On 05/25/2010 09:21 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: >> Gene, >> >> The good news is, the strip is a constant 3/8" wide the entire length. >> The tapered strip gets cut out of that rectangular strip with the wide >> part of the triangle on the top. Picture the saws in a 60 degree >> included angle "V", with the apex of the triangle at the bottom, and the >> flat "bottom" of the triangle at the top. The saws enter from one end, >> make a single pass cut, and the triangular strip is ready to be knocked >> out of the rectangular strip - there's a .005" thick web caused by the >> necessary gap between the saw blades which works in it's favor while the >> strip is being cut. It holds the cut part of the strip in place so it >> doesn't get caught in the saws by flopping around. >> > Aha! Practical engineering, love it. And its also just sufficient to > prevent the cut strip from being sucked deeper into the groove. Not to > mention maintaining the seal rather than let it bleed away at the bottom of > the saw kerfs. Yes, love it. A lot. This would make the inspection of the > bamboo's bottom for flaws pretty mandatory, but for something like that, its > a given.
Gene, The design of the machine more or less precluded spring loaded mounted hold downs because they had to be fairly close to the saw blades, and with the cutting head moving up and down, it would have been a nightmare to design a hold-down that could maintain a constant pressure against the bamboo when the head could move up and down almost 3 inches. The tests I've run so far show that had I used a "thicker, foamier" gasket, I could probably seal the leaks completely, but the gasketing material works well enough so that the pump keeps up with it and I only lose an inch or two of vacuum with the leak(s) from the bamboo to gasket. Plus, the gasket material I'm using compresses not very much bt just enough, so it makes it quite easy to get accurate touch offs without the bamboo moving, and it's easy to clean the bamboo dust off of after a cutting pass. This was the gasket recommended to me when I called All Star Adhesives and talked one of their tech guys and told him what I was doing. They make good schtuff, they're willing to work with small shop guys like me, and their prices are very reasonable. They sent me a 50 yard roll of the gasket, 3/4" wide for around $20, and tossed in a sheet of another type of gasket material to try if I wanted to that's about 2' wide by 6' long for free. Good folks to do biz with. Mark ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
