I'm looking at purchasing a Thermwood and have made enquirees about the floating head. I thought this might be good for sanding the MDF doors as we spend about 10 to 30 minutes sanding depending if doors have a simple routed pattern or a pocket design. We currently have a multicam type machine which does leave a shudder pattern when doing this work. I guess this is due to its light construction.
Our tooling is mainly carbide.
So is it possible to sand these doors on the Thermwood?
Do I need any special options like the floating head as I believe its not a common request.
If there are any special sanding heads could you give their web address and maybe a cost estimate if you have purchased or obtained a quote?
Thanks in advance
Regards Neville
Mdf door sanding face and internal grooving
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Neville Bastian
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Mdf door sanding face and internal grooving
Neville Australia
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Mark Hesketh
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are you spending 10-30 minutes sanding EACH door?
We run a pretty good number of doors through our thermwood machine, and I know that our finishers do not spend more than a couple of minutes sanding each door. As long as you make sure your set-up is good, it should leave you a pretty smooth door.
We don't use any sanding heads, but most of our tooling for doors are diamond tools. I do use a few carbide tools from time to time, but the quality of cut that they leave deteriorates quite noticably over time.
There are others on this forum that run a greta deal more doors than I do though. They might be able to give you a better idea.
We run a pretty good number of doors through our thermwood machine, and I know that our finishers do not spend more than a couple of minutes sanding each door. As long as you make sure your set-up is good, it should leave you a pretty smooth door.
We don't use any sanding heads, but most of our tooling for doors are diamond tools. I do use a few carbide tools from time to time, but the quality of cut that they leave deteriorates quite noticably over time.
There are others on this forum that run a greta deal more doors than I do though. They might be able to give you a better idea.
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Forrest Chapman
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Hi All,
I also run a few mdf doors and use diamond tooling which leaves a fairly smooth surface. Only light sanding is nessesary however I'm looking into the sanding head now. You will need a different head to match each profile. I've not heard of a floating style head but that does make sence.
I'll keep you posted with my results.
Forrest
I also run a few mdf doors and use diamond tooling which leaves a fairly smooth surface. Only light sanding is nessesary however I'm looking into the sanding head now. You will need a different head to match each profile. I've not heard of a floating style head but that does make sence.
I'll keep you posted with my results.
Forrest
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Neville Bastian
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Hi Mark,
Yes we do spend that sanding time on the MDF doors hence the reason to go from the Multicam to the Thermwood. The sales man from another German made CNC was bragging that their cnc requiring no sanding. I find that hard to believe.
I do think going to all Diamond will improve the cut from the cnc thus reducing sanding.
If I can get down to a few minutes each door it will make a massive saving that will help pay for the Thermwood upgrade.
If does only require a few minutes to sand it seems excessive to use the cnc sanding but we do get variations in sanding where things are either over sanded thus changing the profile or under sanded requiring re doing items. The nature of the sander in our case is always a junior worker who gets bored quickly. To be fair I guess we all would get bored sanding doors all day.
Thanks again
Neville
Yes we do spend that sanding time on the MDF doors hence the reason to go from the Multicam to the Thermwood. The sales man from another German made CNC was bragging that their cnc requiring no sanding. I find that hard to believe.
I do think going to all Diamond will improve the cut from the cnc thus reducing sanding.
If I can get down to a few minutes each door it will make a massive saving that will help pay for the Thermwood upgrade.
If does only require a few minutes to sand it seems excessive to use the cnc sanding but we do get variations in sanding where things are either over sanded thus changing the profile or under sanded requiring re doing items. The nature of the sander in our case is always a junior worker who gets bored quickly. To be fair I guess we all would get bored sanding doors all day.
Thanks again
Neville
Neville Australia
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Mark Hesketh
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Neville, we run into the same problems with the junior sanders. Can't tell you how many times I have been called aross the shop to explain what happened to a couple of doors, only to have to explain to them that I couldn't have cut the wavy pattern they found if I tried... sander simply got bored and went to town on the edges. Guess that's what we get for hiring students simply looking for a short-term paycheck. Like Forrest, I haven't heard of these floating-style sanding heads... might be worth looking into.
