Cutting shallow, wide slot in hardwood

I need the best, cheapest way to cut a 1-1/2" wide by 3/64" deep slot across a KD Beech block that is 2-1/4" wide. I need to do at least

2,000/day. I already do this but I won't say how as not to influence you. We are trying to come up with a better, faster cheaper way.
Reply to
Tom Gardner
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Two passes each (one from each side) on a table saw equipped with a dado blade set to 3/64 high and just over 3/4" wide.

Reply to
Nova

What will you pay for the best idea?

Only kidding. Gang cut as many pieces as you can fit on a table with an overarm track with a 3HP router(or other motor available) equipped with a

1 -1/2" end mill.

Dave

Reply to
Teamcasa

Tom Gardner wrote: > I need the best, cheapest way to cut a 1-1/2" wide by 3/64" deep slot > across a KD Beech block that is 2-1/4" wide. I need to do at least > 2,000/day. I already do this but I won't say how as not to influence you. > We are trying to come up with a better, faster cheaper way.

It's custom tooling time.

How much are you willing to invest in multiple station equipment?

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Stack a bunch of workpieces together, use a (possibly CNC) router on an XY table with stops?

Maybe a mandrel, supported on both sides, with an extra-wide dado set and a custom table?

Chris

Reply to
Chris Friesen

How long is the beech block? I'd setup a RAS with a dado head and cut 4 of them at a time.

scott

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

How long are the blocks? This only works if they are square - or close to it.

Router table with 2 inserts, offset by 3/4". Fence on one side, featherboard on the other. Use a 3/4" bit with end milling capabilities in each router. With another long featherboard over top, you could just keep pushing them through and they will fall off the outfeed side into a bin.

If the pieces are long, you could use the 2-router setup with a miter slot and sled. Put a stop block on the infeed side of the cutters, set the pieces (gang as many as you like) on the sled, set the ends to the stop block, pass through the cutters. Toughest part would be the initial lineup of the inserts/miter slot.

Reply to
gw

Dedicated shaper with an end mill cutter, a stack feeder onto the table and than a stock feeder through the cutter with roller featherboards hard fastened. Will have to experiment with cutter profiles depending on what you can live with for exit tearout.

With that kind of volume you should be able to rig up some simple hard automation for feeding and handling and make it a load and walk away.

Frank

Reply to
Frank Boettcher

Good ideas so far, thanks. We now have a Hitachi 3 hp TR-12 with a 1-1/2" router bit in a table with a jig sliding on Thomson linear bearings. The operator drops a block in the jig , slides it through and it drops in a barrel. The routers last about 6 months then we throw them away as they are not worth repairing. I'm at about 4-5 seconds each now. I thought of a dado but 1.5 is too wide. I have a spare shaper with a powered round table but the cycle time would be hard to beat 5 sec. and the cost of building a table is about $800 in house.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Reply to
Pat Barber

How about something like a Williams & Hussey molding machine with a set of knives that cuts a 1 1/2" wide, 3/64" deep groove down the middle. Then just feed the blocks through or, better yet, if possible, feed the stock through and cut it into blocks after the groove is in it.

Lee

Reply to
Lee Gordon

Is that for 5 days or 500 days? That makes a difference in how much you can afford to spend to automate. There are industrial machine cutters that can knock that out in a short time, but you will be investing far more than the cost of a dado setup on a cabinet saw or router.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Yep. I'd think you could really crank out a bunch with a dado stack and some featherboards on a table saw. I envsion a flume type set-up on an infeed table, and a box on the floor behind the saw to catch them. Have one guy line up 15 or 20 blocks (how long are they?) and another guy push 'em through with a long push stick - the kind that sits on top with a heel at the back to catch the last one. I bet you could cut your cycle time significantly.

JP

Reply to
Jay Pique

note: you could do a similar type operation with a shaper. jp

Reply to
Jay Pique

3/64" deep? I'm curious, why do you need to cut this (I hesitate to use the word) "slot" anyway?

If I had to do 2000 of these a day, I believe I'd take this old 4" jointer I have but seldom use, and and grind an old set of knives to give the 1.5" width. Cut the blocks to length afterwards.

Reply to
lwasserm

| I need the best, cheapest way to cut a 1-1/2" wide by 3/64" deep | slot across a KD Beech block that is 2-1/4" wide. I need to do at | least 2,000/day. I already do this but I won't say how as not to | influence you. We are trying to come up with a better, faster | cheaper way.

Lots of ways to skin this cat. A 1-1/2"x3/64" +/-0.002" is easy and

14.4 sec/block (28,800 sec per 8-hour shift divided by 2000 blocks) is actually pretty slow.

The limiting factors appear to be [1] ability to cool the cutting tool and [2] material handling ability.

[1] isn't a big problem; but the method used will depend on [3] below. [2] is a larger issue - material handling might be much simplified and labor content minimized if the tooling solution inputs boards, and outputs slotted blocks.

The big questions are:

[3] How many of these blocks would you really like to produce in an 8-hour shift/day? I think that 25,000 blocks/workcenter/shift isn't an unreasonable target. [4] What is the value of production volume (IOW, how much does it make sense to spend to achieve your production target)? "As cheap as possible" is not an answer to this question.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

In terms of force applied and energy used, two of the recommendations are appealing and can be hybridized to make a solution similar to the Roy Underhill style of work.

Saw the edges of the slot, then chisel out the waste.

Two thin-kerf blades in a dado-like setup (with washers as spacers instead of chipper blades) can define the slot edges on a table saw. Then a jointer with custom blades can hog out the waste. The benefit is: buried in a cut, the thin-kerf blades will cut true and have plenty of cooling, and only make a little sawdust. Then the jointer blades will take out big chunks of toothpick-shaped waste, taking very little energy (because the fibers are already cut at the ends).

In terms of energy required and stress on the wood, there is one better way to do the job, with a succession of passes with the right kind of plane (with knives to slit the edge and a rabbet iron to hog the waste, it can ALL be little toothpick-waste with no sawdust). Is it acceptable to set up several shapers together?

Reply to
whit3rd

How about a Woodmaster

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or similar machine with 2, possibly 3 molding heads for the slot. You'd have to use longer pieces, then cut to length because of the 8" minimal planing length. With a custom bed board you could have 2 or 3 pieces running through at once. It might even be worth a custom head from Byrd Tools
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to speed blade replacement. Joe

Reply to
Joe Gorman

Outsource this to China. Americans are unable to handle anything that requires more then 3 repeat activities

Reply to
warbler

Close! I had to farm out 90% of my woodworking to an Amish company. I just couldn't find anybody that actually would work.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

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