I’m taking over production of some woodworking pieces that we previously purchased from Sweden. I’m not not certain how produce the pieces most efficiently. Any suggestions would be helpful.
We make hanging wood lamps from thinly sliced pine. The stock pieces 1″& 2″are milled across the grain with a tilting spindle shaper and are aprox. 8″ in length . Once shaped, they are sliced (with the grain) 1/8″ thick. The resulting pieces are then assembled into various patterns for the lamps. The issue I wrestle with is how best to slice these quickly and accurately. Is a table saw or band saw best? Would a feeder help? Is there a certain blade and set-up that would help? I will need to slice thousands upon thousands, so it’s best I get things in order.
Thanks for any help you can provide! Here’s a lnk to our website that shows our lights: www.nordicconnection.com
TR
Replies
My first reaction would be to use a rip saw, which you set up with as many multiple blades and variable spacers as you want on one shaft. The difficulty you will need to overcome is how to send relatively short lengths of material through the saw without them getting jammed up in the feed mechanism. They might need to be set in a long succession along a sacrificial board. A better solution would be to do the cross-grain milling with a CNC machine (not the shaper), before cutting the material into short lengths. Then rip, and finally cutoff to short lengths. But there's no question in my mind that the rip saw is the way to go.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?lang=e&id=1
Thanks for the advice!
todd
Not sure which lamps you are referring to from your website.
http://www.superthinsaws.com/index.htm
Sorry all. Here is a link to one of about a dozen different models that we do.
http://www.nordicconnection.com/Swedish_Star_Light_8605_p/8605.htm
todd
I saw the star lamps earlier, but didn't immediately relate them to the 2" x 8" x 1/8" rectangular strips you were describing. It seems to me that the first question is whether you need to do the component manufacturing with "standard" woodworking tools, or have budget for specialized machinery? If using "standard" tools, I'd think in terms of a ripping jig that would index the stock across the cut line in the appropriate increments, perhaps using pins that would drop into successive indexing holes, resulting in individual 1/8" strips being cut. The strips could then be run through a thickness planer to assure consistent thickness. But, I'm unclear on how the shaper is being used in your current setup. Doing thousands of individual rip cuts this way would be daunting, however.Conversely, if you have budget for specialized machinery, I could see some sort of "gang" saw with multiple, spaced circular blades (thin kerf?) to cut the thin strips. To avoid the ends of the strips flopping around on the back side of the blade, I could envision a precision jig that would hold the larger stock at both ends, and then the machine raising the blade gang inside the end of the stock, and then lowering before the near end of the stock. That would leave blocks at either end to stabilize things, which would be trimmed off later. Specialized machinery, however, can be very expensive.Either way, I'd think in terms of ripping strips that were some multiple of 8+ inches long, and then crosscut them to finish length.
Unclear on the shape. If it was a rectangular block of wood -
Thin kerf blades (1/16"?) separated by 1/8" spacers. Even on a standard cabinet saw, the arbor should be big enough for 4 blades and 4 spacers/parts per pass.
Next - get a piece of UHMW. Maybe 2" x 2" x 24" - 30" long. Cut a shallow bevel (1/2" rise max) in the first 3" - 4" or so along one end of the length, to act as a "lead in". Set up the blades, but raise the height only 1/2" - 3/4" or so. Run the UHMW across the blades. Now you have a hold-down fixture (the bevel is down, on the infeed side) that will also keep the cut parts separated. Make a frame to hold it and mount it above the blades, centered over the blades, and at the correct height to just skim the top of the blank stock.
Next - You need a hold-over device for the blank stock, like a fingerboard. Or, best solution is spring-loaded side roller wheels, if you are getting fancy.
Now you have the wood held left, right, and on top, as well as separated on the outfeed side. The last piece of the puzzle is kick-back on those short pieces of stock. Here you use a power feeder, so you are sending a continuous ribbon of wood through the blades, and the feeder traps it against kick back. The feeder uses part #2 to push part #1 through the blades, #3 pushes #2, etc. You will have to turn the saw off in the middle of the last piece, which will probably ruin that one piece.
This is the low-volume version of how a high-speed production shop would do it, using a gang-rip saw with a 12" arbor or a molder. Those saws have the high-end high-volume equivalent of the hold-overs, hold-downs, and feeders.
My dimensions are inexact - because I'm not holding the blank or the finished parts, and you just need to monkey around a bit with it. The UHMW is cheap. The power feeder is probably $600 - $1,000 (haven't priced them in a long time).
TR,
By the time you get to ripping the blocks to 1/8" thick you already have a lot of work invested in the shaping, so you don't want to waste valuable material by ripping with a circular saw. The simplest way would be to do the ripping with a thin kerf band saw blade, an approach that also has several other advantages for safety and jig design.
If you are really going to be making thousands of these pieces you will probably quickly discover that you have to automate the process, if only because no one can do that type of repetitive work without getting inattentive and finally making a dangerous mistake. In the long term automating the work will probably save you quite a bit in labor costs per piece.
For working by hand the cutting can be jigged to make it go faster and to retain accuracy, but truly automating the work will be harder.
I occasionally consult for this type of work, give me a call if you need more detailed ideas, 802-767-9700.
John White
Shop Manager for FWW Magazine, 1998-2007
I'm not sure about your description of the size of the pieces you need, but it seems as though they're 1/8 x 1 or 2 x 8.
That's about the size of a paint stirrer paddle. There are factories in Maine that turn these out by the billions, and you can buy them much more cheaply than you can made them.
Years ago I looked into producing a folding wood and canvas seat, and I discovered these specialty parts factories that were all set up to make various items like this. It might be worth your while looking into it before you spend a lot of money and time gearing up to produce these pieces on your own...
Zolton
If you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon
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