On 13 May, 15:56, " wrote:

Not for skirtings. The size of the individual curves is too big for a
router cutter.

You're right to say a complex moulding in one pass on a router table
is more than they're capable of.

No, I didn't say that. You can certainly do complex mouldings by
multi-passing. One of the best routers for it is my new tiny Bosch.
Although it's small it also has a tilting base, which opens up a lot
of spindle moulder techniques (for small furniture work at least).
There are lots of spindle moulder mouldings that can't be cut on a
router table (at least, not without making sleds) because they require
a tilted spindle (and can't get cutter clearance without it).

The real killer for skirtings though is the size of the individual
curves. These, on their own, exceed the useful size that a router
cutter can make. You can make some Victorian mouldings by multi-
passing, which is most dadoes or door mouldings, but not many
skirtings.

For furniture mouldings you often find that the original were cut with
planes, not rotating cutters, and those can be easy to copy wiith a
router, but impossible to copy accurately.


Of course a spindle moulder could have done the whole thing in one pass

A spindle moulder with the right cutter, that is. If you're doing one-
off repros it's still often worth multi-passing, just to do it with
the cutters you already have. A four-knife head can make this easier,
as you can cut two "passes" in one pass.