MY daughter asked me to cut some candle stands from some birch logs she bought. THey're fairly dry, about 3" in diameter.
I cut them down and they're maybe 6" long on my bandsaw.
She needs 1-7/8" diameter holes about an inch deep for the little glass holders into the end grain of these logs.
I thought it would be easy. But it was quite hard going. The end grain of the birch is quite hard to sheer off with the Forstner. The first clue was I could not tighten the shank hard enough to keep it from slipping when I applied enough pressure to cut it, not just burnish it. The bit kept rotating but slipped up intot he chuck when I applied down pressure. Eventually the 3/8" shank stepped up in diameter a bit and it stopped sinking into the chuck when that step hit the chuck.
I had to hand hold it, the log being not perfectly shaped and having bark on the outside, was not conducive to clamping in a DP vise.
After that it took forever to cut - got very fine dust, not the shavings one is used to when using a forstner. Looked like the bottom of the hole was near burning and looked burnished. I gave up after about 1/2" of this in 10 minutes.
I thought about a hole template and a plunge router and spiral upcut bit, but I'm not real comfortable with being 6" up in the air with the router and how to clamp the template to the log and how to clamp the log to the table.
Then I thought about router in the table with a bushing, a 2" template on the end of the log and routing cut side down... still not sure how to cleverly clamp the template to the log and worried about holding the log that near the router bit.
Apparently this is not the proper application for Forstner. A hole saw won't work, I need the inside cleared out. Haven't seen an spade auger bit that large (1.875" D)
Any great ideas?
I cut them down and they're maybe 6" long on my bandsaw.
She needs 1-7/8" diameter holes about an inch deep for the little glass holders into the end grain of these logs.
I thought it would be easy. But it was quite hard going. The end grain of the birch is quite hard to sheer off with the Forstner. The first clue was I could not tighten the shank hard enough to keep it from slipping when I applied enough pressure to cut it, not just burnish it. The bit kept rotating but slipped up intot he chuck when I applied down pressure. Eventually the 3/8" shank stepped up in diameter a bit and it stopped sinking into the chuck when that step hit the chuck.
I had to hand hold it, the log being not perfectly shaped and having bark on the outside, was not conducive to clamping in a DP vise.
After that it took forever to cut - got very fine dust, not the shavings one is used to when using a forstner. Looked like the bottom of the hole was near burning and looked burnished. I gave up after about 1/2" of this in 10 minutes.
I thought about a hole template and a plunge router and spiral upcut bit, but I'm not real comfortable with being 6" up in the air with the router and how to clamp the template to the log and how to clamp the log to the table.
Then I thought about router in the table with a bushing, a 2" template on the end of the log and routing cut side down... still not sure how to cleverly clamp the template to the log and worried about holding the log that near the router bit.
Apparently this is not the proper application for Forstner. A hole saw won't work, I need the inside cleared out. Haven't seen an spade auger bit that large (1.875" D)
Any great ideas?
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