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Forrest Chapman
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Neville,
Even without the cnc sanding you should not have to spend more than a couple of minutes to sand out a door. Maybe another problem is your mdf quality. You need to be using a door grade of 150 internal bond or more. Most people refer to this material as high IB. On medical grade (medex) it goes up to 200.
Hope this helps,
Forrest
Even without the cnc sanding you should not have to spend more than a couple of minutes to sand out a door. Maybe another problem is your mdf quality. You need to be using a door grade of 150 internal bond or more. Most people refer to this material as high IB. On medical grade (medex) it goes up to 200.
Hope this helps,
Forrest
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Mark Hesketh
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Neville Bastian
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Hi Mark & Forrest,
I wasn't aware that there are different grades of MDF. I just thought one supplier had a better product than another for sanding purposes.
Sanders are always a problem and if you get a good one they only seem to last a year or so before they have a mental breakdown.
If it gets down to a few minutes a door that will be about 2 hrs for an average kitchen.
Most of my work is MDF routered which is either painted or vinyl wrapped. If the Thermwood can improve the quality and speed I'd be wrapped.
I have only seen one Thermwood being used in my State and they didn't do routered doors. I did suggest to the sales rep that a trip to the States would the way to go but he suddenly went a bit pale.
Would you recommend any special options that I should request with the Thermwood? I was going to go for two 350 cfm pumps rather than one 500 cfm just hold them firmly in place.
I might be digressing here a bit but how easy is the MDF door software to use within Ecabinets? I believe it is fairly new with the current version. Have you heard any details if its being improved?
Once again thanks for your feedback as its good to hear from actual users of the software and machine.
Regards
Neville
I wasn't aware that there are different grades of MDF. I just thought one supplier had a better product than another for sanding purposes.
Sanders are always a problem and if you get a good one they only seem to last a year or so before they have a mental breakdown.
If it gets down to a few minutes a door that will be about 2 hrs for an average kitchen.
Most of my work is MDF routered which is either painted or vinyl wrapped. If the Thermwood can improve the quality and speed I'd be wrapped.
I have only seen one Thermwood being used in my State and they didn't do routered doors. I did suggest to the sales rep that a trip to the States would the way to go but he suddenly went a bit pale.
Would you recommend any special options that I should request with the Thermwood? I was going to go for two 350 cfm pumps rather than one 500 cfm just hold them firmly in place.
I might be digressing here a bit but how easy is the MDF door software to use within Ecabinets? I believe it is fairly new with the current version. Have you heard any details if its being improved?
Once again thanks for your feedback as its good to hear from actual users of the software and machine.
Regards
Neville
Neville Australia
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Forrest Chapman
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Hi Neville,
You can definatly use a more rigid router like the Thermwood. Rigidity and accuracy go a long way toward machining with large cutters like those used in mdf doors. We run on average 600ipm with all our diamond cutters.
If your going to cut alot of doors Ecabinets is not the way to go. A better program would be Panelmatrix. Hopefully soon Ecabs will add the ability to do tool set for creating different profiles on a production level.
Good mdf is also key. Another term or description is double refined.
Forrest
You can definatly use a more rigid router like the Thermwood. Rigidity and accuracy go a long way toward machining with large cutters like those used in mdf doors. We run on average 600ipm with all our diamond cutters.
If your going to cut alot of doors Ecabinets is not the way to go. A better program would be Panelmatrix. Hopefully soon Ecabs will add the ability to do tool set for creating different profiles on a production level.
Good mdf is also key. Another term or description is double refined.
Forrest
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Mark Hesketh
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We use Panelmetrix for our doors. Works great once you get it figured out, and the training coures is great. not sure what they offer for training down there in Australia though. Would deffinately recommend this over Ecabs for large quantities of doors.
I would recommend investing in the better pumps. We used to have quite a bit of difficulty with the holding power of our old pumps untill we figured out some tricks. We just got a second machine, with better pumps, and the difference is very noticable. Well worth the investment for this upgrade.
I would recommend investing in the better pumps. We used to have quite a bit of difficulty with the holding power of our old pumps untill we figured out some tricks. We just got a second machine, with better pumps, and the difference is very noticable. Well worth the investment for this upgrade.