The Framers Forum

Does anyone know why my cuts are taking out an uneven notch at the bottom of the moulding, as per this photo?

Note, I'm using blades that have just been sharpened.

Looking at your previous photos I would say that the wood doesn't have enough strength, it's too soft. Snot wood as some call it.

Is there any way of dealing with this? Surely someone has made an adequate frame with this crummy moulding at some point.

Sometimes you just can't as the moulding isn't good enough.
Is this a new issue?
Can you show us what the other side looks like?

A few things to try are:
Check with a new set of blades. Have they definitely been sharpened correctly?
Check the blades are installed and lined up properly. Take them off and make sure there are no bits of wood in between.
Check the blades are adjusted as far forward as possible. There is a bolt underneath to adjust.
Cut a bigger chunk off and then try it as sometimes you can get a bad area in a moulding length.
Try is on other moulding, are you getting the same result on everything you cut?
Try putting a piece of mountboard or backing board in between the blades and fence making sure you adjust your length to accommodate.
Put up with it and use filler in the gap.

Thanks for the comprehensive list of actions, Peter. Really gives me a number of options to explore, which I'm going to work through today.

I actually tried this moulding with newly-sharpened blades after struggling with the previous set, and so it's proving difficult with more than one set. So far, I've tried cutting other mouldings with general better results (although the problem of the anomaly at the bottom can occur).

pramsay13 wrote: Wed 29 Apr, 2026 3:54 pm Sometimes you just can't as the moulding isn't good enough.
Is this a new issue?
Can you show us what the other side looks like?

A few things to try are:
Check with a new set of blades. Have they definitely been sharpened correctly?
Check the blades are installed and lined up properly. Take them off and make sure there are no bits of wood in between.
Check the blades are adjusted as far forward as possible. There is a bolt underneath to adjust.
Cut a bigger chunk off and then try it as sometimes you can get a bad area in a moulding length.
Try is on other moulding, are you getting the same result on everything you cut?
Try putting a piece of mountboard or backing board in between the blades and fence making sure you adjust your length to accommodate.
Put up with it and use filler in the gap.

Is the bottom of the moulding slightly rounded at the back? If unsupported that can happen. Otherwise maybe just the weight of the blades on poor quality wood and/or brittle coatings.

Like this?

JKX wrote: Thu 30 Apr, 2026 10:58 am Is the bottom of the moulding slightly rounded at the back? If unsupported that can happen. Otherwise maybe just the weight of the blades on poor quality wood and/or brittle coatings.

Exactly!

Actually it’s all going on, rounded bottom/back, weetabix moulding, brittle plaster coating.

The moulding you are using is really only suitable for use by volume contract framers.
They work on very slim margins and by the use of high speed mitre saws, they can handle the cheapest input mouldings to keep their costs down.

If you are a bespoke framer using a Morso guillotine then its best to use only higher quality mouldings which reflect the care and precision you put into your work.

What you've just said echoes what the supplier pretty much just admitted to. They've agreed to do a chop service for this, knowing it ain't much good for the Morso!

This is the sort of thing I'm picking up only through bad experiences.

I was actually thinking of posing a separate forum topic on the question of Morsos vs mitre saws.

vintage frames wrote: Thu 30 Apr, 2026 12:57 pm The moulding you are using is really only suitable for use by volume contract framers.
They work on very slim margins and by the use of high speed mitre saws, they can handle the cheapest input mouldings to keep their costs down.

If you are a bespoke framer using a Morso guillotine then its best to use only higher quality mouldings which reflect the care and precision you put into your work.

Mitre saw. Everyday of the week, and twice on Sundays! I struggled with a morso for years before eventually giving up and making the plunge. All those mouldings I used to struggle with, exactly like this one, spending ages filling and making good are a breeze with the saw. My preconceived ideas were that they were a) expensive b) big c) noisy and d) dusty. 2 out of the 4 I was wrong on! They needn’t be expensive - keep your eye on eBay/the forum for old second (third/fourth….!) hand models. These can be picked up for a few quid if you time it right. The footprint of the Brevetti Prisma for example is not that much bigger than a morso. The blades don’t need to be sharpened anywhere near as regularly as morso knives to achieve a good cut. Granted they can be noisy and dusty but you can’t have it all! Decent dust extraction isn’t prohibitively expensive. I’m not sure how any framer doing decent volume can persist without one. My hip troubles have also disappeared! Win win win!