| 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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