Making your own molding.

[pinkybanks]

Just out of interest, does anyone spindle mold or router their own moldings, or is it more cost effective to buy in?

[avantime]

That all depends on quantities.

I make my own mouldings because the quantities are large - I buy oak, ash and tulip in pack quantities (c.3-4 cubic metres). I run a 4 head moulder. For me this is the most cost effective way.


For the vast majority of framers it is far better to buy off the shelf.

[Roboframer]

No way!

I have a friend who is a damned good carpenter and he once made me 100ft of moulding in exchange for some framed photos.

Table saws, spindle moulder, thicknesser and tons of sawdust and shavings all taking up a space I don't have or want.

He had two rooms for staining and finishing too - all rooms with extraction units - blah blah - bugger that!

[iantheframer]

We have a router used in a table as a small spindle moulder. We don’t as a rule make mouldings (although we have on occasion made small quantities), but find it very useful for adapting mouldings, rounding an edge to make a part cushion, putting a step in the sight edge, little things that mean we can offer a custom service using standard mouldings. It is also very useful for making rebates wider to accommodate out of square canvasses for instance.

[avantime]

I agree with the other two - dust is the framer's no.1 ememy. Also space is an issue for most.

To give you an idea for every 4 cubic metres of wood you put through a moulder there will be about 1 cubic metre waste / shavings and sawdust! The same would apply to thicknessers, spindle moulders and rip saws. It's an even higher proportion of waste for narrow mouldings. To make a moulding to a finished size of 20 x 20mm you would start with a ripped section of 25 x c.30mm!

[framemaker]

Agree with whats already said, some framers may never have need of a router or table saw, let alone a spindle moulder, so much easier to buy in what you need. Others (like me) use the router and saw once every couple of weeks or so; to make a rebate bigger, cut the back of a slip to make it fit in an antique frame, or to just adapt a moulding for a job. Then there are a few who have production set ups like avantime.

I guess it depends on what you want to do piggybanks, but being someone who only has one open room for all my working (not for much longer! ), I would say dust is a total nightmare. So I would not advise lots of spindle moulding/routing unless its in a separate 'messy' room.

I have in the past got in some lovely woods, to make into simple flat and box mouldings, I just got a cabinet maker friend to size, plane, and rebate the timber. Or if its a simple job he lets me use his machines for a couple of drinks

[pinkybanks]

I'm aware of the mess\dust issues, but intend on regularly making my own moldings. I'm not too sure if it will be economical with the small amounts that I'll be producing, but I can make a bespoke frame with the knowledge that I MADE THAT! I know I'm new to this venture and I'm not up and running yet, but I really want to inbrace all elements of this trade. So give it a few months, and I may have some spare moldinds for members to sample.

[framemaker]

Well, I think that it is very good to offer unique services and products that customers may not be able to get from your competitors, do something different, stand out, and customers will come back for more
(apologies for my misspelling your name in my earlier post, I need to pay more attention to my reading and typing! )

Best of luck
Richard

[Not your average framer]

I already have a router, plus a good range of cutters and could easily buy a suitable router table. I just can't see why I would want to bother doing my own mouldings.

There's a very good company (Norfolk Mouldings), who can make anything which I can't buy elsewhere and the finished result is always fantastic. I think I'll stick with them when I need something special.

After all, who needs the hassle when someone else will save you the bother!

[Custard]

I occasionally make moulding, but there has to be a very good reason. Most often it's to deliver a specific wood to match specific decor. Steamed Pear is a good example, it's becoming very fashionable but there's little if any Steamed Pear moulding commercially available. Other examples I've made are frames from Kingwood, Yew, Satinwood, and 8,000 year old Irish Bog Oak. Unfortunately that was also about the time I waited to get paid for that particular job!

However, if you really tried to get a reputation for unique moulding you'd need a lot more skills than just the ability to wield a router, with the contemporary flat style mouldings you'd need to be proficient at veneering, and maybe also inlaying, banding, and french polishing. And for certain "unobtainable" mouldings (like copies of the bamboo style mouldings) you have to turn the lengths on a lathe then split them.

I've also made a couple of frames for gilders using 18th and 19th century moulding planes instead of a spindle moulder, hand tools always leave minute undulations which the gilding process magnifies. The finished frames looked stunning, and it was enjoyable as an occasional project, but to be honest there's so much manual work involved that it didn't really pay.

[kev@frames]

we have some made in 1000ft batches by a local joinery. Very quick, very economical. But 1000ft is the minimum. Luckily we use about 500ft of this stuff a month.

Getting it made locally came about in a round about way. But it works nicely. And gives us a product that nobody else has got, with the advantages of all that side of things.

(one moulding we used to use a lot was discontinued, so we had some to the same spec by a business up the county a bit, who specialised in making such things, however the owner died and it left us without a supplier. So we asked a Rep, who got a price and arranged to have it made by a "well known mouldings maker" who, after our fourth order in a year, and without bothering to tell us, decided it was hardly worth their while making 2000ft at a time at £1 a foot so now we have it made locally at half the price anyway, and from a firm that is keen as mustard to get into the making-mouldings business to fully use their computerized, forty foot long machine in their 5,000 square foot workshop.... - but enough of that.....)

Forty foot long computerized machine says it all - Plus the mess, time, and wages


ah.... space, time, ability - that'll be the drawback then.

However, if I had the space and time, and ability to knock up the occasional special moulding in as-needed quantities, I certainly would. Because there's always something that cant be accommodated from your usual range.

[prospero]

I do occaisionally 'modify' plain moulding with the help of a router and table saw. Nothing too ambitious. Making your own from scratch is a bit of a no-goer from an economic standpoint. A one-off special project, maybe...... But for consistent results on bigger quantities, get someone with the right kit to do it.

[Nigel Nobody]

Years ago I had three spindle moulders and didn't make my own mouldings. Even if I was into finishing mouldings myself, it's far more cost effective to buy raw mouldings than make them myself.
Using a router, it's extremely difficult to get uniform size and shape even in one length of moulding.

[richard55]

I have been making some mouldings for the last 8 years mainly out of tulip wood (easy to machine) I have even been known to grind my own profie on the spindle moulder cutters (not very easy to get 2 cutters the same) Cost is not the main reason but for the sizes I need are the main factors