The Framers Forum

Hi guys, it's been awhile since I have been online and have had a issue a few years now with my morso dragging it's blades.

Not too much a issue on silver/gold gesso covered frames as I can blend in coloured wax (obviously I'd prefer a crisper cut). Same goes with black and white mouldings. Recently cutting a lovely new moulding in multiple of colours that I can't hide with waxes.

The morso was used when I got it and I have had at lease 3 sets of new bladeds with no change to the cut. Is it likely the morso itself is somehow out of plum.

I'm not an expert but did you try moving the head just forward a few mm (there's a nut underneath that allows that adjustment) - or try the slip of mountboard between the fence and the moulding

Ye the mount board trick works well but not realistic on a daily bases. I didnt know you could adjust the head like that. It'll probably do the job for me.


Thanks

If you are not reversing the position of the blade before you allow the blade raise, that is the problem. The blade has to be moved away from the cut prior to raising the blade.

You may find that it's as good as it gets. Mouldings today are not what they were.

I would gently stroke to edge with a sanding pad and retouch with acrylic paint. You would have to mix up a batch to match.

Does it cut better on other mouldings? It could be that this might be one of those mouldings which sometimes does this. There are some mouldings that really look great, but can present problems when cutting on a Morso. They probably cut perfectly on a dual bladed mire saw, but not everyone can afford one of those.

I've encountered similar problems with mouldings from time to time. I rather look upon it as something that has to be touched in, to make it presentable. I know things should not be like that, but we live in the real world and in all likelyhood the moulding looked perfect before it was cut and you could not tell this would happen before you went to cut it.

So I would say that you have two choices.

(1) Touch up the corner to make it look presentatble.

(2) Call the company and get them to send their rep to sort things out.

I do tend to back off the blades before raising the head as a habit or usual movement. I did think I would just need to mix a colour myself but don't fancy that on a long term. These are not cheap mouldings (Salvadori) so would hope it should cut well it the morso was good.


On the calling the companyside of things the rep is actually set to come my way next week. What good would it do having him look at it? Would he maybe know the fault or would it just be a case of showing him it can't be cut with a morso?

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

why dont you ask Brian from Saliadori to look at your machiene .

Ye thats what I was thinking but I try to adjust the head first.

Guys is it these nuts that adjust the head in and out travel?

Guys is it these nuts that controls in and out travel

If you'll take my advice, do not slacken any nuts or disturb the setup in any way. It will make no difference. It's the moulding
that is iffy. If you start fiddling about, the machine could end up iffy also.

I've used my Morso almost every day for 35 years and never slackened a nut.

That's not the right nut at all. The nut is under the quadrant area and it releases an off centre adjustment sleeve. If you don't know the correct way to adjust it your blades will be trying to cut into the cast iron and that might be the end of your blades. Also, trying to snuggle the blades into the gap between the fences might not work, once the blades have cut into the fences. Perhaps, not a good idea!

Why are you so convinced that this needs adjusting. I'm not saying that you are wrong, but isn't there some way of finding out first? People are suggesting that the machine needs adjusting. On what criteria is this judgement made? Lets say you decide to adjust this setting, what's the correct procedure to do this? How do you know if it's a problem with the moulding, or the machine?

I think you need to talk to a professional framing engineer about this!

Hi folks, as it was me that suggested moving the head I do agree that it should only be done if you know what you're doing & you adjust the correct errr, adjustment. My suggestion was based on personal experience, numerous mouldings broke along back, on inspection I noticed that the edge of my blades were just barely in line with the fence resulting a little tearing rather than cutting. The mount board slip fixed it mostly but as mentioned it's not really a permanent solution. I seen a post on here a few years ago that provided the idea (can't find it now), I tried it and it worked great.

That's the only adjustment I've ever done though, I daren't touch anything else!!!


Also, just to be clear I'm a great believer in 'if it's not broke then don't try to fix it' or whatever the phrase is.

Another wise saying is: "The simplest solution is most likely the right one."

It's easy with things like this to over-think it. I've done it often.

You could try backing the moulding by placing a sacrifical strip of MDF (mountboard is a bit soft) on the fences.
Bear in mind it may upset the measuring system which you would have to compensate for. No big problem.
It may improve the cut, but maybe not cure the break-out altogether. Worth a shot.

Fitting a thin piece of MDF between the fences and the moulding is generally a good temporary fix, but ultimately getting the machine fixed by restoring it to it's original performance and settings is the best long term solution.

Eventually older machines develop problematic wear in the sliding guides for the moving cutter block onto which the blades are mounted. this wear is often not uniform and allows greater wear to develop towards the top of the cutting block, such that the top of the blades move slightly backwards under the pressure of the blades cutting through the moulding.

It is more that likely that problems like this are only going to be solved by machining the sliding surfaces back to fully vertically aligned and removing any unwanted movement after the machining by machining a little from the rear of the two blocks, either side of the sliding cutter block. This almost certainly would involve factory refurbishment by Morso themselves.

Although I know that return to factory refurbishment can be arranged through a Morso distributor can be arranged, it would be quite expensive and does not very often become a solution acceptable to most owners. With many older machines, exhibiting a smaller amount of such wear, the easier solution is to avoid using mouldings where this problem will become noticeable of the completed frame, or adjust the vertical orientation of the fences on the underpinner if this adjustment is available on your underpinner.

In this particular case, I'm inclined to suspect that this particular moulding tends to be part of the problem and if it is, it may be beneficial to avoid this moulding in the future. Sorry, if this was not what you wanted to hear, but it might just be the easiest solution to this issue.