The vacuum fence for my MiniMax got a workout last weekend.
I needed to cut material for internal partitioning of small boxes. I cut the pieces the same thickness as the kerf of my Freud blade so that I can make all the halved joints in a few single-cut passes – photos up this coming weekend.
The fence modification is shown here: http://www.macpherson.co.nz/vacuum_mods.html
It worked beautifully! Slices were about 2 inches by 1/8 or so. I set the fence that distance from the blade, turned on the suction and the DC, and just pushed the 2 inch stock through the blade. A quick and light touch-up with sandpaper and the strips were ready to join and polish, right off the blade. The suction held each strip away from the blade, and the next strip through pushed the previous strip clear.
This is a really neat technique.
Malcolm
0.06% of the world’s people are Kiwis
Replies
Malcolm,
Very clever! What did you use for the vacuum source?
Doug
I've got two vacuum sources. My shopvac and a purpose-bought cheap household vacuum cleaner. The shopvac has lots of pull (more than is neaded for some uses) but is noisy. The little Chinese household machine is much quieter, bugt doesnt pull so much vacuum. When I upgrade my DC, I'll connect the fence to the DC.
MalcolmNew Zealand | New Thinking0.06% of the world's people are Kiwis
Thanks Malcolm. I'm already thinking of how to use this.
Doug
If you do bent lamination work, this is the perfect way to cut strips - of any length. With a good quality blade it is easy to get thin (down to a few mm) strips of consistent thickness that can go straight to glue-up.
The alternative is to rip on the bandsaw - thinner kerf, so less wood wasted in the ripping stage, but more clean-up (thicknesser or thickness sander), so probably about the same amount of stock needed. But ripping with a vacuum fence is much quicker.
MalcolmNew Zealand | New Thinking0.06% of the world's people are Kiwis
That is a real pretty fence! I remember reading somewhere (might have one of Jim Tolpins books) where the author had a vacuum fence made of wood, with a strip of pegboard on the front and a hose attached to the box. I have been meaning to try it - just have not gotten to it yet.
GREAT!..
I tried something like that on my router table.. Didden't work well. Dust collection was good BUT the stick would clamp down on the slots I had for the vacuum ports... Dang.. And I thought I was onto something there!
Will
The commercial versions have a way of graduating the vacuum, just as household vacuum cleaners do. Try it again, with the vacuum turned down.
MalcolmNew Zealand | New Thinking0.06% of the world's people are Kiwis
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