it might be out of my league unless I had income behind it... thoughts?

How do you guys make moldings? This weekend, was taking some 1x3 poplar, edge profiled it with an Ogee bit and was going to paint it, miter it and use adhesive to frame the kids bathroom mirror. LOML didnt like that it didnt have an eased profile like a molding, and got thinking I dont even really have any bits yet that'll do it. Any ideas out there for good basic molding starter router bit sets??

[dkhoward]

Craftsman used to make a tool similar to this except it had three cutter instead of three. I got one as a gift (still have it in fact). I used it once on a Craftsman RAS and once on a portable tablesaw. . . both times it scared the crap out of me the whole time I was using it.

It did a fair job. Had to be really careful with feed rate and with some of the cutters it had to be done in multiple passes and shallow cuts. On the RAS it had a really nasty desire to toss the workpiece back at you.

I still have mine and every once in a while I get it out and look at it then put it back in the drawer. . . .

Dennis

[Holbren]

Leadership in Ergonomics & Safety

Where did you see the plugs for $76?

This may help.

http://lrhent.com/sequoia.htm

"The Magic Molder was honored with the Sequoia Award in the category of "Leadership in Ergonomics & Safety" because of its safe Insert Plug system designed with an Anti-kick feature. The Magic Molder is a new molder head for table saws and viewed as a superior upgrade to its predecessors."

The price does climb fast because of the quality of the carbide cutters. To put it in persective, the same company sells rail & stile cutter sets for $525. They make true industrial tools.

You would probably be better off with router bits IMO.

[Brian G]

Gary,

I can't speak to the Magic Molder; I have no experience with something like that.

I do, however, have experience with the 5 piece molding set from holbren.com. I bought it a few years ago when Brian had it on sale. In retrospect, I wish I would have spent the few extra dollars on the 10 piece set he also had on sale at the time. I don't see that set available. There were some shorter profiles that would have been handy for picture frames and other trim moldings.

They work great for me in a 2.5 HP Ryobi RE180PL router. I'm planning on making a horizontal router table just to make things easier.

It's a very good set, and I'm not paid to say so.

[Holbren]

Where do I send the check?

The 10 piece set is sold out unless I find some more. Boxes are all over still from the move and I find things as I need them.

[footprintsinconc]

Brian,

10 piece set? i only found the 5 piece set online. also, your website, it doesnt give the details of the bits like the diameter and height of the patterns. can you provide those to me?

thanks

[Holbren]

Brian,

10 piece set? i only found the 5 piece set online. also, your website, it doesnt give the details of the bits like the diameter and height of the patterns. can you provide those to me?

thanks

Here are the dims of each bit in metric.

http://www.holbren.com/misc/rct05a.pdf

[cabinetman]

I've had this
moulding set for years, and it takes proper set up and careful use. I would only use it on the table saw.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Here is the correct answer . . . .

http://www.grizzly.com/products/g0552

[Pappy]

I bought mine from Blades'nbits several years ago. All of the 5 pc sets I saw had 3 that I liked and 2 that were too deep for what I wanted.

I called them and, after explaining what I wanted, they let me pick the 5 I wanted and sold them to me at the 5 pc set price.