Planer moulders - education needed!

[Bearwood]

Hi everyone, first post on the forum.

I'm looking to get some advice on planer moulders. 

I started with an Alaskan mill, milling decorative hardwood style timbers, Purchased a woodland mills hm130max to speed up the cutting, sales of decorative slabs have really dried up so I'm looking to get into other areas.

I'd like to start off with products like making wooden field gates, that will need planing all round and a mortising machine. And then hopefully start with T&G boards etc. In particular we have a very large profile TG&V board here in the Uk we use in agricultural barns that I'd like to try and make. 

I have a little experience with an old very large Sagar planer/thicknesser but none at all with a moulding machine. Would a 4 sided moulder be suitable for what I want to do? Easy enough to learn to use/set up and maintain? 

There is a couple of machines I've seen for sale locally. An SCM sintex and a Weinig P22N. 

Any help is appreciated.

[Don P]

I'm too far out of the loop, I ran an SCM that would have been I think 20 years prior to the Sintex. What I did notice on the specs, it is really a 4 sided planer with minimal profiling capability. It makes good boards and can run small profile T&G but that's about it.

[customsawyer]

I'm not familiar with those machines so can't offer advice on them. Are you going to be making these boards from hardwood or softwood? I know that my planers don't like moist lumber. Do you have a kiln or access to one? I have had a couple of customers that brought in some pine that has been air dried for a long time and was dry enough to go through the planer but with the pitch not being set it didn't feed very good. Now if it is going to go through my planers it is going to be kiln dried. I would think that a 4 sided planer/moulder would do what you are wanting. 

[Bearwood]

Thanks for the replies.

It would be softwoods, mostly Douglas, Larch and Cedar. I have access to a lot of Sitka spruce but it really doesn't cope well with the climate. 

That's one thing I forgot to ask is how the moisture content will affect the machines. Unfortunately I don't have access to a kiln, all of the hardwood I've milled has been air dried. I'm assuming a moulder won't appreciate freshly milled lumber?

[Don P]

It will not feed it and it'll rip the wood up. Air dried is better but without setting the pitch it'll still be VERY frustrating. 

[teakwood]

I bought a Sicar (italian) 4sider/moulder about a year ago and shipped it from Spain to Costa Rica, the machine is a beast and i like it a lot, really straights boards and you can do whatever profile you want if you buy the tooling. i haven't used it that much yet, but i know the machine will pay for itself in the next 5 years.
But dang be prepared for a step learning process and have a deep pocket, the costs will add up! The machine can be found cheap, all the rest is more than 50% of the costs.

I payed 11k for the machine, freight 1k, dust extraction 1k, electrical installation and vfd's 7k, prepair site 1k, minimal tooling 4k,  =25´000$  , was probably more  :D :D

If you want to produce wood buy a real moulder, not those bench top machines. Mine is a tank, weights 3tons, will eat everything you feed in and ask for more.

[tule peak timber]

My 2 cents; All above comments are spot on. The two units you are looking at are more suited for a cabinet shop operation, while you mentioned gates and timbers. Wider bed moulders are very expensive.
1. Moulders are a volume thing. Do you have a consistent like supply of wood? This is assuming that you have adequate storage area for kd material after it comes out of the kiln.
2. A finger joint set up would be nice also to pull defects out of your consistent material.
3. Have you looked into the power and air requirements to run a moulder?
4. I choked on power, air and consistent wood supply and went with large shapers individually set up to run wide width boards. 
Just some thoughts. Jumping from an Alaskan mill to millwork production will need a lot of fill in the gap.
Please keep us apprised of your decisions!
Cheers