Is there a better way to cut these boxes?

[knight_toolworks]

I had to cut 300 or these from western maple they are about 2.5" square 1.6 deep pocket. At first I used double sided tape on some thin plastic but even using the downcut bit they could lift off the table or vibrate too much. So I planed one side flat and glued them to some mdf. my bandsaw is not great so I ran them over the jointer to remove the bulk broke some of the material off and sanded the bottoms smooth.
the slow pert is cutting them and I have plenty of time to clean them up. but if I have 1000 to make I need a smoother way. thicker double sided tape may be better then gluing them but I am not sure.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/fe36b0d5.jpg

[srwtlc]

How about cutting the 2.5 x 2.5 blanks first at table saw/miter saw and then making a vacuum jig to hold however many with pockets and direct vacuum under them. Saves you the time and tooling for your outside toolpath. Edge sand on a edge sander after pocketing. Would gain you some material also.

[steve_g]

Steve
I'm doing something similar now in cherry... I'm using cams in two locations. Loading one setup while another is cutting... Likely this is too labor intensive for 1000 boxes but is working well for my 100.

SG

[lcolburn]

Would it work to put newsprint/kraft paper between the maple and MDF when gluing? With a good tap the MDF should just pop right off, but you'll have to sand a little bit to get the newsprint cleaned off. I've used this as a trick for releasing turnings from sacrificial mounting blocks on a lathe before.

[knight_toolworks]

I have done bigger boxes in strips that's easier then cutting them one at a time. not sure why I had forgotten about that. Though it may take more time doing all the wood milling. it only takes about 1.5 minutes to cut each box. The width would be more consistant and I have to cut them without a cleanup toolpath so they vary a bit (not really important)
They do have two 1/16" holes drilled in them that is easy to do with so many in one place. they have to be done separately otherwise.

[danhamm]

I pocket a lot of fly hook boxes for a client, I just use pine boards and pocket them all in a row cut the barrel hinge hole and mark the edges and chop out on a chop saw. put in the barrel hinges and sand all edges on a flat belt grinder then use a table router to roundover all the edges..done..

[feinddj]

Might be to slow for 1000 but I use a machine clamp set up to mill parts like this on my machine. I have 2 clamps on a board. use a stop to set zero and away you go. Using a tablesaw will give you the outside quicker and with less waste.

D

[gc3]

glue as described cut the pockets then perimeter cuts leave onion skin pass in wide belt sander

[knight_toolworks]

when I was doing the ipod docs I ripped them in strips and cut them like that. but it all had to be right on and it was a bear to get them cut apart perfectly. But these are not critical. hard to tell what is faster. while I have several boards getting cut I have plenty of time to remove the material on the bottom of the others.
if I use other tools I have to chop the wood to length join and edge and some boards I have to rip it to get a clean edge then rip it all to width then cut it then chop it apart. it is a bit of a juggling act to do that and run the machine at the same time. I have a helical cutter head on my jointer so it is fast hogging off the extra.
I may saw them next time but I will have to make sure everything is sharp I hardly use my tablesaw or jointer any more.

[sneakers]

Steve

The way I cut similiar boxes is to pocket all of the boxes out then profile the boxes to a depth of a little thicker than an onion skin then run the "board" through the drum sander releasing the boxes and sanding the bottoms at the same time.

Gary

[harryball]

I did something similar with fence post caps that were 6x6. I had a high pressure vac hold down with 2 positions fairly far apart. One position was for the bottom the other was the top. I cut all the rough blanks using conventional tools. I then loaded a blank and ran it while setting up the other blank and just alternated flipping the cap over from position 1 to 2 until I ran out of blanks. It went smoothly. I think that idea could be adapted to this. By cutting the blanks it meant I didn't have to hog out around the blocks to get the right size. Since they were only about 1/8" oversized the bot was able to run quickly in a single pass to get the outside perfect. Overall it was quicker than my original method of cutting them out in a single board similar to your approach here.

/RB