okay, once in a while I do learn something new

Karl Brogger

Member
Messages
519
Location
Dennison, MN
I'm a little ashamed to say it took me this long to figure out something so simple.

When I make doors I only have one shaper to handle the coping of rails, (vs having two setup so you I have a proper left and right copes). I've always taken a ~9" wide board and put it in the cope clamp and ran the profile on it, then rip a chunk off for a backer stick while coping any sticking that has a profile. You don't need anything for flat/shaker style doors.... The way I cut my sticking I cut it long an 1/8", and the coper takes off a 1/16" on each end, so my backer sticks always get shorter, and eventually they end up too short to use.

It finally dawned on me to take the coper head out of that shaper, and put it in the shaper that I use for machining all of the sticking. Its already at whatever height, and its a perfect match for the sticking that has been already run, plus I can run much longer pieces than the 9" that fits in my coping sled. Really at the beginning of each job when making doors I could grab one of the ugliest rips and send it through and have plenty to spare. Unless I was doing something idiotic like 200 doors at a crack, an 8' rip should be adequate for some time. Or, just grab a chunk of whatever length and toss it through the shaper.

Damn the dumb stuff gets by once in a while. :thumb: :rofl:

I think this is a case of it worked well enough, that I didn't really put any thought into it until I was mindlessly doing something else here and it popped into my head.


Also, I know what some of you will say, just do the stick cut after the rails have been cut to length and coped, then all I need is a square backer to prevent tear out. That is do-able, and I have done it that way at other places I have worked at, but it also introduces a lot of chances for things getting bunged up in the sticking process, especially when doing short(er) pieces.

Where's JR Rutter?
 
To take that one step further Karl. When I make the copes I attach my backer stick to the fence and just line my rails up flush to the end that way I don't have to deal with making sure I cut my rails an eighth long and try and hit the sixteenth on each pass.
 
I set the fence on the shaped to hit that 1/16" on each pass, and to keep your backer piece as fresh as possible its best to keep cutting it down. Otherwise it starts to erode eventually and doesn't perfectly match the profile of the cope after a while, which allows some tear out.
 
Okay, rails for doors have to be coped to fit the inside profile of the door frame. This is done with a mirror image of the cutter that cuts the inside profile for the rails and stiles. If you run all of your sticking at once in full length pieces, then when you go to cope one end will be going into the cutter profile first, and the other will end of the rail will be going into the profile flat side first, (unless its a mid-rail/stile and there is no flat side). So you have to have something there as a backer that fits the inside profile of the door to prevent tear out when cutting the cope where the cutter is exiting the rail through the profile. I used to do this by taking a wide board and cutting a 9" chunk of it off and just running it through the coper, then ripping off a strip. Now I just take the cutter head out of the shaper I use for coping, and put it in the shaper I use for running the sticking. Assuming I'm doing this once the height has been set for the sticking, the coper head is now at the perfect height to cut that mirrored profile. I can run whatever length stick I want through that shaper and I'm not limited by what I can fit in the coper clamp/sled.


on the left is the backer, on the right is the door rail
312625_2309088617905_1570037517_32282157_1989973957_n.jpg


315837_2309088977914_1570037517_32282158_1964241091_n.jpg
 
Top