New Woodworking Contract- Need Advice

[john lawson]

I am very close to securing a contract to make a wood product that is used around heavy equipment. It has parts that are made of wood, threaded metal rod, and 7/16 nylon rope. I know how to do the wood and assembly part of the job but would like some advice about threaded rod and rope. The job involves making thousands of these things so I need to do it well, but very quickly, so what is the best way to:

1. Cut threaded rod to some length, say 12", and deburr?

2. Cut 7/16 nylon rope to length?

The job will not start for a couple of weeks so I am looking to buy the best/cheapest tools that will allow me to do the job quickly without having a lot of quality or clean up issues. I had to price the job tight (who doesn't?) to win the contract. I plan on setting up a "U" shaped assembly line in my shop where I will bring in 2 x 4 s on a trailer, cut them to length, assemble everything and then load them on the trailer for delivery, so bring in 200 2x4 s, cut, assemble, and ship. Like I said I have done a lot of assembly work and I know how to do that, but cutting and deburring threaded rod and nylon rope are new to me.

Your Suggestions or experience?

thanks

[Austin Grote]

You can probably get the threaded rod already cut to the proper length. That would save you a lot of time and mess, and you wouldn`t have a ton of short pieces to haul to the scrapyard.

[Charles Lent]

For the metal pipe and threaded rod, buy a dry cut metal cutting chop saw such as the Milwaukee 6190-20. It will make clean, quick, and almost burr free cuts. They are a metal cutting version of a miter saw. These saws don't heat the metal much when they cut, so you will be able to handle the pieces immediately after cutting them. Set up a stop to allow the correct length to be set quickly and you will be able to cut them in no time. The slight burr can be easily removed with sandpaper or a pocket knife. Inside burrs on the pipe can be removed with a de-burring hand reamer. I have one that I bought from a refrigeration supply that will do both the inside and outside of the pipe quickly and well.

You will need a hot cutter to quickly cut the rope to length and fuse the ends so that they don't unravel. A Pearson Rope Cutter would be my suggestion. It's a bench mount hot knife type cutter. There are also soldering gun type cutters, but the bench mount type works best for production.

All of these tools can be found and purchased on the internet. A quick Google search brings them up.

You probably already have the woodworking equipment that you need.

Charley

[ian maybury]

Chances are there's some sort of hot knife deal for cutting nylon rope like this http://ropecutters.co.uk/page3.html - so that the ends end up melted together and don't fray. You could maybe build it into some sort of fixture to feed off a reel to a stop and set the length of the cut piece too.

The studding is a slightly different matter, and depends on what level of finish you need, and on whether or not leaving an unplated cut end which will rust is an issue.

An ironworker (machine used by structural steel fabricators) with a stop would shear off the lengths, but the cut end might not be clean enough to start a nut on the thread.

Here's a manual threaded rod cutter that claims to solve the problem: http://www.mccusainc.com/Tools/Threaded-Rod-Cutter.htm

The classic way to put a clean machined end and the chamfer needed for a clean start for a nut is probably on a lathe - feeding the rod through the headstock to a stop, and cutting it off using a parting tool shaped also to put a chamfer on.

There's no doubt a modern CNC equivalent available now, but back in the day if you wanted to semi automate an operation like that for high volumes a capstan or turret lathe would do it. (one pull of a lever would feed the bar stock to a stop, and then feed in the parting tool)

Chances are the right CNC machine these days will automatically feed the rod in, and spit out cut lengths.

The cut piece would need galvanising afterwards if it needs to be plated all over.

ian

[john lawson]

Thanks for the replies. All of the hardware, rod, washers and top lock nuts will be galvanized. I have done a few prototypes and I cut the pieces to length with a hacksaw and ground a clean up bevel on the sides.

Cutting the rod obviously took much longer with the hack saw than I could afford in production, so the idea of using a cut off saw sounds good. I did take the rod with nasty looking cut and cleaned it up on my 12" disk sander. I touched the end first for maybe 3-4 seconds and knocked off the rough shards, then I angled it and rotated it for maybe 5 seconds to put a bevel on the lead for the lock nut. When I assembled the nuts to the rod there was no problem. I think I will try the chop saw.

I also like the idea of the hot knife for the rope. I don't know what to expect as far as how quickly it will cut but if it is anything under 10 seconds I think I can live with that as it will give me the benefit you mentioned of melting both ends with each cut and prevent unraveling.

Thanks again for the replies.

john

[Van Huskey]

The hot knife will be very fast, well under 10 seconds, the bigger ones will work better for production since they replace the heat quickly so there is no wait and a quick clean cut. It will melt the ends BUT you may have to add some additional heat via flame etc to get it into one solid mass at the end.

A dry chop saw is the tool for the threaded rod but you may be able to get away with a miter saw and a abrasive cutting wheel, I use this to cut metal around the shop (I don't do much) and it works fine, the thicker the rod the more a large diameter chop saw makes sense. If you want to try the miter saw approach the wheels are under $10 at the BORG. I am a fan of a full face shield when using any abrasive cutoff wheel, they don't explode often but when they do... Holy Poo!!!

[Keith Westfall]

I did take the rod with nasty looking cut and cleaned it up on my 12" disk sander

Be careful on using this as a spark can ignite accumulated wood dust in and around the sander.

Not much profit in the job if you burn our shop down!

[Michael Wildt]

You can get 12" threaded rods in almost any type at www.mcmaster.com. So worth buying stuff like that in the right length especially when you're talking about the large number of items you need to make. Hot knife for the rope is the way to go as well. Do have some ventilation to suck out the fumes though.

[Phil Thien]

For the threaded rod in 12" lengths, try calling your local Fastenal. They can get pretty aggressive on pricing when you're doing quantity.

[Robert Maloney]

I am a steamfitter by trade and we just use a handheld bandsaw to cut our rods for hangers. We cut anything from 3/8" to 1" diameter allthread rod. It's cheaper if you buy the rods by the bundle ( 50 pcs 6ft long for 3/8, 25 pcs x 6ft long for 1/2" rod ) Just put the whole bundle in a vise, mark length, and cut all at once. Very fast, and no need to deburr. The nuts thread right on.