GUIDES
Guiding your stock
Your machine comes with the GS-2 guide system, which includes a flex guide and a solid guide to guide, your
stock.
To set these guides
, first attach your knives to the knife arbor in the
position
you have chosen, often a
place where you can get the most out of your roller surfaces. Panel knives would go to the far right. Smaller
knives to the post side half of the mounting area and larger knives to the central positions.
Roll one knife down pointing to the machine bed and place a sample piece of stock you are going to mold on
the bed.
Align the stock
to the knife profile and carefully lower the machine head until the roller puts pressure
on your stock to hold it securely.
Attach your flex guide
to the side of the profile that will cut the least deep into your stock. This will give the
longest possible life to your flex guide. The beveled portion of the guide should be facing the stock. Put about a
1/32” amount of pressure on the flex part of the guide. This will keep you stock from wandering within the
glide path. Pull the handles up and away from the stock path.
Attach your solid guide
on the other side of the stock. Push it up firmly against the stock and tighten the
handles angling them away from the stock path.
Remove your set up piece of stock
by raising the machine head, and pulling the stock out from the bed.
Your knives will usually cut into one or both guides.
This is normal and expected. The guides are effective
and last a long time after being cut into many times.
As you become more familiar with the machine and its use, you will want to make
wooden
guides to suit specific jobs.
Always make a complete sample (top and
bottom) of crowns and keep sample to set up on.
Make your bottom cut first when milling
bed and crown moldings
. You may want
to add a key cut as a guiding mechanism for your top profile.
When planing the edge of stock
, a high, square, relieved guide is needed in order
to have the edge reasonably square and to provide
stability. The center reliefs are to reduce friction.
Some profiles are too deep to make on the W&H. In some
cases you can rotate the profile into a flatter position to
effectively reduce the depth of cut. A
“V block”
guide
would be made to guide your stock. The profile knives
would have to be custom made to use in this V block
position.
When making tongue and groove stock, a serious and
detailed approach is needed in order to achieve a uniform fit. Carefully pre-inspect
your stock for cupping and warping. You need to plane all your stock to one uniform
size.
The guide thickness should be 3/8” thinner than your stock or your roller will scuff on the guides when the
stock has left the machine and the rollers are in their rest positions. When running thin stock you will need to
fasten a sub-plate between the guides to maintain a thick enough guide to control your stock.
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