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Thread: Making Door Parts with the CNC

  1. #1
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    Making Door Parts with the CNC

    I thought I would share a project I have been working on. I am not suggesting making door parts on the CNC is faster than using a shaper. Truthfully, I know it is slower, but I do not have space for multiple shapers in my shop and I got this idea and gave it a try. Below are a few pictures of the jig and a sample door I tested last night. I can make four door frame parts in a single run for typical cabinet size doors or two per run for tall doors. I still need to calibrate one or two of the hold downs (two parts 30thou out), but all in all it seems to work well. It was very nerve racking to try this for the first few times since there is very little clearance when the cutter is operating. The jig has four low profile air cylinders that have a 3/8" stroke length. Each cylinder produces 200lb of hold down force when engaged. The end cylinder locations will be fixed, but the two middle jigs can move wherever I need for doors of different dimensions.

    I also finished my new vacuum table and pump. I built a pump along the lines of Gary's described at another site. It works well so far, so thanks to Gary. Bank rolling the complete black box was not quite in order right now, but all the parts came from that supplier. I made the t-track for my table so I could use machinist type t slot nuts. The tracks turned out very well, but it was quite a bit of work.

    CAB-DOOR_-TEST.jpgCAB-DOOR-JIG.jpgWEINIG-COPE.jpg

  2. #2
    I like that profile ,it's strong enough to show even on darker finishes.

  3. #3
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    I can't quite take credit for the door profile. I am using a profile from a company that would not just sell me doors. It appeared they made their doors with an applied moulding, so I am not technically copying what they did. I am using 7/8" stock and getting that yield out of 4/4 stock for the test parts was a pain.

  4. #4
    Is that a schmidt corrugated head?

  5. #5
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    I have other corrugated back heads and I do not like setting them up very much, so I went with heads and blades from Weinig (Great Lakes Custom Tool made them) . They were a bit more expensive, but setting the blades is easier since they have an index screw. These heads are also rated to spin up to 16,000rpm. The guy I dealt with at Weinig was also a big part of the reason I spent a bit more. He was exceedingly helpful.

  6. #6
    What does a head cost? We have an application profiling some chair parts on a vacuum/pod setup and I have been trying to come up with a good corrugated option but I dont want to spend the money on the Schmidt setup (seems overpriced). I have searched high low for an ISO 30 3/4" spindle or a 3/4" spindle arbor that we could run in an ER32 collet with a simple 3/4" bore, 2" dia, aluminum corrugated head. No luck yet

  7. #7
    I had 3 custom sized bearings made for inexpensive steel corg heads. With one of those I can never be more than 1/64 off from perfect. Easier and better than winding too squishy tape or having to grind off some steel. Much prefer the cheap steel heads ,have had problems with aluminum heads being out of balance.

  8. #8
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    I was going to use a shaper cutter at first (have an arbor sitting in a shelf). My spindle is heavy enough, but the arbor from Techniks has a 3/4" cap on the bottom that seemed a problem for fixtures. I found a much nicer arbor from Leitz. They have a brilliant system so they do not have a big 3/4" cap over the end of the arbor. Another downside of using a shaper cutter for me was fitting two new forks for a cutter greater than 4" in diameter. I doubt you will find a 3/4" arbor. The most common use for arbors on a CNC seems to be for window and doors for guys with monster machines. When I ordered my arbor from Vortex the salesman didn't know they even had a ISO30 arbor in their catalog at first.

    These heads are quite a bit more than the Schmidt heads. Each head was $600 and then you need backers and blades. All these guys have minimum blade quantities too. Weinigs minimum were okay, but another had a minimum of 6 blades per profile. I will end up making around 100 doors or so over many months, but I can admit to being a bit crazy when it comes to things like this.

    Mel, these are steel heads. I have a small setup stand for corrugated shaper heads that works fine for the shaper, but your bearing idea would work well for a schmidt head.

