Max cutting width on a morso.

[BeatnikFraming]

I have a customer who wants frames that are 10cm wide, is there a way to do this on a morso or is it a table saw job?

I found a video on YouTube of someone suggesting it's possible by making the first cut with the blades slightly back then pushing all the way in and cutting against this first cut. I'm probably not explaining very well so have included link below! Relevant part is at 3mins. Im having trouble visualizing how you would do the second cut and measure at the right size



Apologies if my explanation s poor , hopefully the video will make sense of what I'm trying to figure out!

[prospero]

When you reach a certain point you can remove the rebate supports and gain a bit of room - up to about 110mm I think.
Not having rebate supports is not usually a problem on mouldings of that scale.
You can't use the conventional measuring stops, so you have to 'eyeball' it using a pencil mark on the sight-edge. You will have to
calculate the size by taking the rebate size and adding x2 the width of the back (exc rebate) to get the outer size. Then subtract
x2 the total width of the moulding and that will be the length along the sight-edge. Double check before you start slicing.
Start chopping in, in the usual fashion being careful not to go over the pencil mark. You get to a point where the blades don't do a full
cut and then you have to cut sideways away from the pencil mark. With enough waste removed you can slice precisely on the pencil
mark and then use this face to run the blades along and advance to the back. You need to do this very carefully.
The first cut can be difficult as you need to take a big chunk out, not being able to back the blades far enough. Using a hand saw to
take a triangle out first makes it easier on chunky mouldings.
It is all a bit irksome but it does work.

[BeatnikFraming]

Thanks! I'm not sure I quite understand so I might have to experiment a bit. I was planning to take the rebate supports out and as it will be a flat moulding figured I could cut upside down.

At least I know it's possible now, I'll try to follow what your saying and have a go with some scraps tomorrow

[Not your average framer]

I've need to cut plenty of oversize mouldings in the past. I bought lots of us catalogue Larson Juhl mouldings. Some of these were massively oversize and I not joking. What Prospero is saying is correct. Also the drawbar which connect the cutting block to the pedal often get in the way. You simply have to cut a bit of clearance to get the moulding to fit flat on the bed of the morso, before cutting. If you don't mind a bit extra waste, it can be very helpful to cut each length oversize using a saw first. So that you can cut away both ends little by little at each end and avoid having the moulding coming into contact with the draw bar..

Some hints, tips and things to think about:

Some oversize mouldings are not all that popular with all framers and may have been in storage at the suppliers warehouse for ages. If the moulding have slowly developed a bit of a twist along it length. Don't expect to be strong enough to pull it into line with your muscle power. The force needed to pull large oversize mouldings back to straight and dead flat ain't going to happen.

Handling large oversized mouldings in in a small workshop is not made any easier by the added weight. When you unwrap the in the workshop, they are always facing the wrong way round. It's much easier to walk outside and turn them around out there, where there's more space. And finally, is it not easier to make up larger profile by stacking mouldings and hand finishing the whole profile instead.

[prospero]

Thanks! I'm not sure I quite understand so I might have to experiment a bit. I was planning to take the rebate supports out and as it will be a flat moulding figured I could cut upside down.

At least I know it's possible now, I'll try to follow what your saying and have a go with some scraps tomorrow

It's one of those things that is very simple but very hard to explain in words.

One thing you can do is take the pedal stop off so you can gain a bit of height. No point adjusting the tie-bar between pedal
and cutter block as the blades won't descend all the way. By pushing the pedal up you should be able to cut into the moulding
to within maybe 1/2" off the back. When you get to this stage, start to cut sideways. This will clear enough waste to allow you to
finish the cut. You can do as Mark says and cut the lengths slightly oversize with a saw first and mitre the ends. Make sure you get
both opposite sides exactly the same length.

[Not your average framer]

I don't much enjoy cutting and joining oversized mouldings, which is part of the reason that I prefer not to do it any more. It's also one of the reasons why I like hand finishing, as it makes life ever so much easier in that everything always looks perfect afterwards.

Oversized mouldings often mean huge great big frames and there are limits to what you can achieve in terms of strength when under pinning large frames using oversized mouldings. Part of the difficulty arises from under pinners having a limited width for accommodating oversized mouldings. And the fact that the size of the wedges are less well suited to larger frames, where greater strength at the corner joints is likely to be necessary.

I also have the potential when using a table saw and a table saw sled to cut a trenched cut across the back of a mitred corner join to glue a small piece of wood across a mitred joint. If it's going to be a hand finished frame, then the extra piece of wood is easy to hide. I have several hand planes and a couple of makeshift shooting boards, so with a nice sharp plane iron, it is easy to finish these sort of things well in no time at all, prior to hand finishing.

[BeatnikFraming]

Thanks for all the advice! Just had a go now and it turns out it's pretty easy. I just cut it close to where I needed and used the morso as a trimmer, not sure if I'm doing it the same as you've suggested but it worked well

The frame it self needs to match as close as possible to an existing frame , which is just a simple flat pine profile with a stain. I've not seen anything similar from the suppliers I use so I thought I'd just buy some pine and put a rebate in myself with the table saw.

[BeatnikFraming]

Mark, the pictures I'm framing will be quite small, 10x30cm, so I don't think I'll have problems with strength. I've just tested my trial piece in the underpinner and it seems to be able to cope with the width

[Not your average framer]

It sound like it going to be fairly straight forward for you then. Hopefully everything is going to be nice and straight forward for you!