Woodmaster adds power to combo machine

Woodmaster has taken its professional combination machine, the Extreme Duty Woodmaster 725, to a higher level. The 25" planer/molder/sander/saw, previously offered with a 7.5-hp motor and three-knife HSS cutterhead, is now available with a 10-hp motor and spiral cutterhead. A double-router attachment for three-sided molding is sold as an accessory. The combo machine is designed for constant use in small- and medium-sized cabinet and millwork shops.

“It’s a bigger motor than has ever been on that machine and, to our knowledge, the biggest motor available in that class,” says Will Johnson, president of Woodmaster. “It’s an option to our light industrial customers that they haven’t had before.”

When functioning as a planer, the machine has a variable feed rate of 0 to 23 fpm, which provides 70 to 1,000 cuts per inch. The planer accommodates stock up to 25" wide and 7" thick without a bed board. The 25" spiral cutterhead contains 164 15mm carbide cutter bits, according to Woodmaster.

“A lot of people are using this machine as a dedicated planer because of the power, the width and the spiral cutterhead,” Johnson says. “But certainly the other big use that people put our machines to is to make custom molding, short-run molding or, in some cases, long-run molding. That’s a place where we’re getting a lot of new business because people are seeing it as an economical alternative to buying the bigger, industrial $15,000, $20,000 or $30,000 machines.”

Woodmaster offers an optional double-router attachment for three-sided molding, which includes two Milwaukee 3-1/2-hp routers. The three-side molding system is built to be affordable ($2,295), and to stand up to the demands of prolonged shop use.

“It’s actually a patent-pending accessory where we’ve got two routers on the outfeed so you can cut crown molding in a single pass using the routers and then cutting the crown in the main part of the machine. You can also do tongue and groove with a relief on it in a single pass.”

The switch from planer to molder is about a 10-minute job and “intellectually very easy,” according to Johnson. The machine also functions as a drum sander and rip saw, providing four functions in a single footprint.

“You can use it for straight-line ripping,” adds Johnson.

The Extreme Duty Woodmaster 725 with 10-hp motor, spiral cutterhead, accessory shaft, polypropylene bed board, pattern knife holder, saw kit and drum sanding kit is priced at $4,695. The machine is available with a 7-1/2-hp motor for $4,285.

Contact: Woodmaster Tools Inc., 1431 N. Topping Ave., Kansas City, MO 64120. Tel: 800-821-6651. www.woodmaster.com

This article originally appeared in the June 2009 issue.