Progress on my Lathe project #23 - Plettenberg Bay, S.Africa

[hennie]

Ja, lucky it was on its way out that cutter.
Seems wee are going to experience some load shedding again.

[Kobus_Joubert]

Load Shedding...never...I am back at work..

Where are the pictures of that finished louver doors/panel or whatever it was you were cutting into that hardwood?

[hennie]

when I have some time to put them up.
Have a lot to show

[Kobus_Joubert]

Tonight is the night. Hennie has a new service provider and PROMISED to put lot's and lot's of pictures on for us tonight.

[Lex]

Kan nie wag nie. Can't wait.

[Kobus_Joubert]

Hi Johan what about you...what is your progress....it must be cooling down on the North Coast by now

[Lex]

My progress came to a full stop the last two months. I am nearly finished with the MM workshop. There will be no excuses after that! I will have the space to work on the table. The worse of the humidity is gone. Nice weather. When it was hot, we couldn't figure out why we live here. Now.. we know why!

[hennie]

Kobus here is something just for you my first door on my MM.

[Kobus_Joubert]

Ok that is a start, now for the pictures on the louvre door thing you did on the hardwood.

Making doors like this must save you a lot of assembly time from previous methods of cutting pieces and glue them together. How long and what bits did you use...or is this a trade secret ?

[hennie]

Nothing is glued together one piece of mdf 1 min 20 sec and ready for the press with a little sanding.

[Lex]

Dit lyk somer 'grent' man!

[Kobus_Joubert]

Now turn it around and cut the 2 holes for the hinges using your hold-down box.

[hennie]

No. thats why you have a machine to do the hinges with.Holes need to be drilled after door is complete if you drill it before foiling it breaks the hole through the door

[Alan_c]

Hennie

That looks very cool, the Boss wants the same style on our new bedroom cupboards, only in white lacquer. Can you do the same but with "square" inside corners, ie by using smaller cutters to do the bit in the corner that is rounded by the profile cutter so that is does not have the routed look?. I know they can do it on the "big" machines but it requires a number (up to 4) of different cutters and I am sure the programming must be quite tricky.

Do you use the same cutter for both sides of the groove, or two different profiles? one for the "frame" and one for the "panel".

Did you do the outside on the MM as well or cut panel to size on panel saw and profile outside with spindle?

[hennie]

Thanks Alan,

This door was cut to size with panel saw and spindeled on the outside.The cutter can be used on the outside but the other machines in my shop is set up for that.I had cutters made for the spindle that can do that profile on the outside.
There is a door program that the SB brigade use called freedoors and if I am not mistaken our friend Mike Richards is or was involved with that.Mike please correct me if I am wrong.
My next step is to nest a full sheet of mdf with doors on the MM with v-grooves on that same door as above on the inside (colonial v-groove )

I also think that what you want you will be able to do on the MM.Iwould like to try v-carve pro for my doors but my budget is not that user friendly.

[Richards]

Hennie,

Bruce Clark wrote the visual interface (GUI) for the doors program and I wrote the part using the 'C' language that generates Shopbot code. At one time I started to rewrite the software to generate G-code, but Bruce beat me to it by writing his own G-code generator. Both he and I had problems with the way various variations of G-code handle arcs. The last time I checked, his released version still had problems with arcs. My version totally failed when it tried to generate an arc. That part of the program probably took 90% of the time to write in the Shopbot version, so I didn't complete the re-coding.

Because I was lazy and didn't write the code using Object Oriented Programming, recoding everything would probably take more than a month. Right now, I'm committed on too many other projects to make any promises about the doors program; however, the code is Open Source Software. Anyone can download the program from Bruce Clark's website: http://home.centurytel.net/bwclark/ My 'C' language source code is included in the bundle. (Bruce did NOT release his GUI interface under Open Source, so his source code is NOT included; however, as long as the proper spreadsheet format is used, modified programs will still work with his GUI.)

[Lex]

Dagsê Hennie,
I haven't worked a lot with mdf in the past.
You mentioned that your hinge fixing screws wouldn't tear out after foiling.
Will the screws tear out if the door is just paint finished!
It will be to expensive for me to invest in a foiling machine.

[hennie]

Sorry Johan, what I ment was that when you drill the holes for the hinge before you put it in the press the vacume that it have once the opperation starts will break the 2-3 mm wood thats behind the hole of the pot hole ( Hinge hole )
the fixing screws for the hinges usually breaks out on the cuboard side.That is when you get doors falling off

[Lex]

Ah..now I understand. I am a bit slow! If you do not believe me check my build log!

[hennie]

That is nothing compared to the building industry at the moment.

[hennie]

Did some of these today

[Gerald D]

That's a nice door with the vertical "planks". Why does the horizontal line go right through? Is it a stable door or 2 drawer fronts?

[hennie]

It is two pot drawer fronts. Once I put it in the press and foil it the grain plus the v-grooves line up.Will post pic`s Monday with fronts installed.I do it with my small 4 drawers also and it looks good.
The other thing is that when you have a std door next to it the curve on the top line up and it looks symetric.

[domino11]

Hennie,
From your earlier posts I take it that these are all done with Mikes free doors program? If not then can you tell us what software you are using?

[hennie]

Heath,I draw all my doors in cad and then export as a dxf. file.

When I first started looking at doing the cnc thing I contacted Shopbot and asked them what to use for doors and they refered me to that site.I have not used freedoors ( don`t have time to play with it)would be nice.

If I need to make a five piece door look a like I would still use the spindle method to do it.(have some samples at work will post it, I think it is the same doors that Alan wants for his bedroom bic `).
(I think I must start a thread on making doors and all the styles )
I am also currently busy drawing all the patterns that I need for these doors (in cad).

[Gerald D]

Originally Posted by hennie

It is two pot drawer fronts. Once I put it in the press and foil it the grain plus the v-grooves line up.Will post pic`s Monday with fronts installed.I do it with my small 4 drawers also and it looks good.
The other thing is that when you have a std door next to it the curve on the top line up and it looks symetric.

Hennie, I am familar with that, my 4 small drawers also have a pattern right through all of them. But the 3 horizontal cuts between the drawers are not moulded - the foiling goes over a 90 degree corner. That was my preference for the door-making company.

[hennie]

Because we use pvc sometimes when you strech the plastic to much over a 90 deg corner the colour tends to change specially with dark coloured foil. white comes through.

[hennie]

Some Drawer Fronts We Have Made And
Something Out Of Africa

[Gerald D]

We are going to "lion hunt" for lunch tomorrow.

Nice innovative range of doors!

[domino11]

Hennie,
I would be interested in any info you would like to throw our way on door making. Im sure others would as well. Your cabinets are top notch.
You must be very proud of those kitchens.