"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
I do a bit of custom millwork here and there for people, and with a
sizable trim order in the works, I was thinking that it would be a
good investment to purchase a moulding cutterhead for my table saw so
that I could add a few profile options that are tough to achieve with
just a router and dado stack. Delta lists the exact thing I'm looking
for in the manual for my contractor's saw- (part no. 34-562) but I
can't find anyone who actually sells one of these.
Any advice or input?

I had a molding head once. Don't know where it is now, don't care. After
it whacked, splintered and flung a piece of wood with climbing grain back at
the wall I decided that something moving at 3450 with three knives was too
easy to overfeed. Makes too big a bite, leading (On Topic) to a catch too
easily.

You'll note that the trend in router and shaper bits, which move at an
average of three to five times the rate is to limit the bite by adding
structure ahead of the cutters to help with overfeeding tendencies.

Now if you have an automatic feeder and dual-direction hold-downs, maybe.
Personally I'd go shaper for long runs, router for short, using multiple
cutters to produce complex shapes. Takes a bit of planning to get the cut
series down, taking advantage of good points of stabilization, but it's well
worth it, in my estimation.

Made a hell of a scary noise, too.