Question best manual under pinner for my usage

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bonzzz

Grumbler in Training
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Jul 10, 2010
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I make a custom frame with an inlay done after it is put together. Most of my molding is under 2" wide, flat and 3/4" thick and made out of ash or walnut. I want a manual underpinner and I will probably still glue and clamp first. Also I only make about 300of these a year. Please give me some advice. Thankyou
 
Bonzzz first posted on the UK Forum and I wrote.......

Welcome bonzzz
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Where is PA ? If its USA you will probably feel more at home on THE GRUMBLE (akaTG)

http://www.thegrumble.com/

They tend to be a noisier bunch than we are, but that is to be expected
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Either forum will get you an answer, but IMHO you will get a whole lot more from TG

Good luck with your framing ambitions.
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Seems I got it wrong. He has had 50 odd views and not a single reply. Maybe you have to wait a little longer!
 
I have always used pneumatic but from what I have seen in manuals I would go Cassese or ITW/AMP.

Welcome to the Grumble.
 
I'll second Jeff's opinion.
 
We have a Pistorius and an Inmes. Believe it or not I love the Inmes. It's small, portable (you can carry it wit one hand), much more versatile than the Pistorius, and probably the cheapest underpinner you can get new. I think CMI still has them for sale.
 
The manual Fletcher machine is very high quality and good pro choice.

We have a really nice pneumatic unit in the shop. However, the dirt cheap little Inmes IM2 still gets a lot of use. But you have to know how to use it. Would be especially good for moulding that was flat.

Best feature is that if you're dealing with rather large frames you can easily slide the IM2 up to the edge of whatever table the moulding is on and starting pinning. Nice feature when you don't have as many tables as you would like.

There are some issues. That plastic, cylindrical "pad" is worse than useless and will damage most mouldings. We had to build several 3x3x1" oak squares covered on different corners with different thicknesses and arrangements of 1/4" felt to make it work with the 10 or so different mouldings we routinely use. That sounds kind of lame but in fact it's a great system and actually faster than the pneumatic one with even less setup. With the "squares" you can just march straight across the moulding finishing one full corner at a time. But again we don't use that many different mouldings.

Almost forgot to mention...we always glue first, let dry, then underpin. So for a framer doing as much volume as he could hope for, that's not so great. I really can't recommend using the IM2 for underpinning corners with wet glue. But for a 300/year shop, it's the bomb. Buy 4 clamps, you won't regret it.

One nice feature for newbies is that if you accidentally start to push up an existing nail, it's very easy to feel on the pedal and you can usually avoid that really annoying mistake most of the time.
 
I just upgraded from a ITW Amp VN Manual to a Cassese CS299, I had used the Manual for a couple years with no complaints, I was doing more and more complicated molding and the CS299 handles it well, but at a cost.

I do recommend the VN manual if someone is set on a manual machine, its a great machine.
 
I use a VN; since most of my labor is in the gilding and finishing, not much incentive to save time with a power underpinner. My frames however, are not usually done in hardwoods; you may want to do a dry run with some of your stock before committing to a manual.
 
I have a manual Cassese. No complaints here.
 
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