Slatwall

[JohnLashuay]

Hi Guys! Has anyone tried to cut slatwall on their cnc? I am designing a cabinet in which I would need to cut slats in the backer. Is this possible? What tooling, programing would be needed?

Thanks in advance!
-John

[Josh Rayburn]

John, do you mean making slatwall on the CNC or loading a sheet of slatwall and cutting it?
For either, I would just use a standard tooling setup (compression outline and the regular 1/4 or 3/8 downcutters if there are dadoes, etc.) and slow the outline down a bit. Climb cutting and double passing is also helpful on the outline.
jnr

[JohnLashuay]

Josh, I am looking at making some slatwall for the back of a cabinet that has a 1/4" to 3/8" dado with an additional wider slot behind this making a T-shaped slat. This would allow for the slatwall hooks to set in properly.

I know I can use an existing sheet of slatwall, but there are not a lot of color/ woodgrain offerings to match up to the color that I would be using. So I figured that I could make in on the cnc and have a nice matching back.

-John

[Josh Rayburn]

I would do that DXF all the way, even if I had to do it as a secondary operation after the "cabinet part" was cut from ecabs. Ramping and custom tool control for stuff like that is just not a good enough offering from the ecabinets arsenal.
jnr

[Neville Bastian]

Hi John,
We use a Thermwood G code program that Doug Gilford from OZ gave us so I can't take the credit. You set up where the first cut starts and the spacings of the slatwall groove. Its pretty simple. Let me know if you want it and I will email it to you.
Regards
Neville

[JohnLashuay]

I would do that DXF all the way

Josh, I haven't done any dxf work yet so I am a bit reluctant to try it on something like this. Maybe eventually I get up the nerve!

We use a Thermwood G code program that Doug Gilford from OZ gave us so I can't take the credit. You set up where the first cut starts and the spacings of the slatwall groove. Its pretty simple. Let me know if you want it and I will email it to you. Neville

Neville, sure I'd love to check it out. Do you use one tool to cut the slats?

-John

[Neville Bastian]

Hi John we do two passes. One that cuts the groove then use a T cutter do finish off. I know you can buy a all in one cutter but thats the way it was programmed. We do find there is a fair amount of resistance so if we are doing small pieces I'm not sure if they would not move with one pass. We only do some slatwall occasionally so haven't got too serious with it.
I will send the file to you on Monday. What email address would you like me to use? PM me if you don't want the trolls to see it.
Out of curosity what do you pay for the extrusion in the US?

Regards

Neville

[FredHirsch]

John,
We do a lot of slatwall. Very easy. I use Whiteside T-slot bits. Feed the control a DXF (attached is a 4x8 3"offset). Cut it in the air first. You don't want to plunge into the material. You want to plunge off the material. Also set your ramp in for centerline dado to .01 or something small so it drops then moves into the material. DXF is pretty self explanatory. I do two passes at the slot (you will see that in file) because Whiteside bit is a little slimmer than our customers would like. Call me if you have questions.
Fred

[JohnLashuay]

Thanks guys for the help!