BobL
6th August 2006, 01:13 AM
Got given several interesting bits of desert gum so decided to explore the end grain of this timber by making a router mill.
For those of you that don't know what a router mill is, the idea is to set up a large flat/level moveable platform to move your router systematically over pieces and use a cutter that works on the horizontal rather than the vertical. You can then use it to flatten/level/surface pieces/panels and do interesting work with end grain.
Photos 1 & 2 shows basic setup from either end. Its built on a crapiata and 19mm Al square tube frame with 3/8" cranked threaded rods driving the Al/MDF router channel across the piece.
- The mill is 900 mm long and 790 mm wide so I should be able to handle some interesting sized pieces of timber.
- The frame is held to my bench by my front vice and at the back had 4 channels milled into the frame which slip into 4 , 3/8" bolts connected to the bench frame, so it's well and truly locked down, but a flip of the vice handle and loosening the 3/8" bench bolts and it comes right off. Undoing the 4 bolts at the corners and the whole thing collapses down for easy storage.
- The main 19 mm Al square tube runners are supported vertically on threaded rods so they can be leveled.
-The Al cross router channel (Photo 3) rides on 1mm thin pieces of polycarbonate and Polyethylene washers are use on regularly rubbing rotating parts to aid smootheness of movement. Even when its loaded up with the router it moves very smoothly and I can rotate the threaded rods easily by hand, the cranks just help speed up the process.
- The rounter channel structure has 4 slots on the sides 2 on each side that uses 5/16" bolts to clamp the router channel to the frame. The router channel can thus be repositioned vertically over a distance of 200mm above the bench to enable one to deal with different thickness pieces and/or mill well into pieces. It's also the only component that needs to really be level for the the mill to work reasonably accurately for small pieces. for large pieces the whole mill needs careful cross leveling or else one can end up with a twisted piece.
- Originally I was going to use a rotating cam locking mechanism on the side of the frame to lock the router channel in place during the router pass, but the threaded rod system works extremely well and holds things very firmly.
- Currently I just have 2 hand cranks on the ends of the threaded rods to move the router channel across the base, so I wind each crank on 10 turns and make a pass with the router. Wind again, make another pass etc. Using a 35 mm wide dish cutter you can make 25mm passes with only small ridges appearing in the surface which can be sanded out.
- Timber is held down with a mix of clamps and dogs/Wonder dog (see Picture 4) - this works very well.
- At some stage I will probably replace the cranks with a couple of bicycle cogs and a chain and drive the router channel with a power drill.
This thing makes an enormous amounts of sawdust hence the 2 x 100 mm DC hoses - that don't seem to gather much dust during the passes but are handy to have to mop up the dust deluge after each 2 to 3 passes. Dust mask is definitely needed. Generally I would say the mill is very satisfying to use. In a follow up post I will show a piece of the desert gum I have started to work on.
For those of you that don't know what a router mill is, the idea is to set up a large flat/level moveable platform to move your router systematically over pieces and use a cutter that works on the horizontal rather than the vertical. You can then use it to flatten/level/surface pieces/panels and do interesting work with end grain.
Photos 1 & 2 shows basic setup from either end. Its built on a crapiata and 19mm Al square tube frame with 3/8" cranked threaded rods driving the Al/MDF router channel across the piece.
- The mill is 900 mm long and 790 mm wide so I should be able to handle some interesting sized pieces of timber.
- The frame is held to my bench by my front vice and at the back had 4 channels milled into the frame which slip into 4 , 3/8" bolts connected to the bench frame, so it's well and truly locked down, but a flip of the vice handle and loosening the 3/8" bench bolts and it comes right off. Undoing the 4 bolts at the corners and the whole thing collapses down for easy storage.
- The main 19 mm Al square tube runners are supported vertically on threaded rods so they can be leveled.
-The Al cross router channel (Photo 3) rides on 1mm thin pieces of polycarbonate and Polyethylene washers are use on regularly rubbing rotating parts to aid smootheness of movement. Even when its loaded up with the router it moves very smoothly and I can rotate the threaded rods easily by hand, the cranks just help speed up the process.
- The rounter channel structure has 4 slots on the sides 2 on each side that uses 5/16" bolts to clamp the router channel to the frame. The router channel can thus be repositioned vertically over a distance of 200mm above the bench to enable one to deal with different thickness pieces and/or mill well into pieces. It's also the only component that needs to really be level for the the mill to work reasonably accurately for small pieces. for large pieces the whole mill needs careful cross leveling or else one can end up with a twisted piece.
- Originally I was going to use a rotating cam locking mechanism on the side of the frame to lock the router channel in place during the router pass, but the threaded rod system works extremely well and holds things very firmly.
- Currently I just have 2 hand cranks on the ends of the threaded rods to move the router channel across the base, so I wind each crank on 10 turns and make a pass with the router. Wind again, make another pass etc. Using a 35 mm wide dish cutter you can make 25mm passes with only small ridges appearing in the surface which can be sanded out.
- Timber is held down with a mix of clamps and dogs/Wonder dog (see Picture 4) - this works very well.
- At some stage I will probably replace the cranks with a couple of bicycle cogs and a chain and drive the router channel with a power drill.
This thing makes an enormous amounts of sawdust hence the 2 x 100 mm DC hoses - that don't seem to gather much dust during the passes but are handy to have to mop up the dust deluge after each 2 to 3 passes. Dust mask is definitely needed. Generally I would say the mill is very satisfying to use. In a follow up post I will show a piece of the desert gum I have started to work on.