Glenn,
Thanks for the explanation, I think I have the picture. My strips will
be 3/4 by 1 3/8 inches. Did you guide the pieces through the cutter using
a miter gage or did you use a fence on the table? I imagine that you used a
miter gage and advanced the pieces for sucessive cuts by eyeball. Is that
it? I have built several boats but have never used strip construction
before; nor have I ever used a router table. The finger joint looks like a
good way to make long strips. Thanks again,
Dave
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:uVgTg.13610$rg1.7164@dukeread01...
Not stacked, piled. :-) It was more of a materials handling problem than
a milling problem. The situation was I was working in a space 54' long
and about 8' between the wall and the station moulds. At one end is a
stack of 400 very bendy 1&1/8 x 1&3/4 strips 16' long and I could only
handle about 5 strips at a time safely. I set up a Shopmate bench with
the router table on it at the end of the pile. Then about 5' further on a
pair of long sawhorses about 6' apart. The spacing kept the strips
reasonably straight without sagging to much between the supports. They
are going to sag some but you want the ends to meet the table as level as
possible.
I would load up a pile of 40 to 50 strips at the wall end of the saw
horses, grab one and kind of flip it into the middle even with the router.
After cutting the fingers I rolled the strip to the other end of the saw
horses. When I made it through that batch I moved the router to the mould
end and move the router to the other end of the sawhorses and repeated the
process rolling each strip to the wall end . When the batch was finished
I piled them up at the other end of the shop. The idea was to move all
the strips the minimum number of times.
I chose the Amana 2 wing finger joint bit because it cut the deepest
fingers I could find. The fingers are almost 3/4" deep and a bit thicker
than others I looked at. That was ideal for the thickness I had but if
you are working with thinner strips you will probably do better with a
shallower cut and thinner fingers like the CMT or Whiteside. Do not go
with a cheap finger joint bit. The quality of the carbide controls the
sharpness and wear. You will be cutting across the grain so anything less
than very sharp will rip big splinters from the edge as it comes out of
the strip. A good bit is going to set you back $70 to $80. It took a
bit of fiddling to set the bit at just the right height so that I had half
a finger on one side and half a groove on the other. That way I could cut
both ends without adjusting the bit.
The key to control is to feed the strip from the side and against the
rotation of the bit. Press down and forward so the strip stays flat on
the table. Take a little less than a quarter inch at a time and make 3 or
4 passes. Last pass should be very light to take care of any tear out.
Tear out should not be a problem if you keep the passes shallow enough and
the wood is not to dry. I kept a piece of strip about a foot long close
to the table in case a strip started to tear out on the first pass and
used it as a backing block for the rest of the passes. If all the strips
start tearing out it is time to take the bit to the sharpening shop.
Other than a quick pass with a very fine hone across the face of the
cutters don't try to sharpen a carbide finger bit yourself. You will only
screw up an $80 bit.
--
Glenn Ashmore
I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com
"Dave W" wrote in message
...
Glen,
Thanks for the responses. A couple of questions arise. How did you
make the router behave while doing the end grain of the strips? You also
mentioned that you stacked the strips before routing. Were they stacked
one on top of another? I don't have the picture. Thanks for the help.
Dave
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:l5YSg.11169$rg1.1096@dukeread01...
I should add that had I to do it over again I would look seriously at
pre-cut strips or Duracore. It was rather distressing to watch as over
the process my beautiful white cedar logs were gradually reduced to piles
of sawdust, planer chips, and router dust. From green log to finished
strip I would guess I lost 70% of the weight.
--
Glenn Ashmore
I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com