Advice

[Anonymous]

I need some help, I am building a game for some children using 68 1ft lengths of CLS and want some advice on easing the end grain edges to match the eased edges CLS has.

I have tried using a round over bit but got excessive tare out, and using a bench sander resorted in a fairly poor edge. As I have 544 edges to ease I need something that is fairly quick and does not require excessive set-up time.

I have a budget of about £100 to purchase a new tool to do the job.

Yours

David

 

[Alf]

Welcome to the forum, David.

Well I've learned something there. I had no idea there was a special term for timber with "eased" edges or that CLS stood for Canadian Lumber Standard, but your request got me to search for the answer before I asked and looked silly.

Unfortunately I can't think of a solution to your problem at the moment but if there is one, someone round here will come up with it.

Cheers, Alf

 

[johnelliott]

Sounds like a job for a bench mounted disc sander

John

 

[cambournepete]

Why not clamp a bunch of them together.
Route 2 sides of one end, flip and repeat at other end.
Separate turn each 90 degrees and reclamp and repeat.
Use a sacrificial piece at either end and you should get no tear-out.

You might want to knock up a simple jig to make lining them up pior to clamping easy.

Note that this is all theory and I haven't tried it, but getting the Woodrat has inspired this suggestion.

 

[Philly]

Without wanting to sound like a prat (who? Me? :lol: ), how about a rare and exotic hand tool- The Block Plane?
Specially designed for planing end grain of wood, easily held in one hand and leaves a ready to go surface that requires no further work! A Stanley or Record from B+Q for under £40 should be allright (although with your £100 budget there are some tasty ones from Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, Etc)
I can recommend this method, having made up 2 bath panels in a similar style-you'll be suprised how quickly the job gets done.
hope this is of help,
Philly

 

[gidon]

David - I think Pete's method is the way I would do it too. Make sure your bit is nice and sharp and if you're desperate to purchase something for the job (if you haven't one already), a Trend clampguide would probably work better than using the bearing - the end grain is unlikely to be very even. And you can vary the amount of roundover.
Alf - you obviously don't frequent B&Q (good for you!) - they have piles of cls timber - and it's very very cheap (something like £2 for a 2.4m 2x4).
Cheers
Gidon

 

[Alf]

Alf - you obviously don't frequent B&Q (good for you!) - they have piles of cls timber - and it's very very cheap (something like £2 for a 2.4m 2x4).

I confess, I don't. No, I tell a lie. I went into the a recently opened one a couple of months ago. No piles of anything much though - not big enough perhaps? We don't seem to get those "warehouse" ones round here. Geeze, I lead a sheltered life don't I?

I have some doubts about the stacking-'em-together technique helping with the tear out (by tear out I've assumed we're actually talking spelching, but maybe not?). After all, if the corners are rounded then you'll get no support on the majority of the curved corner, no? In order to get real support to the back of the cut you'd need a shaped backer for every corner wouldn't you? Or am I envisaging this all totally wrongly? (Hey it's Friday afternoon, my brain has had it!).

'Course the block plane would do the job, but 544 times...? :shock:

Cheers, Alf

 

[cambournepete]

I have some doubts about the stacking-'em-together technique helping with the tear out (by tear out I've assumed we're actually talking spelching, but maybe not?). After all, if the corners are rounded then you'll get no support on the majority of the curved corner, no? In order to get real support to the back of the cut you'd need a shaped backer for every corner wouldn't you? Or am I envisaging this all totally wrongly? (Hey it's Friday afternoon, my brain has had it!).

You are correct Alf, I hadn't thought it through properly (again).
You could however use a "backer" between each of the peices when clamping - these should provide the necessary support and be reuseable.

 

[Anonymous]

I think stacking them would work - the ease on the long length of CLS isn't so great as to require a shaped sacrificial piece at the end, or between lengths. Certainly the sacrificial block is the way I've always rounded end-grain CLS I've bought

 

[johnelliott]

I've thought about this some more, and want to change what I said earlier. The tool for this job is a belt sander with a jig to present the wood at the correct angle and to stop the wood before too large a chamfer is made. As long as the jig is arranged so that the belt is moving in line with the grain then the finish will be as good as the grade of the belt, I should think 100 or 120 would be OK
Speed-wise, I can't think anything else would be faster, you could have all eight edges done in the time it would take to set it up in any other machine
John

 

[thomaskennedy]

how about a jointer? you can get the cheap ones from b&q for around £120. Just find the angle that it is "eased" on and set the fence to that angle.

This is of course if it has a chamfered edge? if it is rounded then maybe your rounding over bit needs sharpening :?: or maybe you aren't taking it steady enough?

Tom

 

[frank]

david what you want is a belt & disc sander with a 240 grit disc fitted then just ease the ends over .

frank

 

[Chris Knight]

I have never seen this stuff so may be talking through my hat but if the easing is a simple chamfer, any old plane will do the job in no time, especially if a bunch of them are clamped together.

If rounded over, then cambournepete's suggestion will work fine and tearout (much nicer word than spelching) can be avoided by one endpiece at the back of the series that are clamped.

Personally, I would use the router table and an appropriate bit (roundover or chamfer), simply holding the piece being routed to a bit of square stuff (like ply) as I wooshed it past the bit. Even one at a time, I would get through at least 40 pieces a minute if I had them stacked close by, or an assistant to pass them to me.

 

[Aragorn]

I agree with Chris (Waterhead) here. I assume you're making a jumbo Jenga or something similar?
I made a 5ft Jenga stack out of 3x2 a couple of years ago and I finished the end grain edges on the router table, suitably backed up on each cut to avoid tearout. One piece at a time - finished in the time it would take you to read all this lot!! :wink:

 

[Alf]

tearout (much nicer word than spelching)

Ah, but the nastiness of the word suits the nastiness of the effect. :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the advice, I am quite surprised at the amount of suggestions in such a short timescale. Yes, I am building a jumbo jenga for a youth club I am involved with. I think I will pick up a new decent router bit and see if that helps.

Thanks again for the advice.

David