New to forum with a question

[cabinetman]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Great looking furniture, and nicely done.

Pine will machine fairly easy. Depending on the power of your router, and the quality of your bit, give it a try. If you have a table router, use a bit with a bearing to ride on the template.

You could just double side tape the pine to your pattern and make your pass. It may take more than one depth adjustment to do the thickness.

[mercury049]

Thanks, I still have to fill the counter sunk screw holes and water seal it, but it's VERY comfy and adjustable. =)

I do have a table with router attached. One of those 100 dollar combo deals @ Lowes. But to do this pattern cutting, I'll have to upgrade the router to one that will accept the 1/2 inch bits. The one I have now will only do 1/4 bits. I have taken the back/fence off of the router so I can run it around the shapes of the arms and legs to do the rounding. I know it's not as safe, but I couldn't think of a way to do the curves and whatnot with it on there. Yeah, I'll be buying the bit that has the Pilot on it to guide along the pattern, I'm pretty sure it will work, but I'm just not so sure how long a bit will last under that kind of work.

[BradTheNailer]

You could use a shear cut pattern bit or a solid carbide spiral pattern bit. That's what I use to make my Adirondack furniture. Both bits work great. The spiral is better of the two, but if you are on a budget, the shear cutting bit works really well.

I use aromatic cedar, which should be about the same hardness as pine.

I get my bits from [link:www.mlcswoodworking.com|HERE]

The MLCS brand are good bits (for the price) The Katana bits would be a step up, while Whiteside would be top of the line.
[link:www.holbren.com|THIS PLACE] sells Whiteside bits w/free shipping. If you order from these guys, type in "Woodnet10" in the comment or shipping direction box to get a 10% discount.

HTH.

"you needn't troll the experts ..just come straight to the source" - Limey aka:Robert Bolton

[link:www.mgsawmill.com|M&G Sawmill]. Makers of the finest sawdust in Texas.
Oh, did I mention we have hardwood as well?

http://www.mgsawmill.com/images/flag.gif http://www.mgsawmill.com/images/texas.gif

[Sawduster]

That looks very similar to the one Wood mag had in an issue a few years back. Nice job on that one. Regardless of which bit you go with you are going to have issues with pitch buildup from the pine. Clean the bit often and you should get pretty good service from it, especially if you go with a good quality bit. A comparison of a number of brands of bits in one of the mags a few years ago determined that the main benefit obtained from the higher quality/higher priced bits such as Whiteside over others was the longevity of the cutting edge. Seems like it was a pretty significant difference if I remember correctly.

I would like to recommend that you consider using a wood that is more resistant to the elements than pine. I've made a few of those from the Wood mag original article (still got the templates in the shop somewhere) and even with painting the first one I made from pine, it didn't last but a couple seasons while one I made from cypress is still intact after several years with only an oil finish applied to it. Cedar or redwood or cypress would be better choices than the pine. Might be a little more up front cost, but considering the time you'll spend making them, the longevity is worth the extra money.

[TDHofstetter]

Welcome, Jeff!

My paternal relatives are all clustered in Indiana... :)

I think... a BOTTOM piloted (bearing next to the collet) router bit would be my choice here. It'd be a lot easier to make several passes to get the full depth & complete the cut. Even at that, though, it'd be good to rough-cut near the line with the bandsaw.

In pine, provided you occasionally stop & clean the router bit, and provided you don't run into a lot of gravel in the work & don't spend a LOT of time cutting through knots, a carbide-tipped router bit should last a LONG LONG LONG LONG time. Pine's really easy on carbide cutters, even if they get hot. Let's say... I'd though you should be able to make all the shaped cuts for... maybe a hundred Addy chairs like those with the same bit before it needs sharpening. Maybe half a hundred, maybe a hundred.

