Introducing the MF30

The new Logosol Joinery machine, the MF30 Vertical Milling Machine is a unique piece of equipment in the woodworking machinery world. This is a new class of machine for the U.S., though this machine has been in production and use in Europe for many years. I know of nothing close to this machine on the market in the U.S. There are plenty of shapers out there, of course, but with the fence system that is standard on this machine, it quickly leaves most standard shapers behind when you consider the precision fences and table system that is a critical part of the MF30.

But, it is more than a shaper - it is a tiltable arbor shaper, and with a quick change of the spindle, it is a router table. And not just a router table, but a tiltable router, and even more, an overhead router. Plus, with some accessories, it can do X, Y, and Z routing work.

So, to be honest, I am just now learning this machine, but it is very impressive to work with. I've done a few projects on it, and so far, it is making life much easier and more precise in the shop!

Below are two pictures of the MF30 in action. One is a picture of the solid walnut handrail I made recently. It is laying against the head and the picture is showing how it would move against the head and fences to make the moulding on the one side. I had actually made the handrail on the PH260, but, I missed on my setup ( a big oops on the part of the operator) and didn't want to scrap this beautiful walnut handrail. So, I put the same head for the handrail that I used on the PH260 onto the MF30, and set the fences so I was taking just a little off the side that had not been fully moulded on the PH260, and was able to clean it up completely. Just this ability alone will make it a good companion for the PH260.

But, that was an easy operation on the MF30. Then I had to make a shoe for the balusters under the handrail, and I used the MF30 to mill out the 1.25" groove for the balusters to fit into. I changed out the shaft to the router spindle in about 3 minutes. It is an extemely easy operation and just doing it makes you marvel at the engineering that is in this machine. Then I rotated the motor to the top vertical position and positioned the fences to the right spot and then lowered the head to where a straight router bit could clean out about 1/4" of material. I had to make three passes since I only had a 1/2" bit. But, it was a precise cut and it cleaned it out quickly. And it was easy to move the head forward to make each new cut.

After that, I had to do some round-overs to finish out the tops of the square newell posts that we had made up and I found that this machine is great for this operation as well. I did another quick change-out back to the shaper spindle and put the TB90 cutterhead in with a roundover knife installed. I positioned the fence and used the clamp to hold down the small block of wood for milling. The clamp holds it extremely firmly and you can do roundovers on cross grain on small stock, which is something that is normally hard (and dangerous) to do.


But, the real use for the MF30 is to do curved mouldings. This is a project I haven't done yet on this machine, but one that I am looking forward to having the capability to do. This involves a jig for this machine. It will extend your range of mouldings, as now all the patterns for the PH260 will be available in a curved format.