Shay wood Mitre poroject

[Oldguy]

Bernd - wow.  I can't even imagine the work that went into that machine.  A friend of mine modified his chopper to negate the fuzz from the cuts,  He took two tool steel bars, routed out an area in the base and epoxied the bars in the base, leaving a space the width of a razor blade.  This allowed the blade to completely pass through the material being cut. 

Myself, I always cut long and sand to final length.

[Keep It Rusty]

Bernd, T.C. -- great work. We need something in the wild again that will give us a straight cut on 1/8" or thicker.

As a sidenote, I've recently been using one of these:



I don't use it to replace my chopper, of course, but this does the work I often use a single edge razor for (cutting off excess bracing, for example). Using this is a Godsend on my fingers and gives me leverage when I wouldn't otherwise have it.

[T.C.]

Craig I will be trying the Matt cutter blades in my chopper and in my Shay type cutter.

It will probably come down to all I needed was the blades instead of all the work making a new tool.

But I had fun making it and hopefully it will work just a little bit better than a chopper?
T.C.

[Bernd]

Bernd - wow.  I can't even imagine the work that went into that machine. 

Thanks Bob. I come from a machining background so it was second nature for me. I'm always willing to help when somebody needs to discuss something of this nature.

Bernd

[T.C.]

Up date:
I received my Matt cutter single bevel blades today and this is what I found.
I found all I really needed to do was buy the blades and install into my old K-tool chopper. This was easy as it already had a clamp type blade holder and the blade fit with no problem

So I got out some 1/8"x1/8" wood and Long story short it cut as straight as you could want !  Go figure I could have saved myself all that work and money making the Shay type slicer and just bought the blades. Who knew! 

Next up was the new toy I built, I had to modify the blade holder for the new blades by drilling and taping a hole for an 8-32 screw to hold the blade in place, no big deal.
I got the same results as I did from my chopper "straight as a dime !"
So then I checked the angle cutting feature I built into my cutter to see if it would also cut angles with the same results ?It does really good on thinner stuff but has a very slight deflection on the thicker stuff, not enough to worry about and probably not bad enough to bother sanding.
Now for the down side, there's always a down side.
I notice when I cut the wood that the side of the blade with no bevel is nice and square but the other side has a very distinct angle, so that will have to be incorporated into how I use the tool.The chopper did the same, one side flat no deflection the other side not so much.I dont consider this to be a big problem because to me just having one side cut square is a big plus and I'm happy with it.
I haven't a clue what one would get with the double bevel blades?

I will try to take a few pictures of some cuts for those who are interested.
T.C.

[Bernd]

That's some interesting findings. I wonder if the improvement is the fact that the blades are thicker and flex less plus the fact there is only one bevel on the blade.

Still the slicing cutter you built should be used. 

Bernd

[T.C.]

Bernd I think both are true.
I took some photos for those interested so you can judge for yourself.
The straight cut on the left side is perfect, the right side piece has an angle this is due to the single bevel.  The wood is 1/4" x1/8" and 1/8"x1/8"
T.C.



The angle cut is not as perfect but still workable., may get better as I learn the tool a bit more?

[Zephyrus52246]

Bernd and T.C., both your skills to build these devices are quite impressive.  I bought some of the .012 blades to try vs the .009.  There didn't seem to be much difference in the Chopper, but the Shay Mitre did show an improvement with the thicker blades.  The pic (which isn't very good, this is hard to photograph with my camera)  in the front is the thinner blade.  This was on 1/8 " square wood.  I'll probably use the Shay more when needing squarer cuts.  It's still not perfect but will require less sanding in the True Sander.  Thanks for the tip on the larger blades.

Jeff

[T.C.]

Jeff, thanks for the kind words.

If I may ask:
Did you buy the single or double bevel blades, also how ridged are your cutters ?Both of my cutters are very ridged and I think that also helps to keep the blade from drifting.
T.C.

[Bernd]

Thanks Jeff, much appreciated for the kind words.

T.C. Nice job on the blade holding. I'm amazed at how a bevel on a blade can make that much difference. I think also the fact that is a slicing cut it what makes the big difference.

Bernd

[T.C.]

Thanks Bernd, if you think about it Rail Nippers have a flat side that cuts  flush on one side so I guess it's the same theory ?

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of some 1/8x1/8" and 1/4x1/4" cut with my chopper to get an idea of how it cuts
T.C.

[Zephyrus52246]

T.C., both sets of blades are beveled.  I couldn't find non beveled, or at least it doesn't say in the descriptions.  Both cutters hold the blades quite tightly and the mechanisms don't have any wiggle.


Jeff

[postalkarl]

Hey TC

Good luck with learning what you need to know.

Karl

[T.C.]

Thanks Karl I need all the luck I can get.
I've done some more testing with my old chopper made by K-tool, it's basically the same as a NWSL copper so It will give a good idea of whats going on.

I skipped the razor blade as I know what the results would be and tested a heavy utility blade and a single bevel Matt cutter blade.
The wood pieces are 1/8x1/8" bass wood and 1/4x3/16" spruce.

The first set of pictures are the Matt cutter blade, the second set are with the Utility blade.
Matt cutter





Utility blade



T.C.

[Dennis Bourey]

I got my order in. ;0) Dennis