High Volume Production

[ttressell]

I'd like to hear from someone experienced in cutting thousands of parts from mdf and plywood sheets. I'll be cutting 3/8" mdf and 3/4" birch plywood into various sized parts from 4" x 6" to larger pieces 80" x 20" with large cut-outs. I am estimating 12 min to 18 min per sheet at 100 in./min. My first project involves 250 sheets of 3/8" mdf. Project 2 involves 370 sheets of 3/4" birch plywood. these will require multiple passes because of the thickness and hardness of the wood. The calculations for this project are in the works.

Many questions arise:

What is the long-term effects of this stress on the mechanical works? Wear factors?

What calibration will be necessary and at what frequency?

Other stuff?

[frank_hav]

Terry

I can't speak for the bot, I use mine for R&D. As far as the cutter goes, on our Onsrud(production) we use brazed carbide bits from Onsrud. We replace them every 4 to 6 hours(13 ply Birch). Vac Table, 15,000 RPM and 180 IPM.

Frank

[robtown]

Other Stuff:
Make sure you have time in there for material aquisition and handling. And just for good measure I'd bump those time estimates by a good 25%.

Are these parts for you or for someone else?

I've found that parts cutting in volume is tricky and I've given up on it myself.

Make sure you CYA (cover your arse) on time spent from drawing, to creating toolpaths, to loading sheets, to brushing off the table between sheets, etc...

These figures indicate you can cut 3 sheets in one hour, you'll probably end up at 2 per hour, and when you're talking 520 sheets, well... make sure you know what you're getting into that's all...

edited post: Geez....almost forgot... router bits, make sure you've got router bits in there. 520 sheets will eat up quite a few router bits. Don't know what kind of finished edge you need or what diam bits you plan to use, but 3/4" ply will eat up a brand new carbide 1/4" router bit in 2-3 sheets...

As for wear on the machine, non-issue, she's tough, make sure you clean it up at the end of the day, and keep the rails greased and you shouldn't have any issues.

[patricktoomey]

Terry, I run 20-30 sheets of plywood on mine per day lots of days in a row. I generally cut 3/4" chinese birch which is tough on cutters. I use a 1/4" compression spiral bit which usually lasts me 30-40 sheets which is about two 8 hour shifts. My parts all have shelf clip holes and/or dados so there is a lot of cutting per part. Since I got it used 8 months ago it's probably cut about 1,000 sheets of material. The previous owner used it quite a bit too for a couple of years before I bought it. There is no appreciable wear on the machine that I can see, everything looks good. The previous owner replaced the motor pinion gears at one point which is a very low cost item. These machines are very tough and the replacement parts are cheap and easily installed compared to the bigger machines out there. It sounds like you'll be using the whole bed of the machine most of the time like me. This helps with rail wear. I've noticed that some people who do lots of 3D cutting and who concentrate most of their cutting in a small area of the bed experience some uneven rail wear eventually. The good news is that even if that happens (which would take awhile) all you have to do is take the rails off and have them ground at a machine shop. While not a trivial matter it happens so rarely that it doesn't scare me.