I'm not even sure you'll need a half-inch collet to do the job - a 1/2" bottom-piloted pattern follower will necessarily come with a 1/4" shank, and is such a small bit that it should be run at full router speed, and if you're thoughtful & take only shallow passes (since any pattern follower can't just hog through it all in one pass), you won't even need one of the oversized routers. I think you're READY after you get the router bit.

-- Tim --

Member of the
Robert "Limey" Bolton Memorial
International
Volunteer Mentorship and Assistance
Programme

[FrankC]

You don't mention what band saw blade you are using, 1 1/2" pine or preferably cedar should be fairly easy to cut with a good quality 4 or 6 TPI blade, even with a small bandsaw. As Tim says you will still need to rough out the pieces before trimming with the router, I would be willing to bet a disk sander would be all you need with a better blade.

Sawdust Making 101
http://sawdustmaking.com

[mercury049]

>Welcome, Jeff!
>
>My paternal relatives are all clustered in Indiana... :)
>
>I think... a BOTTOM piloted (bearing next to the collet)
>router bit would be my choice here. It'd be a lot easier to
>make several passes to get the full depth & complete the
>cut. Even at that, though, it'd be good to rough-cut near
>the line with the bandsaw.
>
>In pine, provided you occasionally stop & clean the router
>bit, and provided you don't run into a lot of gravel in the
>work & don't spend a LOT of time cutting through knots, a
>carbide-tipped router bit should last a LONG LONG LONG LONG
>time. Pine's really easy on carbide cutters, even if they
>get hot. Let's say... I'd though you should be able to make
>all the shaped cuts for... maybe a hundred Addy chairs like
>those with the same bit before it needs sharpening. Maybe
>half a hundred, maybe a hundred.
>
>I'm not even sure you'll need a half-inch collet to do the
>job - a 1/2" bottom-piloted pattern follower will
>necessarily come with a 1/4" shank, and is such a small bit
>that it should be run at full router speed, and if you're
>thoughtful & take only shallow passes (since any pattern
>follower can't just hog through it all in one pass), you
>won't even need one of the oversized routers. I think you're
>READY after you get the router bit.
>
>-- Tim --
>
>

Member of the
>Robert "Limey" Bolton Memorial
>International
>Volunteer Mentorship and Assistance
>Programme

This just shows how new I am. I never even thought about a smaller bit, I thought since I was using a pattern I would have to do it all in one shot, but I didn't think that I could go 1/2" in and then take the pattern off, make the cut deeper and just use the fresh cut as my new pattern. You just saved me time and money! Thanks Very Much for that. Thank you all for your advice and assistance.

[preyn2]

Have you considered rough-cutting with a jig saw? Admittedly, the bandsaw is the tool of choice for this application, but if you alread have a jig saw, you're in business.

phil

[maxwell_smart007]

I built a few adirondak chairs before I had any tools other than a jigsaw and drill...

admittedly, ripping 1x6 stock into 2 inch slats was not my favourite task! :)

But it can be done! :D

Andrew

[mercury049]

Hello All.
I'm new to this forum and I want to say hello and introduce myself. I live in Indiana and like to build outdoor furniture in my spare time as a hobby. My only woodworking education has come from my grandfather who taught me fairly well in older wood working methods.

I have a question about a project I'm building several of.
I recently built an Adirondack Bench that I'm fairly proud of. I have attached a picture of it to this post. I'm working on my second one now. Most of the construction is 2"(1.5) thick pine. I cannot afford a super nice bandsaw and the one that I have is constantly having problems appropriately cutting through the thick pine. The 1" pieces are fine though.
I have made templates/patterns of all pieces used in the construction of this. I was thinking about buy the 1.5 inch straight cut top piloted router bit and trying to pattern cut this thick pine. It would save me a sincere amount of time and headache as opposed to using my bandsaw.
Does anyone have any experience with cutting thick pine in this manner? What are your thoughts on this idea? How long can I expect a Carbide tipped blade to last under that kind of work?
I love these benches and need to build several more for my property as well as friends/family now that they've seen it. =)

Thanks in advance for any advice or thoughts on this.