Removal of 5mm offset to parts on saw/ router work station.

Well the work station is complete now and its time to cut off the 5mm offset that surrounds the parts before the veneering can take place.

This work station will also be used to cut off the 20mm offset after veneering. To cut eh angles on some of the edges of the parts. Also will be used to do some of the routering for the housings for some of the parts.

The work station will also be able to be used for many processes after the final piece so I thought it would be a good investment to make.

Although this is just prototype 1. I would like to make a better version after final piece but this will do for what is needed in the processes for the final piece. Even though it has been a learning process I still believe there are a few things I would totally change but also keep.

If I was to make it again I would not use the same grip material.

Reason one because of the double sided tape it makes things stick to it when not wanting to be stuck to. For example when clamping down the slide bars to the table the two tapes will want to stick to one another.

Gets damaged very easily compared to the next material I'm thinking of using.

The plus sides to this material is that its easy to cut, bonds well to the tape and is cheap in price.

I'd also come up with a better engineered slide mechanism. I didn't put too much thought into the slide mechanism for this one so much since I just wanted to make something quickly to get the ball rolling. I didn't want to spend heaps of time on the work station since the main attention is to the piece its self.

If I wasn't going to use a grip material at all I had though about having a series of holes in the top and creating my own vacuum suction table. This would mean that I would not need toggle clamps, grip material or slide bars.

Also would have a better measuring gauge system built into it.

Would also build storage systems into it and make some other shelving sections. Would probably build the air compressor into the work station. Would also build power point sections into it. Have though about making it longer in length and shorter in width.

These are pressure handle pads use to push plus provide even pressure for timber when being dressed over a jointer/

I actually like this material and would use it for the next work station if I make one.

Although these evaluations are just from looking at it. There are probably going to be more up sides and down sides to it when I use it which I will evaluate it as I go along.

Before I started machining I needed To first make a starter cut on the rough plastic that was attached to the saw guide. Once this was done the plastic now would be my reference point that I use to place up to the drawn line on my parts that I want to cut. Also acts as a bit of protection from the actual guide, not having metal going on metal.  This was for the 1400mm saw guide.

Went over the drawn lines with a dark fine liner so they were more noticeable.

Lining up the saw guide to the line that needs to be cut. As you can see why I didn't want to have such a huge off cut on the piece. It wont matter when this off cut drops down as wont cause a hazard but also want cause split out when it falls off. When using this saw you need two hands to hold it one it hold in the ignition trigger and the other to press the saw down to the desired set saw cutting depth.

For safety but also to avoid splitting underneath the blade just needs to slightly pock out from the job. So this board was 15 mm in thickness. So I would want the blade to pock out at about .5mm from the bottom of the job.

As you can see no splitting under neath the job. The blade cuts very smoothly in both with the grain and against.

Now I know one of the weaknesses with this router/ saw station. The set up time and un set up time. This is where the next prototype with a vacuum clamp pressure system would work better as it would decrease set up time plus also would require less parts that need to be on the work station to hold down the piece. Even though it takes a while to set up each time I can say that there is no movement with the piece everything seems to hold down very well. When placing the saw on the guide extra weight is applied to the job to prevent it from moving. If the board tries to move because of pressure being placed up against it from cutting the friction material goes against it to prevent it from moving.

I noticed that there was a little bit of slack from the female trench on the bottom of the saw blade and the male trench bar on the saw guide. To fix that I just had to adjust these two green knobs. You want enough slack so it can move freely and allow you to take it away from the saw guide with ease, its just you don't want any rock which is what I was having a little bit.

I will defiantly need to invest in a mobile vacuum dust extraction system that I can attach up to my saw.  My big dust extraction system is not made for such small power tools as this. Although at the moment I can not afford a dust extraction system for this yet since the ones I have been looking at range around the $500-$600 mark. So at the moment I need to brush down the guide each time so dust doesn't get caught in the trenches and disrupt the cut and also to sweep off the floor where I'm working so it doesn't cause a slipping hazard.

Although Till I get the extraction unit. I will need to really clean out the whole machine after each use to remove all the dust.  Although Its usually best to do it any way when you have one. You take care of your tools they will take care of you and last a lot longer.

The different set ups that you will see here is more just to show you what can of different set up alternations it can do. This is the Ikebana base panel for the (flower arrangement to sit on)

First piece has now had its 5mm offset cut off.

Cutting the top panel now for the cabinet.

Cutting the doors now.

Another cut on one of the doors.

Last cut on one of the doors.

Since I don't have an extraction system added up to the saw I really need to ware a bust mask. I also decided to open up all the doors of the work shop So I could get better air flow. This work station was made so If it was good weather I could wheel it out to the front apron outside the roller door and use it outside. Sadly it was not good weather since a storm was passing through.

When using this saw with this work shop system you need to provide a good stance and walking movement

Cutting one of the draw box lids.

Another cut on one of the draw box lids.

Another cut on one of the draw box lids.

