In my little hardwood flooring business I use several hundred feet of quarteround, it costs about 35 cents a foot here for the basic stuff, I think its made of MDF.
I was thinking of making my own, is that feasable and how to make it? I was thinking of buying a 3/4 inch MDF board and having it cut into maybe 1 inch slices then run it thru a router. Or should I use something else, like pine and do the same?
snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (ississauga) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:
I don't know where you're at but in VA I get red oak shoe (good quality
3/4" by 1/2" for between 25 & 30 cents per foot from the local hardwood flooring distributors. Shop around. Sorry I don't have any advice on making your own.Adam
either way you can use a moulding cutter on a TS or preferably a router bit in a router table if you don't have a shaper.
first cut a piece of stock twice as wide as you need plus an amount equal to a rip cut on the TS. Take your stock, run it through the moulding cutter to form the quarter round on BOTH sides of the stock, then rip the stock so that you have two pieces of quarter round moulding. This way, you're not trying to put thin strips through a cutterhead. Ripping is easier.
Go look at Eagle bits...they have a "Koizumi" bit that was desinged by a neighbor of mine from the quarter round in our homes (Gundersons-a variety of American Four-Square). It is like a moulding called "Inside Corner" but as a quarter round. It is a bit more distinctive than standard quarter-round.
IMHO, I wouldn't screw with it.
Shop around, buy right.
You are talking about a commodity.
No way can you compete with a dedicated molding house, especially if you negotiate with them.
HTH
Lew
I wouldn't think it would be cost effective unless you were making specialty trim items out of oak, mahogany or cherry. It's hard to beat huge mass production machinery to save 5 cents a foot on common items. Unless you like working for 80 cents an hour...
I wouldn't use MDF molding on a doghouse. Are you sure it's not a another composite material or PVC?
FWIW,
Greg G.
Possible, yes. Feasible, doubtful. Cost-effective, almost certainly not. Consider: one 4x8 sheet of 3/4 MDF is approx $30, and will yield about four dozen 8-foot strips, which if purchased would cost about $100 more than that. What's your time worth? Say $25 an hour? Can you mill up these strips in four hours?
Doesn't matter what you use, that's the wrong order. Cut the profile on the edge of a wide board, then rip the profile off on the table saw. Much too dangerous to try to run a 3/4" wide strip through a router table.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
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I think that the time you would spend doing this mundane task would be a waste considering you have your own business. Use that time to take on more work which will undoubtedly repay you better than saving a few cents on the quarter round. I would shop around including to local mills for the best pricing. Also, consider shopping at different suppliers on the internet.
Frank
I don't know what size shop you have, but it you have a router table, and a table saw it's easy. Take your stock, run it thru the router, then rip it on the table saw. Repeat until the stock is depleted. Once you have everything set up, all your 1/4 round will be identical.
--Mike
You should be looking into getting a shaper
Oh look ! Another thread.
Doug Miller above has the method I would use to make my own, but I agree with everyone that this isn't cost effective.
Assuming you're buying materials at a fair market price, you should be passing these costs directly to your customer, so the cost shouldn't matter to you at all -- unless you are trying to profit on materials.
Extra profit can come from increased production.
-Mike
MDF for molding??? Doesn't sound very aesthetically pleasing.
Possible, yes. Easy. Rout the edge on a piece of stock, then saw the stock. Feel free to invent your own method.
Feasible? Not especially. You're proposing adding a process that's completely removed from what business types call your "Core Competence" . .you'd have to make a LOT of MDF moulding to make that cost effective.
Sounds like you're paying retail. Since you're in the trade, you should look for a supplier who can better meet your needs.
Lots of it available. Just as pleasing as wood when painted.
Only way I'd make my own molding is if I needed a special shape or special wood to match something else.
Biggest problem - don't let it get wet!
Greg G.
What material you use is up to you.
However, run it thru the router, then rip to width, running those thin slices thru is more hazardous than running wider stuff thru the router, and if you get 1in strips, then run thru router, you are still going to have to run those thin strips thru the saw again to get the finished dimensions unless you are going to use the strips in the form they come off the router as (ie, inch wide with a quarter round edge on them)
John
I reckon. I prefer wood 1/4 rounds with poly, rather than paint, since paint seems to take a beating from the vaccuum, kids, etc.
Why do you not use shoe mold instead of 1/4 round?
I'd get bass, white pine or red oak for paint or match. Wooden fingers (featherboards and push sticks) make it just as easy to run 3/4 square stock past the shaper as any other size, maybe safer, since you are giving the machine full respect by keeping the flesh fingers entirely out of the process.
MDF is too hard on tooling and operators for me.
I agree completely. I made about 2 doz 12x24 MDF raised panels for a stairway paneling project - basically ruined my $80 MCLS shaper bit. I guess it was worth it, but be aware that the crap in MDF can really mess up a bit. They had some use before this however, so maybe I got all I could out of this bit.
Need to stop buying "bargain" bits!?
Nice panels tho.
Along these lines, C3 vs C4 carbide - is it worth the difference in $? Can anyone comment?
Lou
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