The Framers Forum

I am looking into the possibility of buying a new underpinner (possibly Cassese CS20 if anyone has specific experience with one) and was looking for advice/opinion and maybe a bit of a poll on your ‘weapon of choice’? I am thinking around £2000 for a new or second hand machine. We curently use the Cassese CS89, most frames are under a 1000mm x 1000mm, with mouldings narrower than 120mm & we don’t build anything bigger than about 1800x1500. I have done lots of reading through the forum & also everywhere else on the interweb, but there’s surprisingly not a lot of recent info. I think I could get used to the operation of any brand..but am a bit of perfectionist about mitres (if anyone wants to start mitres anonymous )...

I went to D & J Simons & Sons with the intension of buying a CS20 but after trying that and the CS200 I bought the 200 You really need to see and try them both together.
The 200 was a lot more than I had budgeted for but I knew instinctively it was the right choice for me and so far I have no regrets with it, I just hope the ultra clamps never catch my finger because they are extremely powerful.


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With regard to mitres I top am very fussy but even the Cs200 can’t compensate for some mouldings short comings and try as might I still get some I am not entirely happy with, but I learn a little each time, my mitres are generally ok on the angle join its the slight variation in height that trouble me but I think its certain mouldings rather than the underpinner or learning how to overcome the problems.


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I think it would be interesting to know if there’s a consensus on Underpinners, so even you don’t want to say your experience, people could just state their machine.
I’m finding that too Ed’, twists mostly, but just yesterday I needed to make two frames exactly the same, so I thought it would make sense to cut the 4 long sides first, but the second length was slightly smaller in height..not ideal.

The way to compensate for varying heights on mouldings is to check first and the shim up the low side with
a bit of paper/card cut at 45º. Low-tech, but it works.