Domenico, You probably have a table (circular) saw if you are making 
harpsichords. I have not read all of the responses to your thread, so I 
may be beating a dead horse. I make Italian harpsichords, which are rich 
in moldings. I was fortunate to have begun this work while Sears still 
offered a molding cutter head which was balanced for a single cutter 
blade rather than the usual three. The single cutter version is no 
longer available. That appealed to me as I realized that making three 
cutters by hand exactly alike would be a difficult task. I made the 
different (single) cutters I needed using rabbeting cutters, which are 
just a straight cutting edge, as raw materials. I annealed the cutter to 
cherry red and plunged it into a sack of lime to cool slowly. Now the 
high carbon steel was soft enough to file in the shape I wanted using 
needle files and following the bevel of the blade. After achieving the 
desired shape and cleaning up the cutter on a sharpening stone, I 
reheated the cutter to cherry red and quenched in oil to restore the 
hardness. I now have, at very low cost, a single cutter for every type 
of molding I need.

One could use a three cutter head and retain the balance for a single 
operative cutter by supplying two dummy cutters in the head which have 
relief cut into them so that only the "real" molding cutter touches the 
work.

The very same cutters I made in 1975 are still working for me in 2016 
and need only a bit of sharpening on the flat side between jobs to 
continue to turn out gorgeous moldings.

As for the cutting of the moldings, since the cutter is only making one 
cut per revolution, I take the wood down to finish depth in a number of 
passes, increasing the height of the blade for each pass a little bit 
until I am satisfied with the depth of the molding. I then take two more 
passes at that finish arbor height to get rid of ripple. Any remaining 
machining marks are easily removed with normal finish sanding. I also 
use feather-boards to hold the molding wood both down on the table and 
in against the fence. I have cut all my moldings this way except for 
inner edge case moldings for French or Flemish harpsichords. For those, 
I made a molding plane, a simple affair which works well on basswood but 
would probably be hopeless on harder woods. It is no longer in use as I 
now make only Italian instruments.

If you would like photos of my set-up, email me at 
[log in to unmask] and I will supply what I have.

Good luck

Rob

-- 
ROBERT BROOKE HARPSICHORDS
4214 18th Ave W
Bradenton, FL 34205

www.robertbrookeharpsichords.com

941-746-6725

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