Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (BigTJ) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:29:56 GMT

Thanks for the information guys. Chris, I will get those back issues of PFibers and look at them.

For what it's worth I soak my strips prior to heating so no char marks to worry about. The other part of soaking I really like is that I can straighten without gloves on. I hold my fingers about 3" from the point I'm trying to bend, and as soon as I feel it get hot to the touch, I know my node is warm enough. Another major part of my problems have been "not getting it...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:55:51 GMT

Harry

Yes - heat the press - I got mine hot - with steaming the moisture conducts heat more efficiently than air. Thus you take a warm moist strip and put it in a cold press it will literally suck the heat out of the strip immediately. Steaming isolates the moisture to the node area. Now, some guys advocate soaking the strips overnight prior to heating and flattening - they heat faster and will not char like a dry strip. Then you need to dry them out. However I find there...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (canerodscom) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT

My friend Chris says "The key to steaming is to heat the presses prior to pressing - keeping them warm" and I suspect he is correct. I concluded that steam alone is not warm enough to soften bamboo. The press itself needs to be HOT. Tim Abbott and I worked for months on my steaming system and never were able to make it work reliably. I really appreciate Tim's guidance, patience and efforts.

Diligence and experience with a heat gun will teach you to flatten and...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:44:33 GMT

John You might want to look at Powerfibers issue 24 - when I first got the mill, I did an article on the mill - still in the unexpanded workshop - cannot believe how crowded I was. I have not updated it - plenty of detail pictures and short video clip I did. I did a presentation at Corbett Lake in 2006 on it.

Node pressing - Tim Abbot has done presentations on his method at both Corbett Lake and the Catskill Gathering (twice). I try to steer people to his presentations - not...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (john channer) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:11:19 GMT

Chris;
I'm getting a serious case of tool envy! You and Jerry are going to have me either buying lottery tickets like a fool or trying to get yet another mortgage on the homestead, well, maybe when the economy recovers. I think the two best things you gain are the ability to produce perfect strips and being able to experiment with tapers in something less than a month or two between tries. Good luck, I hope your shop survives these times intact.
I had managed to figure out some...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (brookies) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:10:45 GMT

I think I will tip my hat to JW mill sounds like he has a great mill.
Would love to see a picture of a flamed quad strip milled if some one wants to post ? Want to see the clean edges. Where is the Tim Allbot node press available at?

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (BigTJ) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:08:22 GMT

Chris,

Any chance we can get some pics of that contraption of yours? It sound cool it would be great to see it. And by the way based on your description of what that thing can do I think most of us might do more than just wetting our pants seeing that thing in action.

On another note, I sure am jealous of your ability to press 60 to 100 strips in 2-21/2 hours. 60 strips (240 nodes in 150...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:31:56 GMT

Jerry - I know - I was just trying to cover the basics - can you do this or that - the answer is yes - just like Prego - it is in it. In someways, what I have learned to do with this mill is like trying to explain the Boeing 747/777 to Orvile Wright or GPS inertial navigation to Christopher Columbus. As a rodmaker this mill is the cats meow - I am now only limited by the material itself and my imagination. I paid my dues with earlier mills, but I think we have achieved what many only...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (J W Foster) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:13:57 GMT

Chris.. you forgot ferrule-less and bamboo ferrules. :-) + multiple hollowing techniques... Jerry

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:40:50 GMT

OK - John Zimny who flames heavily does his quads on the JW CNC mill - best edges he ever had is with this mill - and then you have Jerry Foster who is doing 8-sided - both butts and tips on the mill - I can do ultra fine tips - as fine as anything Leonard did - we all glue up straight from the mill. Also, I have done nodeless on the mill - I think that covers it all.

Chris

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (brookies) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:21:59 GMT

Hi All, I liked making my own mill more than making rods actually. Precision spindle ,linear rails ,carbide cutters. Can glue hex strips off the maple pattern boards and with in .001. Yes you can adjust taper on maple patterns,cut relief on under side of the board flex and shim like Dickerson. I make more quads than hexes and cannot glue off the pattern yet .I over cut by .015 to .020 and finish by hand. The strips are flamed witch makes the 90's more fragile . I have not tried blond...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 10:36:18 GMT

John - flattening the back - I reduce the strip alot before I flatten. A lot of people split and then try to heat press strips - ala Cattanach's book. Bad move - requires too much heat because of all the additional mass. Reduce the amount of cane. The pith side is useless cane which is removed anyway. Plus I make both sides parallel so the pith side follows the enamel - easier for displacing cane rather than squeezing / compressing strips - I normally dimension the strips to .170 -...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (john channer) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:42:58 GMT

Thanks Chris;
That's generally what I do,too, tho I haven't tried steaming and flattening the back sounds worthwhile. I am always curious about what other machines require, I use a mill that I made myself to rough and initial taper ala Bellingers handplaners friend and have definitely noticed that the better the strip going in, the better the strip coming out.
john

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:35:44 GMT

John

Gentle sweeps in strips are OK - hold downs take care of that but kinks are bad. - flatness is an absolute must - and I do mean flat.

I use Tim Abbott's steaming method / manifold and have two of his node presses. Doing a lot of blonde rods I now have worry about burnt nodes. I steam the nodes and then press/straighten in one operation. I have gotten very good manually straightening them while pressing that I don't even use his side press. I normally...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (john channer) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 10:56:59 GMT

Chris;
Would you mind posting a description of what you go thru to prep strips for your mill? I'm curious as to your straightening process. thanks
john

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (ShenRods) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 09:44:27 GMT

Let me follow-up on some of these comments having owned and played with a number of the available mills / bevelers.

First - most hand planers do not prepare their strips well enough for a mill - even for the Morgan Hand Mill. Having a mill will teach someone how well a strip needs to be prepared for mill and actually strips should be prepared that well for hand planing but most people don't. The mill will accent any weakness in preparation work. As AJ says, it is all...

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (AJ Bamboo) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:58:05 GMT

with all the technical wizardry a powered finish beveler is a very fussy animal and is at least as hard as hand planing to master. they need sort of an artists touch to get them to work well even though when dealing with rigid taper forms and power feeds it would seem to be counter-intuitive. to put it another way, if you expect a power beveler to help with poor process control, poor basic technique or to make the job easier in a non-physical labor sense then you are headed the wrong direction

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (mattcliff) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:38:37 GMT

Didn't realize Tom was still in action. That's amazing. Good for him.

I realize the hand mill is a whole different kind of machine, but if somebody was looking for something that will cut finished strips, it sounds like he could save about 10 grand compared to a powered mill. But I've never owned either one, so I don't know the pros & cons.

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (BigTJ) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:50:19 GMT

Yes, but it's a completely different animal than what they are talking above above. I just talked to Tom Morgan about a week ago he is still plugging along. Truly a great guy.

Re: Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (mattcliff) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:48:27 GMT

What about the Morgan Hand Mill? Is it still being made?

Mills/bevellers to made final tapered strips

feeds@yuku.com (mog) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:52:53 GMT

Hello,

I would like to know who builds mills/bevellers in the USA, apt to build final tapered strips.