Morso not cutting cleanly

[John Andreae]

Hi

I've had a morso for a few years now and have noticed that the quality of cut at the back edge of the moulding seems to have deteriorated. very jagged and with bits of the surface coating breaking off. I've recently had the blades sharpened with no improvement. I have spoken to another framer about it and he confirmed that he had the same problem with the Morso and ended up changing to a mitre saw.

I'd be grateful for any comments/experience of this problem among members and even ideas for solutions!

Thanks

John

[StevenG]

I'm afraid I don't have a solution but I do have the same issue at times and it does seem to relate to some mouldings in particular. Using little bits of board either behind or under the moulding itself does help a little at times. I've also found that the temperature of the wood makes a difference too.

Some mouldings I just don't use anymore - especially anything with a gesso finish, I never get a decent cut at the back

[easypopsgcf]

Some mouldings are best avoided as they have a rather thick coat of gesso/composition/concrete that always chips.
Are your blades far enough forward? The tip should come past the back of the moulding as you look down on it from above. This can be adjusted by loosening the bolt underneath (hoping someone puts a link up to the picture), which has a sleeve with an offset hole which allows movement forward and back on the blades.

[Roboframer]

Ta Daaaaa!!

morso_fix[1].jpg (195.72 KiB) Viewed 6574 times

BUT ................... I currently have four brand new sets of blades - well none have been sharpened more than twice from new and the current fitted set, never....... and this problem will still happen on some mouldings with a thick, brittle coating.

Some mouldings are just not Morso-friendly regardless of how new/fresh your blades are and regardless of how perfickly your machine is calibrated. But if you have old blades that are half (or two-thirds .... whatever) the depth of new ones due to years of sharpening which has ground them down, then even if they are freshly-sharpened they can have problems with many mouldings that newer/deeper blades wouldn't.

[John Andreae]

Thanks for useful advice everyone! It's obviously not just a one off problem. Thanks especially for the photo and instructions roboframer- I,m going to try it. My blades are probably old as I bought the morso second hand and it was quite old. Just one more question- you mention ' gesso' coatings as being a culprit. Is this the common coating that you get on say black mouldings?

[prospero]

'Proper' gesso is quite flexible and cuts fine on a Morso. The better quality mouldings have quite a thin coat. But some manufacturers use a thick, hard coating which is very brittle. Maybe for cheapness and to cover slightly iffy wood. Some ornate moulding has the ornaments made from this stuff which is even worse. Not only is a prone to chipping but it will take the edge off your newly sharpened blades in a few cuts and this makes the cut even rougher. These mouldings are great for people who are knocking out 1000s of frames and have a good saw setup, but not so good for the smaller custom framer. The price may look attractive, but sometimes a more expensive moulding works out cheaper and gives a better result.
Best to 'test drive' new mouldings before buying a lot.

[simoonez]

Something I found helps is to run a bead of silicon (sorry..I know it's a bit of a curse word) down the gap between the two adjustable fences. This can help support the back from flaking out. It won't cure all mouldings and you'll have to replace it regularly, but it's helped on a lot of mine.

[StevenG]

"none have been sharpened more than twice from new and the current fitted set, never....... and this problem will still happen on some mouldings with a thick, brittle coating. "

Just out of interest..... what do you do when that happens - do you just write the moulding/job off? I've lost money/broke even on jobs because of the awful cuts, sometimes I just buy another similar moulding that cuts better.

[Roboframer]

Mostly it's when making my own corner samples from short lengths (or pairs of short lengths) that suppliers have sent me FOC - so they never actually make it to my wall display.

A couple of suppliers send me complete chevron sets of new ranges on request (one supplier totally FOC and one if I spend a certain amount on the range) - and I wouldn't have requested them if they looked morso-unfriendly but sometimes I get it wrong and in those cases I make the best of it and then trash the chevron set.

Then there's the ranges that cut really nice but then they change, either in the quality of the wood, the coating, or both. Out they go.

[StevenG]

Hmmm, it's hard to tell sometimes from the catalogue but I'm starting to get an idea what works best when I know the wood/finish etc.

Cheers

[digger]

Are your blades far enough forward? The tip should come past the back of the moulding as you look down on it from above. This can be adjusted by loosening the bolt underneath (hoping someone puts a link up to the picture), which has a sleeve with an offset hole which allows movement forward and back on the blades.

Thanks easypopsgcf and roboframer for great advice, I have been struggling with horribly "ripped" corners for a while and I thought it could have been blunt blades but I adjusted the forward movement and here is what I got in result. Before and after photo. I just could not figure out that little "tail" at the bottom of the cut but comparing to what it was happening before it would not be a major problem.

[yorkframing]

As well as guesso mouldings, you also sometimes have problems with very soft wood, unfortunately you cant spot this in the catalogue but when unwrapped, you may find one length is way lighter than another. The light stuff is easily crushed but sometimes the job can be salvaged with a newly sharpened set of blades even if the others are not ready for removal just yet. Cut the moulding on a new set then swap back till they are ready for sharpening.

[Otters Pool Studio]

We have reduced the number of 'chippy' mouldings down to virtually nothing over the years. For those that we do still use, and to avoid getting digger's 'ripped' corners, we often use a sacrificial fence made from 2mm MDF. We cut strips and lay one against the morso fence, so that the tip of the morso blades goes through the MDF, not the moulding. Just make sure that the MDF fence is in place from the start, especially when reading the moulding width otherwise the stops for length will be wrong.

2014-08-08 12.03.26.jpg (96.19 KiB) Viewed 6097 times

[digger]

thanks for great suggestions otters pool studio and yorkframing

[cebrooker]

Sorry for digging up an old post but it was really helpful.

I acquired an old second hand Morso from this very forum. While the excellent photo was really helpful, there was one thing that was slightly tricky - the intersection being right according to the person who is helping you! I am doing it myself as a novice Morso "engineer"....I have had a gentle play. i didn't want to turn the screw too far and moved it back to its starting position but I couldn't see what tightening and loosening the screw was moving. Also, how do you know when the intersection is right? I presumed adjusting with the blades down and then checking often but thought I would ask first.

One more thing...Please know I accept that this is a fairly stupid question on the basis that it is a sort of how long is a piece of string answer but roughly how long would a blade last before it requires sharpening? Assuming moderate usage on not too abusive moulding.

Thanks,

[Roboframer]

Turning the 'round thing with the two flats' moves the whole blade block back or forward and the correct position is when it goes in to the gap between the two fences as far as possible.

Too far forward and the blades will bang in to the top of the fence or get stuck in the fence gap; too far back and they won't cut all the way through the back of a moulding.

As for blade sharpening frequency it really does depend how many frames a day you make and out of what type of wood, also how many of the ratchet notches you use each time. Some framers, on softer woods, take out almost all the mitre in one or two stomps and then make a couple of final cuts. A set of blades rarely lasts me more than a month but I cut a lot of oak and ash.