Cutting Maple Rings

Cheez Dawg

Cheez Dawg

Flawed Perfectionist
Silver Member
Today was ring cutting day.
So, I set out to cut some rings out of various ring stock I had here.
All was good until I got to the maple.
Now, I have never cut maple rings before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was cutting them 0.050 thick. After being cut however, they didn't seem to stay flat.
Is this typical of maple rings?
I am cutting them on my deluxe, with a PC laminate trimmer with KJ's spin saw ring cutter set up.
Everything is set up true. The only waste I am getting is the thickness of the blade.
Is there something I am missing here?
Thanks for any and all advice!!
 
Cheez Dawg said:
Today was ring cutting day.
So, I set out to cut some rings out of various ring stock I had here.
All was good until I got to the maple.
Now, I have never cut maple rings before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was cutting them 0.050 thick. After being cut however, they didn't seem to stay flat.
Is this typical of maple rings?
I am cutting them on my deluxe, with a PC laminate trimmer with KJ's spin saw ring cutter set up.
Everything is set up true. The only waste I am getting is the thickness of the blade.
Is there something I am missing here?
Thanks for any and all advice!!
Click to expand...

Heat is probably the culprit. Often the blade loads up with resins from the wood causing friction and filling the tiny teeth some making them not as sharp or efficient at cutting. You can take some oven cleaner and let your blade soak a little and then rinse off and it will remove these resins and bring the blade back to more original specs. Because of the speed these blades are turning at and the material often being cut (phenolics and aluminum) they will eventually wear out. I've gone through about 4 blades so far but they are much, much better than the plain steel jewelers blades.

Dick
 
I'll second the heat........
Imperative that the cutter is razor sharp on maple or it will be tearing and not slicing and creating more heat.
 
I decided to put on a fresh blade and give it another try.
Same thing. The rings are warping.:mad::frown::mad:
 
Cheez Dawg said:
Today was ring cutting day.
So, I set out to cut some rings out of various ring stock I had here.
All was good until I got to the maple.
Now, I have never cut maple rings before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was cutting them 0.050 thick. After being cut however, they didn't seem to stay flat.
Is this typical of maple rings?
I am cutting them on my deluxe, with a PC laminate trimmer with KJ's spin saw ring cutter set up.
Everything is set up true. The only waste I am getting is the thickness of the blade.
Is there something I am missing here?
Thanks for any and all advice!!
Click to expand...

In the end it should not really matter. When you mount them you press the stack together and they flatten right out. You may even try putting them on a flat surface with a flat weight on them for a short time. I cut my rings with a simple cut off tool I have hollow ground. I get very flat crisp rings with no tear out. I think some guys may over complicate things at times. Rings are very easy to make with the simplest of tools.
 
Try running your machine slow and have it rotating towards the cutter. You can also blow a little air on it as you are cutting your rings.
 
Cheez Dawg said:
I decided to put on a fresh blade and give it another try.
Same thing. The rings are warping.:mad::frown::mad:
Click to expand...
i had same problem
i swore up & down that my cutter was running true
even ended up on the phone with kj about it
as kj said to me, it seemed like it wasnt true
well, he was right, i made some trial adjustments, and finally got it right, even though i was convinced it was right to begin with
once i solved that problem, all was good for a dozen or so rings @ .030" then it would start to distort again
the teeth were loading up,
so now i slow down the router for safety sakes :thumbup: and hit it with a small wire brush while its spinning
it isnt just the teeth, there will be some buildup on the side of the blade too
i dont know about your router, but mine has one certain "sweet spot" that the mandrel has to be at to work properly
sometimes it takes me several tries to get it in the right spot
i can cut double black at .005" when it's right
smallest wood rings i've been able to cut are .025"
keep trying, hang in there, you'll get it eventually
 
I think I have sourced out my problem.
The collet on my trimmer is running out a bit. I don't know why I didn't think to check it sooner.
Is there a place a person can pick up extra collets for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer?
 
Cheez Dawg said:
I think I have sourced out my problem.
The collet on my trimmer is running out a bit. I don't know why I didn't think to check it sooner.
Is there a place a person can pick up extra collets for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer?
Click to expand...
try turning the mandrel to different spots
might wanna take out the collet and turn it too
i had the same problem if you read the above
 
BHQ said:
try turning the mandrel to different spots
might wanna take out the collet and turn it too
i had the same problem if you read the above
Click to expand...

I spent about 35 minutes trying to get it running better, to no avail. The slight wobble is still there. I didn't notice it while it was running, but when I turn it by hand, it is slightly noticeable.
 
Cheez Dawg said:
I spent about 35 minutes trying to get it running better, to no avail. The slight wobble is still there. I didn't notice it while it was running, but when I turn it by hand, it is slightly noticeable.
Click to expand...

Just a thought in case you have not tried this.

Put a dial indicator against the face of the blade and turn the router by hand to see exactly how much run out is happening at the very end where the business is happening. You can sometimes adjust different parts, like reposition collet and find a sweet sport of the arbor to cancel things out. Think about when you adjust shaft collets and rotate a slightly warped shaft inside the collet trying to find the sweet spot to turn the shaft true enough for a repair. This way, you don't need to make a cut every time, just see if the runout improves using the dial indicator. Keep adjusting until you find the least amount of runout possible, and then make ONE cut to see if it is improved any.

Are you cutting hard maple or soft maple?

Kelly
 
I am cutting hard maple.
I'll go out and play with it some more and see if I can get it to true up.
Otherwise, I still need to know if there is a place to buy new collets for the trimmer...
 
Well, today I figured I'd give it another go.
I played around with the trimmer a bit, and tried a couple more times.
End result was I ended up cutting a pile of 0.015 maple rings.
They are flat as can be. I tried a couple more 0.050 maple rings, and warp city.
Now I am completely dumbfounded.
I guess I'll just go with the flow!!:cool:
 
Cheez Dawg said:
I think I have sourced out my problem.
The collet on my trimmer is running out a bit. I don't know why I didn't think to check it sooner.
Is there a place a person can pick up extra collets for the Porter Cable laminate trimmer?
Click to expand...
If you find a place for collets, let me know. I could use a couple myself.

Thanks.
Alan
 
.015" is pretty impressive.
What's happening at .050" doesn't make sense.
I haven't chimed-in to this thread because there was really no reason to. Everyone who has offered advice has been spot-on, particularly about the alignment and truing-up the saw.
At times, you'd bet money that you had your set-up true until you put an test-indicator on it.
In essence, run-out, wobble or mis-alignment will side-load the blade. That's unnecessary friction that creates heat. Couple that with the moisture content of the wood and the steam will curl your rings like potato chips.
BTW, you might want to check the H2O content of the wood, though that wouldn't explain why you're able to cut .015" clean and curl .050".
Sorry, I don't have an answer for that one. Something other than your measurement has changed when going from .015 to .050
 
Here are the pics I took of two of the rings I cut. The first is a 0.045 ring, then I cur a 0.015 ring right after on the same set up with no adjustments other than thickness of cut.


Picture010.jpg




Picture009.jpg
 
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