Do you cut beveled edges?

[Gene Davis]

I did part edits to place 22.5 degree bevels on the straight mating edges of lazy susan cab 3-piece backs, and now the production share shop says no, we don't do that.

Is the use of a 45 degree bit, what you'd use for this, that uncommon?

[Donald Thomson]

I just use my table saw with the blade tilted to 22.5 degrees to make the cuts. Very quick and simple, compared to having the CC machine do it.

[Gene Davis]

I agree it is an easy cut to make in a shop setting, but this is for a builder who does maybe three whole-house jobs a year, and jobbing the carcase-cut package to a production share shop who ships wrapped and banded pallets of parts direct to the homesites. The only tablesaw on site is a portable on a stand, not the best for putting the 22.5 bevel on the edge of a part over two feet wide.

[Kerry Fullington]

Gene,
We do a lot of bevel cuts on corner cabinets, vent hood cabinets etc. all with different cut angles.
I set up a tool group in profile modeler called "Chamfer" that is nothing more than a 1/4" down-cut end mill with a small stepover.
This single tool models all the bevel angles without the need of specialty tooling.
The modeling takes a little time but is offset by the need for specialty tooling for each cut and the setup time for those cuts.

[Gene Davis]

Thanks, Kerry. I asked the production-share shop to comment on this.

Can you provide a little detail? It seems that the surface of the bevel gets stepped, if I understand correctly. Here is an image of a cut in 3/4" material, the steps about 1/16 h. x 1/64" stepover.

[Kerry Fullington]

Gene,
Here is a picture of some 1/2" Baltic Birch Drawer parts for a Blum corner cabinet we cut this morning.
The step was .03125"

Be sure to use a down-cut bit. An upcut or compression leaves a fuzz that must be sanded.
The "Steps" in the cut make a good glue joint.
We will be cutting some other 3/4" materials today. I will post pictures of those cuts.

[Will Williamson]

Good Job Kerry , Thanks for sharing.

[Kerry Fullington]

Here is a picture of a 22.5-degree bevel with 3/4" particle board for a corner cabinet back. Same tool, same nest.

[Kerry Fullington]

One last picture. This is a 45 degree bevel on 3/4 plywood. This lets you see the size of the "Steps" a little better.
There is a little fuzzing on the plys that are cross grain, but sands off easily with a block.

[Gene Davis]

What is the depth-of-step for the 22.5 degree bevel shown?

And please provide some info on the time needed to program for cutting such a bevel. Does one program serve for every part in a nest with such a bevel?

[Kerry Fullington]

Gene,
I have the step-over in the Profile Modeler for this tool at .03125 so it will step over and down that amount for every pass. That should be approx. 24 passes for a 3/4" board.
This does take a little machine time but is offset by the fact you don't have to set up special tooling for each angle of bevel or have someone set up a table saw and make the cuts after the fact.
Yes, this one tool and setting will cut all bevels of any angle nested in the same job.

The parts are programmed in eCabinets. You create a tool to use in the part editor to create each bevel. Once the parts are created in the part editor, the shop cutting the parts will need to make the proper tool group and setup available, but Control Nesting Does the rest. They can experiment with step-over, feed speed etc. to get what works for them. Running a sample cut will get them cut time per foot for charges.

[Rob Davis]

Gene, we use a tapered cutter all the time to make bevel cuts. We use a 30 degree,45 degree, 60 degree and 90 degree cutters routinely. We have to slow them on spindle speed and feed speed and depth of cut but we think this is much faster and better than on a table saw. Cuts are true and not hand fed on a saw. We tend to try to do all we can on the cnc versus off-line even though it might be sometimes slower. You have to watch feed plane and spacing between parts but it can be done. As Kerry noted, there is some sanding needed based on the quality of the plies in the sheet but easily accomplished. However, we do this using Mastercam, not typically eCabinets now that I think about it.

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Kerry, just curious: How does this respond to changing material thickness when writing the TWD? Seems like it would only work if you don't change the thickness.

[Jeremy Schiffer]

Never mind, I was going about it wrong, disregard.