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  1. #1
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    Default The Square Head Thread.

    In this post I aim to promote positive discussion about square-head-cutters and to
    dispel some common myths. I will also mention what I consider to be some of the dangers in using them.


    Many people are scared to use a machine with this type of cutter-head, and yes, in the hands of an inexperienced person they can be dangerous. I would like to deter people with no experience, to be using machinery with square-heads. However, some discussion about this may be useful?


    Square-head-cutters have been used in machinery for hundreds of years. I have pictures from an 1856 American, C.B.Rogers, catalog showing many timber framed moulding machines that are set up to use square-head-cutters. While this type of technology has been around for a long time, it use peaked between the 1920’s and 30’s. There were also other solid types of cutter-heads coming onto the market, but the square-head-cutter was popular because it was universal and easier to use.


    These cutters were manufactured up until the 1980’s. I am amazed to think about the trillions of lineal meters that passed through machines, by industry, using this “old cutter technology” during this time and throughout the world (much more than any byrd or helix- head). For many years I have been researching and collecting information about square-head-cutters to understand how to use them, safely, and to learn the skills that were demonstrated by many successful and skillful operators in the past.


    One of my passions is old vintage machinery. Most of the machinery I use is for heritage restoration work on old buildings and homes. When I am asked to match a section of skirting for an old place I prefer to match like-for-like. So if that means using the same technology that was used 80 years ago to achieve the same result, then that will always be my preference.


    These square-head-cutters are still used in industry today. For example, A.Lewis & Co, located in Ormond, have all of their Bolinder four sided moulders running square-head-cutters and they achieve the highest quality finish on all their mouldings and timber.


    A few months ago my wife and I ran 7,000 lm of hardwood shiplap with square-cutter-heads on a four-sider. When I am preparing for a run I am always vigilant about my set up. From what I see most of the so called inherent dangers are complacency and use of poor tooling.


    I believe the condition of equipment is everything. Operators must use cutters that are in perfect and sharp condition. This means not using any bent, ground to nothing or cracked/fractured cutters. Loose cutters are ground in matched pairs and balanced.


    Nuts and bolts should be made from 4140 steel. I run balanced pairs of bolts on my four-sider, they are each number stamped so they stay as pairs, and I rotate my sets each run. My experience is that bolts have a life span and must be replaced after a certain amount of use and time, regardless of their perceived condition. I avoid worn and stretched threads, damaged bolts, badly seated cutter-bolts on a dovetail slot. They must seat below the block to hold the cutter firm.


    I also avoid damaged, bent-up edges, worn, and not perfectly flat or concave cutter blocks. The cutter-head must also be in perfect balanced condition. I like to use chalk on the cutter-block as it acts as a mild abrasive when the cutter is tightened, because steel sliding on steel doesn't appeal to me. While some operators like to use folded sand-paper behind the back edge, I'm not a big fan of that.


    Love to hear from other square-head users about your experiences.









    Melbourne Matty.

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  3. #2
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    Dec 2005
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    Default

    The main reason square cutter blocks are seen as unsafe is the gap they produce on machinines such as a buzzer(jointer) this allows fingers to be more easily caught and subsequently romoved, in South Australia they are infact illegal to use on such equipment, to use square cutter blocks the machine must have fixed non moving gaurds preventing access while the machine is in operation. Some years ago a friend of mine injured his hand while operating spindle moulder (own buisness) and after many months of argument his insurance would not pay out as the machine was declared not ro be safe as it had a "non compliant square cutter" even though if it had been the round type the injury would still have occured, I have worked on machines with square cutter heads and never had cause to worry when I did my trade I was taught that not matter what machine you are using that the infalable saftey gaurd for that machine is yourself . I recently helped out a young lad from a high school near my house who wished to use my tabel saw for some after hours work on a school project, I pointed out that he should no have his fingerss so close to the spining blade and should use the push stick, his reply was " why the blade will stop if my finger touches it" enough said

  4. #3
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by China View Post
    The main reason square cutter blocks are seen as unsafe is the gap they produce on machinines such as a buzzer(jointer) this allows fingers to be more easily caught and subsequently removed,
    China, this has been a well documented fact for a long time, I dug up some catalogs from 1911 and 1916 promoting the round head cutter below.
    Square head cutters are very dangerous in a Jointer and I would not recommend it for any one.
    Thanks for your input, much appreciated.