I decided to cut all the 15mm board first than go towards the 26mm laminated boards. So this meant that I had to change the saw cutting depth again. Now normally with these thick boards really anything thicker than 19mm you want to do the cut in two passes. First pass half way point the next pass to finish off the cut. This was going to take me too long So at first just wanted to see whether it could take the whole cut depth that I wanted in one go. It actually did and didn't do it with struggle and provided a very good cut. I did notice there was a little bit of resistance compared to the thiner boards so this meant I just had to work slower with it when cutting.

Since it was only cutting off a small off cut it wasn't going to matter so much. Lets say there was a much bigger off cut than this could be a problem (and would probably need to do it in two passes). Since because of the weight from the off cut there is a chance that it will be pressing up on the blade from the exit cut. There is a riving knife that prevents this to come extent but can still happen.

Also if its a really thick job that your wanting to cut there would be too much saw dust caused putting strain on the blade since the saw dust needs to escape (so another reason to do it in two passed or more, puts less work on the blade and the motor of the saw).

The less amount of teeth on the blades and furthered spaced out they are will be able to tackle thicker jobs as the waste can escape a lot faster as well as take more chunks out. The thiner spaced teeth of the blade and more of them will cause a better finish and limit splitting but will not be able to tackle thick jobs or be able to allow the dust to escape as fast compared to the other blades specified above.

Since these were thicker boards I had to heighten the slide bar as high as it could go this meant that I had to change over and use thiner bolts. I made the trenching for the bolts with slack encase I had to do this. Although I still needed to make it higher so I had to end up using some thin ply which acted as packers.

Packers needed to be placed on both sides to create an even distribution of weight and clamp pressure.  There needed to be two plywood packers on each end.

Wanted to check whether the saw was cutting the job square since cutting through it in one go.

These are the bolt system that I was talking about earlier that I had to change for the slide mechanism.

Another cut for the top carcass panel for the cabinet.

Starting to cut the base of the cabinet.

Another cut for the cabinet base.

I had to now cut the draw box bottoms now. This caused a bit of a problem. I could not use the 1400mm long saw guide any more I had to use the 1000mm one. This is because when clamping the guide down it was causing too much of a bend in the middle.

Before I did any machining I needed to make a starter cut to the guide to create a reference point on the plastic.

A few alterations I had to make as well. I had to remove the end slide bars since they could not be lowered any more to the height I wanted. I had to add two packers at each end that were the same thickness as the draw bottom. I also I had to use peg clamps on each end of the job to provide more clamp pressure to the guide to the material that I was cutting.

I had to also adjust the under neath clamps for the saw guide and use some of the clamp blocks as packers so I could clamp the saw guide to the table properly.

Beginning the first cut for the draw bottoms.

Starting next cut for the draw bottom. The job didn't actual move at all which was good. Had to be careful with some adjustments since there wasn't much clamp pressure provided from the slide bars. But over all it completed the job well.

Although I will need to make packers with grip matting for this job and the top job(thicker panels) since Ill be needing to do these set ups a lot.

Finished the first amount of cutting so needed to clean out the saw with the air compressor before putting the saw back into its systainer.

First amount of parts have now had their 5mm offset cut off. They are now ready to be veneered. The parts that have other repeats I can now use them as a template for the others and than add the 5mm offset around them than band saw out and begin the next load of cutting on the work station.

I decided to make some proper packer strips that I'll use to place under the saw guide for the thiner material that I'm cutting ( drawer box panels)

Placing grip material on packing strips to provide extra grip to avoid parts slipping out when being cut.

Excess grip material cut off on packing strips to make them neater.

Cutting the next stage of parts that are from the other parts that had repeats needed.

Finished cutting off 5mm offset ready for hand veneering.

Beginning to cut the drawer box lids. Since there are 3 drawer box lids needing to be cut (not including the previous one already cut) Will be cutting each side in stages. Basically running in a more efficient sequence to avoid unnecessary repeated set ups.

Found adding two of the clamping blocks on either side that was the same thickness as the material that was being cut provided extra support. This avoided the saw guide from bending due to being clamped at the two either ends. Found clamping the saw guide down onto the clamp block with peg clamps helped as long as it didn't interfere with the in feed and outer feed of the cut from the circular saw.

Drawer box lids all have their 5mm offset removed and are now ready for hand veneering.

Cleaned off 5mm offset from secondary doors after being cut on panel saw and band saw at tafe. They are now ready for veneering. But before veneering takes place I need to sort out the location of where the magnets are going. The magnet housings must be done first before the veneering takes place.

Cutting the rest of the drawer box bottoms 5mm offset off on the saw/ router station.

Drawer box bottoms finished and now are ready to be veneered.

Other door finished.

I managed to buy my self a wet and dry industrial vacuum cleaner/ mobile dust extractor. This will keep the work shop a lot cleaner. The total cost for this was $170 which was half price since it was on special at Bunnings. One of the great functions about this is that you can connect your power tools to it so when ever you turn on your power tool that your using it will turn on the dust extractor.