The Framers Forum

Hi,

After some advice from those of you with more experience than myself.

We have some high end mouldings that are 4 to 6"+ in width and too wide for the morso, therefore unmorsoable. (if the word did not exist it does now..)

I am looking for a cost effective tool, ie under £250 to cut miters on the said mouldings.

I was thinking of a Nobex Proman 110.
But is there anything electric that does a fine enough job?

What do you use in your workshops?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Many Thanks Liam

Sorry I can't help, Liam. We never stock anything that is unmorsoable (a perfectly cromulent word), if we need anything broad, we just stack two or more narrower ones together.

Is there a chance that your moulding supplier could provide you with a chop service? It could save you the hassle.

Welcome to the forum.

Nothing fits your bill in the Lion catalogue, I'd try ebay, exchange and mart and Screwfix.

I use a Nobex Proman 110 when I can't use the Morso. Mine is fixed to a long piece of wood with the Frameco measurement system which I bought from Lion. A particular advantage with the Proman 110 is when cutting down antique frames for customers and you find an old piece of a nail, that the replacement blades are cheap! Not so with a tungston carbide negative rake cross-cutting circular saw blade.

However, if you are looking for a suitable power saw - BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!!!! Get yourself an "Axminster Power Tools" catalogue, or something similar and check out which diameter of blade will give you a decent selection of tungston carbide negative rake cross-cutting circular saw blades. Only after you've don't this then start looking for a suitable mitre saw or combination mitre saw for your chosen blade diameter.

The negative rake blades are slower to cut with, but the beautifully clean cut edge is the business!

A word of warning - Not all such saws have fixed 45 degree stops - this is important!

I thought about using chop services, but we will use a lot of wide moulding thats expensive (£15-£20+ meter ex Vat), the chop price is even higher, so mythinking was that by that investing in the right tool and buying non chop, the cost of the tool should be recovered quite fast.

Thanks Liam

BTW Liam,

If you are thinking about cutting a lot of these large mouldings, then dust extraction will be an important consideration, especially with the fine dust produced by a fine cross-cut blade.

Hi Liam
If you are constantly using these V V wide high end mouldings then I would seriously think about using the chop packages.

The cost is passed onto the customer at the end of the day, plus you only pay for what is used in a frame.

If you buy length for these V V wide mouldings, can you make up 'ready mades' out of the waste. If not then you will effectively be throwing away the money that you have already paid out. Not good business practice, especially on start up

Good Luck though. I will echo Kev's remark about a computer on the design desk with a good costing programme that the customer will see.

Not your average framer wrote:Only after you've don't this

Huh?

Its not only important to consider if you can cut this width of moulding - you need to check that you can join it - many underpinners don't take very wide mouldings.

For very wide mouldings chop is still an option worth considering - no storage problems - you buy in what you need when you need it. don't forget that if you buy a lot of chops in the same moulding you can ask for a discount - the supplier will be using the same principle of being able to maximise profit from his stock - the less wastage he has the better. Having said that Merlin's point about waste on wide mouldings being difficult to use applies whether your chopping or your supplier and at the end of the day someone pays for the waste - it should be your customer if you get the costing right. Long lengths of wide moulding also take up lots of space and have a bad tendency to warp if not stored carefully.

cromulent




I cant wait to use that (new to my vocabulary) word in the pub.

awesome

Ive tried using it - but I think you have to have a Belfast accent to carry it off. I think John has used it at least six times on the forum.

Spit wrote: Huh?

Yes I know, I tried to edit it, but everything went wrong!

markw wrote:Ive tried using it - but I think you have to have a Belfast accent to carry it off. I think John has used it at least six times on the forum.

I tried the Belfast accent, but it comes out more like it originates Bangladesh. an improvement on trying it in cornish though .... ("crumlund")

kev@frames wrote: I tried the Belfast accent, but it comes out more like it originates Bangladesh. an improvement on trying it in cornish though .... ("crumlund")

You are both wide off the mark, what you need is a Springfield accent.

Is that Springfield as in Homer Simpson ???

The kids at Springfield elementary are assembled to watch the educational film, Young Jebediah Springfield:


Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.

Ms. Crabapple: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield.

Ms.Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

I used to use a Nobex Proman saw before I had a Morso and my mitres were just as good then as now.

It needs a little practice to push the saw back and forth without applying any sidways pressure so practice on a couple of offcutts. As mentioned earlier, Amazon is probably the best place for the saw.

It's also worth getting a measuring extension. The EZY TABLE EXTENSION from Lion seems better than the Nobex extension.

Bolt the whole assembly onto an MDF base and it's easy to hang on the wall or put on the shelf when not in use.

I still use the Proman for any mouldings that are difficult with the Morso or any cut that isn't 45 degrees -- it's quicker to get the saw out than to fiddle with the Morso's fences.