Re: Which Tools?

["Greg Ryan" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Art,
I used a strip mill that I built myself. I think there were pictures on 
Brams old web site. It used 2 routers one with and one against the grain 
rotation on the same strip at the same time with a power feeder (speed 
controlled sander) driving the strip at a constant rate of 16ft per 1-1.5 ft 
per second.

Feeding with the direction of rotation is called "climb cutting" as opposed 
to "chip cutting" in which the wood moves against the rotation of the 
cutting tool.  Climb cutting is a technique that you can use with fast tools 
like routers to get a nicer finish on the surface especially when the wood 
you use is fast growing and has large straight grain, i.e. softwoods 
including cedar. It is also very  usefull when you have softwoods with wavy 
grain that runs out of the workpiece, i.e cedar. With climb cutting the bit 
flutes compress the grain of the wood when they strike the edge. The result 
is that there is less tearout with this method but the cut may not be as 
deep as expected.  Tearout and splintering are typical problems with chip 
cutting as the flutes cut across the grain as they leave the workpiece 
especially when your cedar plank has knots and the natural grain runs out of 
the edge of the strip.

The drawback of climbcutting is that the router controls the feed rate not 
you, therefore you cant use dull bits, a large flute surface or a very deep 
cut, else it becomes dangerous. Since our application uses a fairly small 
flute surface contacting the strip and the strips are large (long with high 
total mass) you probably wont have issues with loss of control of the feed 
rate. In our application it should be dominated by friction on the strips 
from the feather boards (rather than router pull -- like a rail gun). You 
will need good feather boards, well adjusted, more so with climbcutting, as 
the method is given more to chattering of the work piece As it is compressed 
and released with each rotation of the bit the work may resonate at certain 
speeds I guess. Since cedar is so soft you might not notice it.  If you are 
doing two passes anyway (I did not) use the climbcut first, it will not be 
100% as deep as you set the bit and the second pass as chipcut to get the 
correct depth. Seems like too much work to me.  Strips do not need to be 
perfect. In my bead and cove mill I climb cut the cove and chip cut the bead 
on the same strip at the same time. Seemed to work for me with one pass.  I 
noticed a little more splintering in the bead sawdust than the cove. 
Keeping the cove in the center of the strip is the most important thing I 
thought so Keith's idea sounds like a good idea.

My bead/cove mill used a couple of plastic spring loaded screen door top 
rollers bolted to the adjustable fence. I cut the bead first and had the 
bead guide into a 1/2 radius metal ball bearing sheave (so it fits just 
right). These hold downs and sheave guides apply enough force to keep the 
workpiece flat on the table top and against the fence. I prepared my source 
planks before cutting strips  so that they were all the same thickness by 
putting them all through the thicknesser at the same setting. That way one 
feather board setting is correct, for all strip widths are the same. I also 
used 3 froude diablo thin kerf, high tooth count blades at the same time to 
gang cut my strips. Makes short work of it.  I made the arbor spacers and 
shims for the blades out of epoxy fiberclass patches (cut out the arbor hole 
with a forstner bit centered in the holesaw guide hole). Shim to the exact 
thickness with thin shims holecut from one layer of E-glass epoxy.  Worked 
for me.

Good luck.
Greg



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Art Bedard" <bedarda@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Greg Ryan" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: Which Tools?


> Greg,
> Question for you.
>
> It is ingrained in me to always use any power tool 'against' the direction 
> of rotation. The oneoceankayaks link has the  operator feeding with the 
> direction of the router tool. I have a open mind to try it, but was 
> curious of which way you fed your strips into the router.
>
> Best,
> Art Bedard
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "Greg Ryan" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Hi Phillip,
> > You will need the bead and cove router bit for 1/4 inch strips. Search 
> > Catzooks
> > archive for the catalog numbers and you will be able to find a 
> > description. It
> > helps to make a fence for your router table that will hold the strips 
> > down
> > exactly in place on the router bit so that the bead and cove are centered 
> > on the
> > edge of the strip. You probably will need a couple of feather boards to 
> > hold the
> > strip.
> > Look here http://oneoceankayaks.com/Wshophtm/Shop1a.htm
> >
> > It is important to have an infeed and an outfeed table to catch the 
> > strips as
> > you mill them. I bundled them by the board that the strips were cut from, 
> > with
> > fiberglass reinforced sticky tape, so that I could color match (Book 
> > Match) them
> > later when buildng the boat.
> >
> > Regards Greg
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> >   From: Philip Gaßner
> >   To: swiftsolo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> >   Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 5:49 PM
> >   Subject: Which Tools?
> >
> >
> >   Hi. Which tool are you using, besides a router to male the bead and 
> > cove, to
> > mill your strips?
> >   Philip
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >   Was ist Glück? Schlafen Fische überhaupt? Die Antworten gibt's auf 
> > Yahoo!
> > Clever.


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