Post by Tom Gensmer on Dec 3, 2014 22:19:44 GMT -5
Ok folks! Emboldened by the success of having Collins Tool Company produce a custom run of Collins Coping Foot bases for the Mafell P1cc jigsaw, I want to take a swing at the MF-26cc, but I need your help!!
Here's the deal: I am VERY excited about the prospect of the MF-26cc serving as a portable grooving/dado cutter that provides the light weight and portability of a router, with the performance of a table saw equipped with a dado stack. I love that the cutter cuts along the red strip on the F-tracks, so there's no measurements or offset to account for, and from what I understand the grooving cutter will cut faster and more efficiently than a comparably sized router bit.
My primary hang-up with the setup is that the expanding groove cutter that ships with the MF-26cc/400 has a variable cutting width of ~5/8" to 1 1/8". Obviously this accommodates the cutting of 3/4" grooves. However, I'd really like to be able to cut grooves for 1/4" and 1/2" nominal plywood as well. I see three ways to do this, two of which involve a custom cutting head for the MF-26cc, the third involves modifying a stock head, and the fourth is a workaround using other Mafell tools.
Option #1: A narrow, expanding cutter head. Yup, not being subtle here!! In this scenario, I'd have a custom butterhead developed that could cut grooves as narrow as ~1/4" and as wide as ~1/2". Basically, a narrow version of the Mafell cutter.
Option #2: Individual cutter heads, each sized for a particular side of plywood. This would probably be 2 or three different cutter heads that customers could buy individually or as a set. Each cutter head would feature multiple carbide cutters (replaceable?). Basically shaper heads. This would likely be much easier to achieve from an engineering standpoint.
Option #3: Have a machinist modify Mafell expanding groove cutters. That pretty much says it all. We arrange to buy and ship an extra grooving cutter to the machinist, and he/she modifies it to cut more narrow grooves, perhaps shrink the range to ~1/2" to 1"?
Option #4: Erika saw+ Bridge City Tool Works KM-1 Kerfmaker. This is likely what I'm going to use in the interim. This would be kind of time consuming (particularly for 1/2" grooves), but should yield good results in the meantime. www.bridgecitytools.com/default/featured/km-1-kerfmaker.html
Ok, back to the MF-26cc! Jeff Powell at Timberwolf Tools was kind enough to send me some nice photos of the expanding cutter head, and the broad specs are readily available in the Mafell catalog. What would be handy to know is the difference between the body of the cutter head on the tool side and the carbide. I am crazy busy these days, but wanted to see if any of you have any ideas or a relationship with tool maker or machinist who might be interested in producing a small production run of these cutter heads?
Here is a brief description of the cutter head from Jeff: "There are several rings that you include on the inside of the cutter head if you want a wide groove. If you want a narrow groove, you put some or all of the rings on the outside. You always use all the rings or it won’t clamp (good feature to make sure you don’t lose them). So your machinist would need to make each side of the cutter head narrower, as well as smaller ¼” blades. Not sure if it can be done while maintaining a strong cut though."
Thanks guys, I'm curious to see if we can make some magic happen here?
Best,
Tom
Here's the deal: I am VERY excited about the prospect of the MF-26cc serving as a portable grooving/dado cutter that provides the light weight and portability of a router, with the performance of a table saw equipped with a dado stack. I love that the cutter cuts along the red strip on the F-tracks, so there's no measurements or offset to account for, and from what I understand the grooving cutter will cut faster and more efficiently than a comparably sized router bit.
My primary hang-up with the setup is that the expanding groove cutter that ships with the MF-26cc/400 has a variable cutting width of ~5/8" to 1 1/8". Obviously this accommodates the cutting of 3/4" grooves. However, I'd really like to be able to cut grooves for 1/4" and 1/2" nominal plywood as well. I see three ways to do this, two of which involve a custom cutting head for the MF-26cc, the third involves modifying a stock head, and the fourth is a workaround using other Mafell tools.
Option #1: A narrow, expanding cutter head. Yup, not being subtle here!! In this scenario, I'd have a custom butterhead developed that could cut grooves as narrow as ~1/4" and as wide as ~1/2". Basically, a narrow version of the Mafell cutter.
Option #2: Individual cutter heads, each sized for a particular side of plywood. This would probably be 2 or three different cutter heads that customers could buy individually or as a set. Each cutter head would feature multiple carbide cutters (replaceable?). Basically shaper heads. This would likely be much easier to achieve from an engineering standpoint.
Option #3: Have a machinist modify Mafell expanding groove cutters. That pretty much says it all. We arrange to buy and ship an extra grooving cutter to the machinist, and he/she modifies it to cut more narrow grooves, perhaps shrink the range to ~1/2" to 1"?
Option #4: Erika saw+ Bridge City Tool Works KM-1 Kerfmaker. This is likely what I'm going to use in the interim. This would be kind of time consuming (particularly for 1/2" grooves), but should yield good results in the meantime. www.bridgecitytools.com/default/featured/km-1-kerfmaker.html
Ok, back to the MF-26cc! Jeff Powell at Timberwolf Tools was kind enough to send me some nice photos of the expanding cutter head, and the broad specs are readily available in the Mafell catalog. What would be handy to know is the difference between the body of the cutter head on the tool side and the carbide. I am crazy busy these days, but wanted to see if any of you have any ideas or a relationship with tool maker or machinist who might be interested in producing a small production run of these cutter heads?
Here is a brief description of the cutter head from Jeff: "There are several rings that you include on the inside of the cutter head if you want a wide groove. If you want a narrow groove, you put some or all of the rings on the outside. You always use all the rings or it won’t clamp (good feature to make sure you don’t lose them). So your machinist would need to make each side of the cutter head narrower, as well as smaller ¼” blades. Not sure if it can be done while maintaining a strong cut though."
Thanks guys, I'm curious to see if we can make some magic happen here?
Best,
Tom
