Question chippy chopper

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stephen

Grumbler in Training
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Apr 16, 2010
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when i cut black moulding on the chopper, the front near the rabbit, and the outside edges chip out. sharp blades only help so much, but are still not perfect. bought a miter sander, so i could cut it on the saw, but then the face is not absolutely perfect like it is from the chopper.....what is one to do?
 
stephen said:
... what is one to do?
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Alternatives include:

  • Buy a better saw with better blades. No chipping, no sanding.
  • Try different moulding supplier. Not all black mouldings are equal.
  • When I had a chopper I would sometimes use a sacrificial strip (or tape) behind the moulding to reduce chipping on back edge.

OBTW, welcome to TPFG!
 
We tend to stock only wooden moulding, which cuts fine on our chopper. We order the compo-coated moulding in chops, because we can't afford and have no space for a double-mitre saw. Ordering chops is a bit more costly, of course, but better for us in the long run (small shop w/ 2 framers).
 
stephen said:
its not one moulding, its all of the black mouldings
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Ah, if it's all black mouldings that explains it! You must be using white blades. What you need to do is go buy a set of black blades. That'll fix the problem. :D
 
You need to bring the carriage back into the retention wall a tiny bit more.

Also switching to Garrett Moulding's blacks will help.
 
Be sure the final cut is very thin just taking out the back of the frame.
Also, I am in a habit of taping the back where the cut will be with masking tape.

The cheapest blacks will do it everytime, but even the better ones can benefit from the tape.
 
This is why I got rid of my chopper. I started out with a saw, but felt I could get better miters with a chopper. I was getting nice miters alright, but also horrible chipping on some mouldings. After fighting with it for a while I figured out how to tune up my saw and keep my blades sharp, and I sold the chopper...
 
Jim, great rational...... but if you had figured out how to tune your chopper, then you wouldn't have had to buy the saw.

And to the young lady who refused to learn that lesson and dumped the Jyden on the market... for well below cheap. Thank you. I look forward to picking it up in October.
 
CAframer said:
Ah, if it's all black mouldings that explains it! You must be using white blades. What you need to do is go buy a set of black blades. That'll fix the problem. :D
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Classic. Loved it.
 
Baer Charlton said:
Jim, great rational...... but if you had figured out how to tune your chopper, then you wouldn't have had to buy the saw.
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Well, in my case that wasn't the only factor. First, I already had the saw (I started out with a saw because I wanted to be able to chop both wood and metal). Second, I found that there were some mouldings that customers loved but that would chip on the chopper no matter how hard I tried. Finally, I moved to a new shop whose work area consisted of several small rooms as opposed to one big room; there really was no place to fit the chopper in the cutting room. Once I figured out how to get the results I wanted on the saw the chopper just ended up gathering dust... so it made sense to get me a few bucks for it (by selling the chopper and my old Inmes 3p underpinner I was able to upgrade to a VN42...)
 
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