Thread: Tilting spindle Moulder advice

Hi Karl.
a couple of years ago I picked up a Minimax T40i with sliding table on the front, I still have the manual for it. it was rear tilt to 45 deg. think I sold it for $4k? it was only 4hp.
Being in NZ we dont have a lot of used spindle moulder that is single phase. but I think its worth the wait...

You can modify these 3 phase machine to single phase, simply swap out the motor with suitable mounting plate

I recently bought a Hafco SP-250 single phase with a front tilt of up to 30 degrees, I bought it for the tooling that came with it, but having used it on a Ironbark stair handrail moulding the finish was quite good. I guess having the ability to tilt gives you more shapes out of your existing profile cutters, but I tend to grind my own if I have a refurb type job where I have to match an existing profile. Not sure why tilting back is safer, I would have thought it would have been the other way around, when tilting back if anything happens to the cutter it's going to fly out in the air higher towards the operator than a cutter with the block tilting forward.

You can get a router shaft/collet for the SP-250, so moving forward I will look at converting it to a router table, I will have to change the pulley ratio on the motor to get it up to around 15000/18000 RPM, but this should be a better setup than using an under mounted router.

Most 3 phase machines will be of a better spec due to them being made for industrial use and you could look at buying a VFD to use these machines on single phase, the other advantage of a VFD on a spindle moulder is being able to better control the RPM without having to make as many belt changes.

I was thinking my spindle moulder comes with Forward/Reverse, so if I tapped some more holes in the opposite side of the bed I could fit the fence facing the other way, this would make the spindle tilt backwards