    Melbourne Matty.

  5. #4
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    Default

    Slightly off-topic, but still on the subject of banned/discouraged tooling; we still use slotted collars on our spindle moulder at work (a 1960s Jonsereds) with no problems. The larger ones get bloody loud, but we all know how to set them properly and they're perfectly safe.

    I've been told that our old jointer (recently replaced after 100 years of service - same set of bearings too) started with a square head, but was changed to a 3-knife round head for safety and noise.

    Love to see your setup Matty, I'm quite interested in machinery myself.

  6. #5
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    Default

    every place i worked use slotted collars. the teachers at trade school were complaining about them while they were training us to use them. telling us all sorts of horror stories about dumbos using pieces of paper to tighten down mismatched cutters.

  7. #6
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by elanjacobs View Post
    Slightly off-topic, but still on the subject of banned/discouraged tooling; we still use slotted collars on our spindle moulder at work (a 1960s Jonsereds) with no problems. The larger ones get bloody loud, but we all know how to set them properly and they're perfectly safe.

    I've been told that our old jointer (recently replaced after 100 years of service - same set of bearings too) started with a square head, but was changed to a 3-knife round head for safety and noise.

    Love to see your setup Matty, I'm quite interested in machinery myself.
    Beautiful machine to work on those Swedish Jonsereds, I particularly like the table adjustment back and forward to the spindle, very handy for that last adjustment tweak.
    Elan, I also still use slotted collars and loose cutters for shaper work, for small runs it makes economic sense as the outlay is not that expensive, and if your handy on the grinder you can make your own pairs and bring costs right down.
    If your like me, I can't justify the cost of a Leitz or Luco cutter-head for one job, only to be put in a draw for next time if ever.

    Elan, I think we will be catching up, a little bird told me your shop is not to far away from me...

    Melbourne Matty.

  8. #7
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    Default

    One of the issues with the fact that these machines are in current use in both private / hobby, one person operations, and also at least 5 commercial wood working companies I know about is training.
    Teaching the safe use of older machines to students who may encounter them, in perfectly legal use in the workplace, must be considered to be an important inclusion in a syllabus.
    Interesting thing is that there is a current approved module for teaching by 52 providers including TAFE.
    I was, in a time long ago, the chair of a Trade Committee trying to re-write a TAFE syllabus. Its challenging and time consuming work.
    What we, the trade reps, found was that even if we had the best we could write, we were dependent on the level of competency of those teaching our course.
    With what is happening in TAFE, lots of the good "old heads" are unfortunately gone, burnt out by a crazy system ... or close to the chopping block.

    I know there are published teaching resources for TAFE that include square head machines, but it requires lots of communication and goodwill between the the trade, and the teachers to implement it.

    Cheers
    Peter
    Attached Images Attached Images
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  9. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by lightwood View Post
    One of the issues with the fact that these machines are in current use in both private / hobby, one person operations, and also at least 5 commercial wood working companies I know about is training.
    Teaching the safe use of older machines to students who may encounter them, in perfectly legal use in the workplace, must be considered to be an important inclusion in a syllabus.
    Interesting thing is that there is a current approved module for teaching by 52 providers including TAFE.
    I was, in a time long ago, the chair of a Trade Committee trying to re-write a TAFE syllabus. Its challenging and time consuming work.
    What we, the trade reps, found was that even if we had the best we could write, we were dependent on the level of competency of those teaching our course.
    With what is happening in TAFE, lots of the good "old heads" are unfortunately gone, burnt out by a crazy system ... or close to the chopping block.

    I know there are published teaching resources for TAFE that include square head machines, but it requires lots of communication and goodwill between the the trade, and the teachers to implement it.

    Cheers
    Peter
    Don't remember seeing square heads covered when I did that course a few years ago, didn't even cover slotted collars - they mentioned that they both exist and are no longer allowed.
    I did get to use their fancy Weinig profile grinder and four-sider which was great fun (reproduced a colonial moulding from a sample), didn't get to do high-speed runs with the hydro-lock tooling which is what I'd really like to do at some point.

  10. #9
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    Default

    I've never seen a square head buzzer/planer in use at any workshop....anyone ever seen a crazy thrill-seeker with one of those running?

