# Board Cut Production Shortcuts



## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

Not everyone would want to take a short-cut, but I'm sure all of us have considered the idea of speeding up production, whether we make a hundred a day or one a month.

dgui raised the idea of speeding production with a lathe follower (link):



dgui said:


> I had a friend who is no longer with us and he had a shop where he made stair parts. A lathe is what he used and he made an attachment for the lathe that would take aliminum patters for his parts and he cut out some very intricate designes on all types of wood. He produced a bit that would cut with a pass. So instead of band saw perhaps you could look into easier mass production . Just a thought thats all.


Here's a Knife Duplicator that I published some years ago on another forum (link).

"What's that?" you ask...

well "two axis (x-r) pantograph" is a slightly more pretentious name. It's like one of those key copying machines, but on a much larger scale. The principle is simple, there's a master template made of formica or some other rigid but easy to shape material on the right and a blade blank on the left. There is a "tracing blade" that follows the outline of the template and guides the blade stock as it passes the angle grinder disc.

I haven't had time to fire it up, but here it is mocked up with a half finished blade. It was a fun afternoon project and was built from a basic sketch, mostly made up as I went along.



























The angle grinder mount is independent and can be used separately as a 1HP, high RPM variable speed grinder, though extreme case must be taken to keep soft bits clear of the disc. The grinding disc could be replaced with a wood cutting disc for board-cuts.










There are other simpler ideas, including using CNC routers, getting the board profiles outsourced and simply stacking boards.

In the end, however, the amount of time I spend cutting out a board is a small fraction of the time I need to make a fork and doesn't much affect the quality of finish, so maybe speeding fit and finish is where I should focus my attention.

What's your experience and ideas?


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## Skit Slunga (Apr 14, 2010)

I love the 'duplicator' idea!

Kind of an old school tip for finishing and fit: rather than sanding through the gamut of grits, use a scraper and 100-150 grit sandpaper for initial finish sanding then move to a polished s/s burnishing tool (similar to a wood arrow straightening tool) to achieve a very smooth hardened surface. 


One that has been sanded to 150 grit and burnished with above 'tool' 

The last two cattys I've done I'm very impressed with.

I should edit to add a trim router and round over bit! Good Lord what a time and energy saver !







adding a veining bit with a table setup those grooves become easy peezy and perfect! At the moment still using a 5/32" chainsaw file/sand paper for grooves.


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## dgui (Jan 12, 2010)

The lathe I was speaking of was before laser cutting. The lathe was modified so that it was the custom cutting bit did the spinning and not the lathe turing like makeing a bowl out of a block of wood like a sears lathe. What you showed looks very effective. This fellow designed an attachment and designed his own bits and had them made for his machine and his machine being precise could take blocks of 3/4 inch thick and make designes for a key over a door not a lock. He referred to this process of several cutouts as gang cutting. Extremely precise cutouts to be exact with the aluminum patteren. Stair parts have to fit and it is also better to have them cut on one run due to factors of moisture and so on. The point being if you are band sawing one by one as opposed to gang cutting you are using up alot of time that could be spent on the details.


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