  9. #9
    Thanks Brad,
    I hear what your saying on the cost. I dread the thoughts about tooling costs. A small shop making cabs and one of our insert sets is 2K. GULp. The 600 is too much for me. I would be fine running a small diameter 2" aluminum head at 7-9K RPMs. Im likely going to have a machine shop run me a 3/4" spindle with a shoulder and cap at the bottom give this a go. Its just profiling so not huge hogging cuts.

    Your door setup looks pretty slick. You make due with what you have. I never seem to have the time nor desire for all the fixturing but it sounds like may have a little more space for shapers than you.

    I can imagine that vac setup coming in handy a million ways.

  10. #10
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    I don't think the schmidt cost was too bad if you amortize it over a number of projects. If you consider the equipment they have to own to manufacture them to meet a G2.5 standard, $370 seems reasonable. I had one $2k quote using dedicated cutter bodies for just these two profiles. They would have been beautiful German tools, but that was way too much for about a 100 doors.

    I hope you go to a shop that works on race cars or someone else that produces parts to a tight tolerance. In my little town there is one guy I would trust, but a whole host of characters that I doubt would have a good idea of what you are trying to do. I bought some Garniga blades years ago and the supplier had a local machine shop cut the pin holes. I could have done better with my drill press, and they were supposedly a full fledged shop. By the time they mill down a shaft with a shoulder, tap the end, and you devise and end cap holder I bet you get $200 into a custom shaft. McMaster has some finishing washers that might work good for your end cap https://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-washers/=1662qks. I have used those before.

    Not being a production shop I can fiddle. This is just a hobby, so crazy ideas are okay to try every once in a while.

    The vacuum seems great. I have only started to use it. I hope to get a 10hp vacuum if I ever build a proper shop, but this will do for now.

    I took 5min and made a quick model of an arbor idea for you.

    ARBOR-PIC.JPG
    Last edited by Brad Shipton; 02-01-2017 at 3:17 PM.

  11. #11
    Brad,
    Thats pretty much the jist of what I was planning. Have several good machinists around, Im not too awful worried about that end of it but for sure, a production machine shop may zonk me. That said, I'd have the arbor and the ability to use it for other small 3/4 bore shaper cutters that are always available for a steal. Im actually kind of shocked I cant track one down off the shelf.

    I agree about the Schmidt price. Its more than reasonable.

    I will tell you, dont know what they run outside of a package but we bought one of the F4 single phase vacuums and man, other than the noise, we are extremely impressed. One thing we really love about it, if we are only running a zone or two of the table you can just fire a single pump, or two, rather than having a 10HP vac running for a single zone or small job. Or for instance if your running panels where your not cutting all the way through you can easily hold down almost any sheet with a single pump or two running. The power savings, and cost savings of having a 10HP vac running for every job (wear and tear) is something we are very happy about.

  12. #12
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    You must have a lot of cutters with a 3/4" bore. My felder is either 30mm or 1.25" bore, so I do not have many 3/4" bore cutters.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the F4. The F4 was about $4k when I asked a while ago. How many inches of mercury do you get with it? It looks like mine is going to be around 9" like most others that have built them. I am not too concerned about the noise. The loudest I have found when cutting without the vacuum was about 70 and now it seems to have jumped to about 80db. I do not see that as deal breaker since either way I will likely wear some noise protection. I have noticed my power bill is increasing now with the CNC, so I might have to re-think the pump. The idea of a phase converter is another aspect I am not looking forward to either.

  13. #13
    I don't currently have any 3/4 bore cutters. All 1 1/4 but you see, and can grab endless quantities of 3/4 bore cutter for pennies on the dollar in singles or lots. I've never bothered because I don't run any 3/4 spindles on the shapers. But with a 10hp spindle a 3/4" bore cutter at higher speed it opens up a lot of options.

    We are over 10" with all 4 pumps on line.

  14. #14
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    Any suggestions for an antislip material for my air clamp jigs? I have sprayed the aluminum with anti slip paint that is used for box liners, but I think a non-slip material that would compress a small amount would hold the stock better. I have searched online but you get a lot of options, so I am looking for a bit of real life experience.

    Thanks

  15. #15
    Wonder about plastidip or something similar? No real world experience though.

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