Menu
What's new

How to Cut or Rout this Grove?

M

Mike Turner

Member
Messages
361
Location
Laurinburg NC
I am a flutemaker and am starting working on a new flute(new to me that is). I already see that I need some how to hold a somewhat irregular shaped flute so that I can rout about a approx. 2" long groove with a straight bit..Ideally an inexpensive milling would be the set up...I don't think is such a thing as an inexpensive one....I thought about using my drill press but I wonder if that would damage the bearings on it.

The flute would be approx. 1 1/4" with some taper to it. As seen in the pic there are actually 2 steps to making this...I would have to rout or mill the longer wider groove and then rout the smaller one.Then I would have to drill the two small holes and then do some file work to make them square and then some work making a ramp on the inside of the square holes but i can do that part with small files....All this is the sound mechanism to this flute. I need to be able to "see" what I am doing as I do it so a router table isnt the way I want to go.

http://www.secondvoiceflutes.co.uk/pages/fipples.html



I do have a dremel and a foredom tool that I bought 30 yrs ago that is still good but I would have to make some kind of jig to make them work.

http://www.ottofrei.com/Foredom-K.52...YaAiIHEALw_wcB

I would probably need a milling machine or cross slide vice depending on which way I went with this. Im not going to be mass producing these flutes but would want a decent set up.The one I am working on now has had most of this work done with a drill press,sharp knife and needle files but it is sort of rough....be a lot cleaner/neater with a better process.


Any help is appreciated.Thanks in advance!!!
 
From this picture it is pretty clear that this is a routed operation. A simple jig to center and start/stop a plunge router using a bit of the appropriate diameter should work. Whenever possible I make these cuts prior to shaping the blank. That is; I have a square surface to register from, make the cuts and then shape the blank. He states that the balance of the work is done by hand and describes it pretty well if we are talking about the same part of the work.
 
Last edited:
What Glen said seems spot on. But, it seems to me this is an ideal job to be done with a drill press using a router bit and a simple jig to slide the square blank back and forth. If already rounded, methinks hand carving would be the only way to go.
 
Mike Turner said:
I was thinking about doing it before I turned the blank round....Think the drill press bearings would be ok for the most part???
Click to expand...

Use a 4-flute end mill and make the depth in several passes, and you should be okay. Go slow and easy and it shouldn't tax your DP bearings any more than a drum sander would.
 
Mike Turner said:
I was thinking about doing it before I turned the blank round....Think the drill press bearings would be ok for the most part???
Click to expand...

I asked a similar question here recently. Asked if using the dp for spindle sanding would harm the bearings. Replies said no problem unless you use too much pressure to hog off wood instead of just sanding. Methinks same applies to what you are doing. Don't force, just let the cutter do the work.
 
The main risk with using cutters in the drill press is that the Morse taper holding the chuck in place isn't designed to sustain sideways load so it can let go and drop the whole assembly cutter and all. Having said that lots of folks do it and have no problems so just make sure the chuck is well seated, take very light cuts, and jig it up so you don't have your hands right in the bad spots.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top