The Framers Forum

Hi all.

We're having a slight issue with our Morso.

We are trying to cut a piece of very soft moulding (Simons: CARI/13), but it seems as though the blade is dragging the wood out on the final cut down the back edge. It seems to be cutting everything else pretty spot on.

We had a length swapped over after we first established that it wasn't cutting properly as we thought we had been sent a bad piece, but i'm now thinking that it may well be our machine.

We had the set of blades that is currently on the machine sharpened only a week or so ago, and they haven't been particularly thrashed since being put on, so I've sort of eliminated the blade sharpness as the issue.

My theory is that the blades aren't protruding through the fence quite far enough, thus not making the final cut as cleanly as they should.

I have been playing about with the bush underneath to adjust how far front or back the blades operate, but still getting no joy.

Attached an image of where the blades sit, along with a picture of the moulding which is breaking up each time we try to cut it.

Any advice or info would be great - apart from to get it serviced, as we had that done about a month or so ago!

Thanks!

Cut it the other way around, rebate against the fence, if it still tears then it's just not Morso-friendly wood. Snotwood/Weetabix moulding.

Roboframer wrote:Cut it the other way around, rebate against the fence, if it still tears then it's just not Morso-friendly wood. Snotwood/Weetabix moulding.

Agree with this ^^
Or you could use some thin strips of mdf behind the moulding, this would eliminate the ragging as the final cut is through the mdf........just remember to read the rebate size as wider(prob 2mm)

Likely it's the wood. Some of the stuff you get nowadays is very soft. If it's plain, unfinished wood that's the worse as a coating will tend to strengthen the wood surface to an extent. Blades soon lose their edge after a few cuts - especially if you have been cutting hard timber or hard compo.

Whacking the pedal down on the last cut as fast as possible sometimes helps.

The timber used on mouldings today just isn't the same quality as the stuff of yesteryear. I have a shed full of olde moulding. Some of it goes back 25 years or more. Sometimes I find a bit that is just right for a job and without exception it cuts and joins like a dream. Even with less-than-sharp blades.

*sigh*

Managed it with the backing board behind the moulding trick - but then the bloody underpinner just started denting the hell out of it.

We've cracked it now, but safe to say, this particular range has now been taken off of our display!

Thanks guys!

we use that range and never had an issue with it, use a L shaped soft pad for pinning, who sharpens your blades?

They were sharpened by Framers Equipment. They were hollow ground.

The solution to pinning it ended up being to turn down the pressure on the Alfa.

All ended up fine, but such a lot of arsing around for such a small job.

"I frame, therefore I arse about."

"I frame, therefore I arse about." - Indeed, in fact I find most of my days are 'arsing about', sometimes the day is nearly over and can't help but think 'what the hell did I do today!?'

But back on topic though - I have a moulding I ordered for a customer (they choose it from the catalogue) and it's awful to cut, there's no way I can use it. I've tried the mdf/mountboard on the outer edge but no good. I don't think it's the blades but I'm gonna change them now anyway just to see what happens.

Actually, what can I do in a case like this? If it turns out to be something that I just can't cut can I call the distributor and ask for a refund or something??? Or do I just chop it for firewood?

Freshly sharpened blades will be ok on almost all bad woods/weetabix , but there are the very few that are so bad they have to go back, not fit for purpose. So yes, if all else fails, send it back

It's a fact that some moulding is just unfriendly when it comes to cutting. If it's that the wood is on the soft side I would say there is a fair case to have it replaced by the supplier. But there are lots of other stuff that is a PITA. Some is very hard. Some is an odd shape. Some has a very hard and brittle coating. Looks fantastic, but cutting and joining is hard work.
After you have been at it for a while you can usually spot the potentially irksome ones. Ideally you should test out a small quantity before making it a stock item.

Used some stuff the other day. Great looking moulding. But it's made of very hard pine, laminated to boot. This makes it very strong and resistant to dings and also the lamination counters twists. But it's nearly 4" wide so very hard work on a Morso. The coating is very thick and hard. I sawed it, which made short work of it, but even the saw groaned a bit.

You have to remember that manufacturers make moulding to sell throughout the entire range of things that get framed. Some stuff may be made with certain markets in mind. Mirrors, readymade cheapos for instance. It's made to a price rather than a quality. It made need a specialist factory setup to use it to it's full potential.

If anyone is interested the moulding I have bother with is a Simons Cann/0003. Spoke to the rep and he said he'd have a look and see what we can do. Cheers

We've uses that moulding recently and didn't have any problems with it. I can see the thinner version being a drama though!

I used one recently that I picked to try and match the customers' frame.
It seemed to have a veneer over the top, and any time I cut it it sent cracks on this veneer spreading out from the cut.
Eventually I managed to get 4 pieces that hadn't cracked, mainly by cutting it really slowly.
Then when I put pressure on the underpinner, they just cracked all over. I put something soft between the underpinner head and the moulding, but it was just as bad.
I took the joined frame with cracked corners and the spare few lengths with cracked corners back to my supplier and we spent 10 minutes checking the other lengths in the batch, all doing exactly the same thing. I had used it once before and it was perfectly fine, so they seemed to have been given a bad batch.
They swapped it over for a similar but different moulding no problem.