# Making some moldings with a router table



## Hammer1 (Aug 1, 2010)

I needed some common molding profiles but in a certain species and figure to match with other work. I started with 1x8 and 1x6 D4S red oak boards since that's what one of my suppliers had on hand. This portion of the job is only about 1/3 of the lumber I am using. I picked out some of the straighter long pieces and cut some others up for shorter ones.

My goal is to produce a nice quality molding, consistent and with a smooth surface that needs no additional work. My thoughts go to how I can handle the stock and keep it consistent, not rolling or pulling away. I had three moldings to make, a cap for baseboard, a scotia for stair treads and a small quarter round.

I often use a small stock feeder. Mine is portable and just clamps on to whatever surface I need it on. In many cases, I also back the feeder up with feather boards, hold downs or whatever it takes to keep the stock running accurately and smoothly. I pay attention to grain direction and often set up to accommodate how it runs in the board.

My plan was to run the cap molding on stock wide enough to get two pieces after shaping. This particular molding bit removes the entire face, like a jointer does. To keep the stock from rolling and to make it easier to handle, I kept it wide with a large flat portion would eliminate making shaped backers, that would need change with each incremental cut. The larger flat gave me a nice registration surface and grip for the feeder. When it came time to separate the two molding pieces, all I needed was a support ahead of the blade to keep the pieces from rolling.

The cap molding bit has no bearing. It cuts up to 1 3/8" molding. Since this is a face cut, I used my horizontal router table. This allows running the stock flat on the router table. I went slowly, making about 5 incremental cuts to get to the finished profile. Running on opposite sides of the board allowed cutting with the grain and leaving that registration area intact.

I used a similar approach with the scotia molding but used my vertical router table, ran the stock on edge, since these were all shorter pieces, 40". After cutting off the two scotia moldings from the stock I had a small square of waste which I ripped to 3/8" square before edging that with a 3/8" quarter round bit in a more conventional manner.

I have used this little stock feeder for several years in all types of situations. It has been great. Sets up in almost any position, vertical, horizontal, slightly on angle, steps over bits and blades in most cases. I removed the side cover in one pic so I could get the wheels closer. I also use it a lot on the table saw for ripping repetitive pieces. I takes a bit of experience setting it up but it takes a big part of operator error out of the equation while adding a lot of safety, since your hands aren't near the cutters or feeding the stock.

Sorry, a couple pics are sideways.


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Those stock feeders are really handy, I inherited one that was the old style where you changed the feed rate by using different gears when my brother upgraded to the new variable speed style.

Years ago I made one from an old geared motor I had sitting around.
http://benchnotes.com/RouterPwrFeed/routerpowerfeed.html


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

VERY fine work there sir. :yes:


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