    Cheers,
    Peter
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  11. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by elanjacobs View Post
    Don't remember seeing square heads covered when I did that course a few years ago, didn't even cover slotted collars - they mentioned that they both exist and are no longer allowed.
    I did get to use their fancy Weinig profile grinder and four-sider which was great fun (reproduced a colonial moulding from a sample), didn't get to do high-speed runs with the hydro-lock tooling which is what I'd really like to do at some point.
    I'm not up to date with current policies, but there is a current module that can be taught.
    Do the employers get a chance to choose a specific module for their apprentice??
    I've been given some scans of the pages in the books, but not sure if I should publish the stuff in its entirety here.
    Here is another page...for research and study...

    Cheers,
    Peter

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  12. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by lightwood View Post
    I've never seen a square head buzzer/planer in use at any workshop....anyone ever seen a crazy thrill-seeker with one of those running?

    Cheers,
    Peter
    I remember seeing one many many years ago at the back then Sherman timber yard in Mentone, I was only young and it looked scary then even all rusted up not running.
    the mill is all gone now, developed into housing etc...

    Melbourne Matty.

  13. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by lightwood View Post
    I'm not up to date with current policies, but there is a current module that can be taught.
    Do the employers get a chance to choose a specific module for their apprentice??
    I've been given some scans of the pages in the books, but not sure if I should publish the stuff in its entirety here.
    Here is another page...for research and study...

    Cheers,
    Peter
    From memory, that's all the book covered on square heads, the Chadstone campus certainly didn't have the facilities to teach it anyway. I'm not sure how much input the employer has, I know they can sign off on things that have been covered in the workplace but don't know what else they can do. I had some great teachers there who gave me pretty much free access to the whole workshop and they'd often go beyond the syllabus if I asked.

  14. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by elanjacobs View Post
    From memory, that's all the book covered on square heads, the Chadstone campus certainly didn't have the facilities to teach it anyway. I'm not sure how much input the employer has, I know they can sign off on things that have been covered in the workplace but don't know what else they can do. I had some great teachers there who gave me pretty much free access to the whole workshop and they'd often go beyond the syllabus if I asked.
    Pete, many thanks for putting some of this material up, I'm glad square-heads get a small mention.
    I have had a chance also to go through some of the learning Modules from the Furnishing Department Chadstone, there is some square head material but yes, it is basically just touched on.
    I believe its a good thing for an instructor to at least run through with an apprentice the different types of tooling examples, just so they can understand the whole array of tooling choices, Pro's and con's, and also be able to identify a square-head cutter in any machine.
    When teaching power tools, in a demonstration, I have an old plain steel saw blade to show my students what was used, and then introduce the TCT saw blade, it at least gives them some perspective.
    Elan, you would not recognize Building 5 now, since the government funding cuts things have been very quiet.


    Melbourne Matty.

  15. #14
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    Hi Matty

    No experience with square heads per se, but it seems to me that the discussion of square vs round heads revolves around, in no particular order...
    1) presentation angle of the cutting edge to the timber, and its capacity for tweaking (via projection, not grinding)
    2) adequate support for the cutter
    3) tolerance for operator setup error (tightening, balancing, projectile retention etc)
    4) tolerance for component failure
    4) propensity for kickback
    5) the capacity to limit carnivorous activity once things have turned nasty.

    there's others I'm sure (and I think you got all of these in your opening thread)

    Regards
    John

  16. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by jcge View Post
    Hi Matty

    No experience with square heads per se, but it seems to me that the discussion of square vs round heads revolves around, in no particular order...
    1) presentation angle of the cutting edge to the timber, and its capacity for tweaking (via projection, not grinding)
    2) adequate support for the cutter
    3) tolerance for operator setup error (tightening, balancing, projectile retention etc)
    4) tolerance for component failure
    4) propensity for kickback
    5) the capacity to limit carnivorous activity once things have turned nasty.

    there's others I'm sure (and I think you got all of these in your opening thread)

    Regards
    John
    John, fantastic summery, thank you.
    I think you have it all there in a nut shell.

    I wouldn't mind expanding on all of those as soon (if that's ok) as I can get some decent computer time.

    Melbourne Matty.

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