Thread: machine to make timber pegs and stakes

You can get machines that turn square stock into round dowels and I too have been thinking about this with the upcomming Lucas purchase as a form of value adding.

I was thinking along the lines of a big grinder pencil sharpener - you can buy electric pencil sharpeners that use three rough cylinders as graters to rasp down the tip of a pencil. A custom made industrial sized one of these that could handle 50mm x 50mm stakes might be the go.

Can't see any way of cutting your wedge ends without a jig and rotating the stake 180 degrees to cust the other side. I remeber seeing a workshop in Kalgoorlie in the 90's that use to make timber stakes for the mining industry. They had a guy who's job it was to run the picket ends across a table saw free hand to cut the four faces of the tip, labour intensive and not too safe in my books.

A $50 mitre saw does what you need, but the stake must me turned by hand to present the 4 faces. A bit labour intensive but safe, accurate and inexpensive. You could have a few, each one set at the appropriate angle for a specific product and one set square to dock the lengths. Is this how you are cutting them now?

My boss calls that machine an Andrew At work we have a pointing saw which is pretty much a table saw turned 180 degrees with a bit of sheet metal over the blade as a guard. Simple

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

A $50 mitre saw does what you need, but the stake must me turned by hand to present the 4 faces. A bit labour intensive but safe, accurate and inexpensive. You could have a few, each one set at the appropriate angle for a specific product and one set square to dock the lengths. Is this how you are cutting them now?

Most are cut at an angle greater than 45 degrees so this is not the answer. Funky, what angle does your boss have them cut too?

I have no idea about angles but if I'm pointing a 1x1 I'll start the cut about 75mm from the tip. If you know Basic trigonometry then you can figure out the angle

Originally Posted by 103681

I am looking for somebody in Australia who wants to sell a machine or make me a machine to put points of timber stakes and builders pegs the kind that are used for tomatoes and to hold timber edging and concretors boxing, i product these on a big scale and am looking to quicken the process and make it more automated i dont want to spend a fortune and i would prefer a machine that cut the points like a v shape instead of pointing it like a pencil. I would like to be able to load the blanks/raw material up push it through like a table saw and have the points cut and also would like to be able to trim the item length wise also i use only greenwood hardwood and the approx material dimensions are as follows:

timber pegs all 25mm x 50mm - ranging from 300mm to 1200mm

tomato stakes 25mm x 25mm - from 600 to 2400

tree stakes 37 x 37 - from 600 to 2400.

your help / advise would be greatly appericated

Matthew

I must be getting old

a skilled person with an sharp axe (or tomahawk) should be able to point a stake faster than "an Andrew" can put them through a saw

as for a "machine" to automate the process — I assume you're thinking of a machine where the operator's only task would be loading the timber sticks
or
do you want the machine to also break a plank down into stakes?

either way, automation would equate with CNC i.e. very big $$



ian

Originally Posted by Burnsy

Most are cut at an angle greater than 45 degrees so this is not the answer.

My apologies. You also need a wedge against the fence and the ability to think outside the square.

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

My apologies. You also need a wedge against the fence and the ability to think outside the square.

This would need to be clamped very well as at the angle needed the saw is pretty much ripping along the grain. Mitre saws are not designed for this and will try and shoot the picket out the back of the saw, if you are unlucky your hands will still be holding it - not my idea of fun, did it once, learnt my lesson.

I would not advise this as a safe or sensible alternative.

Ok, we have moved from geometry to physics. I never had the problem you describe, but I agree that making a few points slowly is one thing and trying to do many quickly is another, so the amount of care required to obtain acceptable results can make the process impractical.

Developing a machine using the principles described in your and Funky's previous description can obtain a more automated process, but I do not understand the need to rotate 180 degrees. Two sets of two blades angled to make a V cut would require one 90 degree turn only. If one set of blades is horizontal and the other is vertical, gravity would help move the continuous feed of stakes. Not too difficult, really. Any decent mechanical engineer should be able to knock one up in no time.

One of our local mills cut junk into 2X2 and a young bloke sticks them into a big
"pencil sharpener"one at a time,does hundreds an hour. I'll see if it has a makers plate.

It's possible a hollow auger could do the job for the square pegs. Clamp the blanks down in batch and move the auger to the blank, could be fairly efficient.
http://www.toolexchange.com.au/hollowaugers.htm

Cheers
Michael

Michael thanks for the info on the hollow auger not sure how this would work though does it need a machine to attach to ? can you please explain thankyou


matthew

Hi Matthew,
You'd need a good drill with a torque limiting clutch to avoid twist injuries, something like the bde 1100 or the be1020 here:

http://www.metabo.com.au/Product-cat...3496a02.0.html

I have the UHE 22 multi for a number of years and it is a brilliant drill. You wouldn't need the rotary hammer function which is why I suggested the above models.

The only thing to sort out is whether the augers shown on the link page would fit a modern chuck, whether they could be modified or whether there are modern versions of these available.

You might talk to Stuart from the toolexchange.

Cheers
Michael

The problem with asking questions about production in a hobby type forum is evidenced by the replies that have been offered.

Mathew wishes to have flat sided point not pencil round points.

Basically a relatively simple machine is is quite possible and practical.
It needs to have 3 blades so that it docks the stake to length and points 2 sides of the stake at the same time.


This way the stake is made in a single process.

If it needs to point 4 flat sides then the machine becomes a little more complex and would need 5 blades.