Spindle Moulder Guide Rings

Preamble : I don't want to write another list of what each woodworker should know in order to work safely. Everybody may find what matters using a search engine with key words "woodworking safety". Albeit all these articles talk to the others and I would have liked to find someone writing : "for my own safety I try to..." which means many more people convey a standard point of view about safety without wondering anything. I avoid these kind of topic that lead to nothing most of time. On the other hand I get involved in every exchange that tend to explain why something would be unsafe et try to find out a better way. It's all about mental attitude and the last one requires the point of view to be argued. Nothing good nothing bad but keeping open minded.WhyDi
Guide rings make easier the shaping operation with template rather than using the template guide of the ring fence that came with the machine but available diameters didn't meet my needs most of time or demanded tricky calculations to make the template and I wondered if wood like rings could be able to replace steel ones. Despite I was afraid of medium density fibreboard that would probably tend to rotate at the shaft speed, I made 44 rings from 64 to 150 mm in diameter and the required devices allowing the rings to be locked or removed and replaced.

Overview


The ring recess accommodates and slightly pinches the ball bearing. Sitting the ball bearing into the ring is performed with a wooden stock that helps for the application of the same pressure on the whole surface so that gliding the ball bearing as vertically as possible to the bottom of the rabbet. Removal operations requires a little round box made of wood-like that purposes to take apart mdf ring and ball bearing. The top bushing of the spindle moulder that came with the machine helps the ball bearing to be pushed down.

Set Up


I drilled the first hole with an adjustable circle hole cutter 5 mm less that the ball bearing diameter then made a router template allowing the rabbet to be machined that matches the diameter as well as the depth of that ball bearing.

Centre Hole


Using the shop made circle fixture, I roughly cut the shape on the table saw and sanded the ring on the spindle moulder. Finally I vitrified the rings so that consolidating their working side. The safety cover ring was roughly cut out of a 4mm thick aluminium plate with a jig-saw and a flush trim router bit helped for the copy of the the centre hole of a spindle moulder spacer. The external diameter was sanded with the same circle fixture.

Completed


The 5mm thick plywood drawer glides on wooden pads and locates behind the spindle moulder fence when not used.

Sledge Drawer

As ever written my main concern was about medium density fibreboard rings rotating at the shaft speed. Although nothing went wrong after many trials with the larger diameters, I didn't feel comfortable and made the decision of slightly braking the wood-like ring. Most of time I just put a wooden finger on the table that touches and prevents the guide ring from rotating. There is an extra benefit to keep the mdf ring standstill : the ring never burns the workpiece when first contacting.