Never seen this kind of thing before...

If it's 1/16 inch thick it's probably a scraper, if it's thick like the one's in CC's picture it's a cutter.

have made these on my own w/file and grinder to fit a type of molding that I am needing to scrape paint or other yack off of. ront

I have a Craftsman shaper set with cutters like those pictured. The cutters on mine have a recess on the back to assure that the holding screws will not let loose. Have used that set in my table saw for years, as well as router bits. The blades on my set are about 1/8" thick.

"Have used that set in my table saw for years"

Somebody school me please... How do shaper bits like these mount to or are used with a table saw?

They mount the same as the blade does. The disk that carries the cutter is about 6 or 7" diameter. The cutters are typically retained by 2 screws and a transverse keyway in the blades. You use a throat insert that accomodates the cutter, like you would with a dado head.

They can also be used on RA saws. With great care.

Sears sells'em

http://www.mysears.com/Craftsman-Molding-Head-Set-7-in-Diameter-reviews

My dad had one. IIRC, it could be a real bear in kickback. Featherboards were a must.

J

Isn't that a dado blade/cutter? Aren't the knives/blades pictured above more like 3" across?

In A LOT of pain right now... Things not making sense...

It's _sort of_ like a dado cutter, but you can get all manner of different knives for it with various moulding profiles ground in. Operation is similar to a dado head. You set the TS elevation such that the valleys of the cutter are just flush with the table, and it cuts the profile of the cutters on the bottom edge of stock fed thru.

I'd thought these were fairly common tools... Mebby Dad just had some sort-of exotic stuff?

Dad had a selection of stacking dado sets and a wobble dado blade too. I only recall him using the moulding cutter a few times. I'd guess that means it scared him some, LOL.

I don't use dado cutters myself, preferring to simply cut dados with multiple passes on a standard blade. Don't use moulding tools or routers much either... The scream of a router makes me uncomfortable.

More views of similar bits:
http://corobcutters.com/

J

What on earth am I missing?

The width of the opening on the saw table is no where near wide enough. Nor is the blade arbor...

(sigh)

The disk that mounts the cutters is about 1/2" thick. I was incorrect in my description above, where I said it was 2 screws per cutter. It is only 1.

You remove the stock throat plate from the saw. Make a new one from melamine or similar, no throat hole cut. Install it with the cutter all the way down. Turn on saw and slowly raise elevation, and the cutter will make a custom fitted throat plate for use with it, just as one might do for using a dado cutter.

Making throat plates for specific purposes on a TS can really improve quality of cut, especially minimizing tear-out and splintering. For fine cuts, the blade should have a near-zero throat clearance.

The moulding blade cutters are usually about 1" wide.

Link showing one mounted:

http://lumberjocks.com/spunwood/blog/21271


J