holding 3X3 maple

[toddmaci]

I need to cut many 3” X 3” X ¾” maple corner rosettes with vcarving. What is the best way to hold them? I have a Fein turbo three. I tried gasketing a 3x3 area and it moved when cutting. If I increase the surface area of the wood (ie 3.5” X 8ft) would that help? .Should I try cutting 20 plus out of an eight foor board leaving an onion skin? Thanks for the advice.

Todd

[Gary Campbell]

Todd...
I would make an indexed corner screwed to a 1/4 sheet of 3/4 plywood that I could drop the rosette into and then slide a tapered shim in to lock it in place. The 1/4 sheet can be held with vacuum.

[mitch_prest]

I would think clamping them would be the way to go .. either something like this.. hhttp://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=64685&cat=1,43838,43847&ap=1

or one of the guys on here also make a cam clamp from aluminum and wood.. that would work too .. if I find the post or the name I will let you know..


mitch

[tgm]

Todd,

We have done this type of rosette many ways and the easiest seems to be double sided carpet tape. Just beware, a little dab will do ya! This stuff usually will hold a mountain up so use only what you need to secure the part. Should work very well for you.

Good Luck,

Tom in PA

[cabnet636]

i will cut them from a larger board, profile all when carving is completed and remove them one by one. whole lot less hassle

[bleeth]

I did a project like this a while ago for a guy and my solution was to plane and surface my final material to the thickness desired to cut the rosettes and then double side taped that to a piece of mdf. Did 1 relief and then set up a SB master file to recut it at the next location. I got a stack of rosettes with one file and just popped them off the mdf when they were complete. The details of getting the rosette as clean as possible was the toughest part as it had to be done as a relief and the small size and resolution meant each one took a while to cut. Once I started the file with the subroutine though I just went about other business for the next few hours while the bot cut a bunch at once.

[widgetworks_unlimited]

I agree with James. I'm guessing your stock is not coming precut into small squares. I'd have the bot do as much work as possible - cut the rosettes and then cut the stock to size. It's faster/easier to clamp and saves you manual labor / time.

If your stock comes precut then the tape is not a bad way to go, but for larger numbers I think Gary's clamping method would be faster. I've seen the cam clamps at a ShopBot camp - they looked great and would function similar to Gary's wedges.

[englert]

A customer making store displays for golf clubs used the method you referred to in the original post. He cut the parts out of larger stock that was vacuumed to the table and then ran it through a "Time Saver". The parts dropped off at the end into a container.

Dennis

[ghostcreek]

I did a similar run of rosettes. I got max yield from material going multiple boards, one at a time into my shopbot, each board gave me 5 rosettes. Like Gary said, i had an indexed corner and a shopfox cam clamp, just wedged it in. Like loading '45 records back in the day! seriously, the corner and a simple clamp, and a 0.25" Ball nose, let me make 100 in a day. Bot was carving, i was priming when i finished. good luck, holddown wedge/jigs work for me.