Flipping parts by the sheet

[Neville Bastian]

I was wondering if Thermwood have posted a youtube video on their new flipping part process where you machine both sides of the sheet rather than individual parts. We don't have many flipped parts but am interested to see how it works.
Regards

Neville

[Gary Campbell]

Neville...
I have done the FlipOps first on a ShopBot, not a Thermwood, and it works very well. Have been using it lately on 1/2 sheets of 5/8 Blind Dado draw parts. The new feature allows slide holes in the draw sides, the rear BLUM tandem mounting hole, and of course, bottom dados that must be machined on the opposite of the tenons. The 1/2 sheets are for ol guys that dont like to flip full sheets.

In lieu of a video, the sheet is flipped by standing on the -X (49") end and flipping the left edge over to the right.

Accuracy is spot on, or as accurate as your pins.

[Neville Bastian]

Thanks Gary for the info.
You disappoint me. I thought you would be keen for 5 minutes of fame on you tube
I can understand how it works now. Just like watching youtube I guess.
Those shotbot machines must be handy to have for the smaller shop. Gives you a real edge in the market place.
All the best

Neville

[Kerry Fullington]

Neville,

As I was designing my library to cut on the router I kept changing the way I was building the cabinets to eliminate the dreaded "Flip-Op". I have always read on these forums what a pain these were. I finally quit worrying about it and built the cabinets with the joinery the way I wanted it. My first job I cut only had two sheets out of 30+ that didn't have a flip-op. It worked great. (there is no way I could have done this part by part)I know many want to avoid flip ops altogether to speed up processing. To me it was more important to get the box I wanted.

[JohnLashuay]

The sheet flip-op has been a great asset for us! We make blind dado drawer boxes and it really comes in handy there. We tend to create a job of drawer boxes as opposed to having all the drawer parts nested in with the cabinets. This consolidates the flip ops to less sheets.

While we were at Dale, IN for training we saw the flip op mechanism that Ken had created to help with flipping the whole sheet. If you have the space for it, that is a great idea! Maybe the TWD guys could do a YouTube video using the flip op cabinet as well.

-John