Dit lyk somer 'grent' man!

Now turn it around and cut the 2 holes for the hinges using your hold-down box.

No. thats why you have a machine to do the hinges with.Holes need to be drilled after door is complete if you drill it before foiling it breaks the hole through the door

Hennie

That looks very cool, the Boss wants the same style on our new bedroom cupboards, only in white lacquer. Can you do the same but with "square" inside corners, ie by using smaller cutters to do the bit in the corner that is rounded by the profile cutter so that is does not have the routed look?. I know they can do it on the "big" machines but it requires a number (up to 4) of different cutters and I am sure the programming must be quite tricky.

Do you use the same cutter for both sides of the groove, or two different profiles? one for the "frame" and one for the "panel".

Did you do the outside on the MM as well or cut panel to size on panel saw and profile outside with spindle?

Thanks Alan,

This door was cut to size with panel saw and spindeled on the outside.The cutter can be used on the outside but the other machines in my shop is set up for that.I had cutters made for the spindle that can do that profile on the outside.
There is a door program that the SB brigade use called freedoors and if I am not mistaken our friend Mike Richards is or was involved with that.Mike please correct me if I am wrong.
My next step is to nest a full sheet of mdf with doors on the MM with v-grooves on that same door as above on the inside (colonial v-groove )

I also think that what you want you will be able to do on the MM.Iwould like to try v-carve pro for my doors but my budget is not that user friendly.:)

Hennie,

Bruce Clark wrote the visual interface (GUI) for the doors program and I wrote the part using the 'C' language that generates Shopbot code. At one time I started to rewrite the software to generate G-code, but Bruce beat me to it by writing his own G-code generator. Both he and I had problems with the way various variations of G-code handle arcs. The last time I checked, his released version still had problems with arcs. My version totally failed when it tried to generate an arc. That part of the program probably took 90% of the time to write in the Shopbot version, so I didn't complete the re-coding.

Because I was lazy and didn't write the code using Object Oriented Programming, recoding everything would probably take more than a month. Right now, I'm committed on too many other projects to make any promises about the doors program; however, the code is Open Source Software. Anyone can download the program from Bruce Clark's website: http://home.centurytel.net/bwclark/ My 'C' language source code is included in the bundle. (Bruce did NOT release his GUI interface under Open Source, so his source code is NOT included; however, as long as the proper spreadsheet format is used, modified programs will still work with his GUI.)

Dagsê Hennie,
I haven't worked a lot with mdf in the past.
You mentioned that your hinge fixing screws wouldn't tear out after foiling.
Will the screws tear out if the door is just paint finished!
It will be to expensive for me to invest in a foiling machine.

Sorry Johan, what I ment was that when you drill the holes for the hinge before you put it in the press the vacume that it have once the opperation starts will break the 2-3 mm wood thats behind the hole of the pot hole ( Hinge hole )
the fixing screws for the hinges usually breaks out on the cuboard side.That is when you get doors falling off:(

Ah..now I understand. I am a bit slow! If you do not believe me check my build log!:D

That is nothing compared to the building industry at the moment.

Did some of these today

That's a nice door with the vertical "planks". Why does the horizontal line go right through? Is it a stable door or 2 drawer fronts?

It is two pot drawer fronts. Once I put it in the press and foil it the grain plus the v-grooves line up.Will post pic`s Monday with fronts installed.I do it with my small 4 drawers also and it looks good.
The other thing is that when you have a std door next to it the curve on the top line up and it looks symetric.

Hennie,
From your earlier posts I take it that these are all done with Mikes free doors program? If not then can you tell us what software you are using?

Heath,I draw all my doors in cad and then export as a dxf. file.

When I first started looking at doing the cnc thing I contacted Shopbot and asked them what to use for doors and they refered me to that site.I have not used freedoors ( don`t have time to play with it)would be nice.

If I need to make a five piece door look a like I would still use the spindle method to do it.(have some samples at work will post it, I think it is the same doors that Alan wants for his bedroom bic `).
(I think I must start a thread on making doors and all the styles )
I am also currently busy drawing all the patterns that I need for these doors (in cad).

Hennie, I am familar with that, my 4 small drawers also have a pattern right through all of them. But the 3 horizontal cuts between the drawers are not moulded - the foiling goes over a 90 degree corner. That was my preference for the door-making company.

Because we use pvc sometimes when you strech the plastic to much over a 90 deg corner the colour tends to change specially with dark coloured foil. white comes through.

Some More Drawer Fronts
 

Some Drawer Fronts We Have Made And
Something Out Of Africa

We are going to "lion hunt" for lunch tomorrow.

Nice innovative range of doors!

Hennie,
I would be interested in any info you would like to throw our way on door making. Im sure others would as well. Your cabinets are top notch. :)
You must be very proud of those kitchens.

Hennie, nice doors.

To echo Heath's request - yes please on the door and draw info - I need to steal with my eyes...:D

When you said above that you would still use the spindle method, would that be making them as traditional doors with rails stiles and loose panel and then have them wrapped?

If I do a five piece door I won`t wrap them.We only wrap 16-18 mm doors where If I made traditional doors the rails and stiles are 21-22 mm thick.
Sometimes with the wrap doors the foil doesn`t go into all the patterns.( a drawback and some rejects )will make some samples and cut up to show what it looks like once it has been foiled.

Hennie,
Did jou use only one v-shape bit on dot the door or other shapes as well?
Eish, lyk mooi!
My wife really likes your doors and kitchen designs. She is getting more and more exited by the day. There was a time..looong again when she felt like that about me!:D

I take it then that these are solid wooden doors ? I want to achieve the "square" inside corner on one piece MDF on the MM (remember it will be a painted finish - I don't have the luxury of a foiling machine :))

Attachment 4311

Alan, you must learn to turn "failures" into "features"

failure: square corners impossible with rotating bit, but . . .

feature: slightly rounded corners do not give germs places to hide in your kitchen! :)

And to clean:) why do you think we paint the doors?

I might be wrong but Thermwood have a thing called e-cabinet systems with cutting files to do that type of door.

"Sharp" corners are fairly easy to do with a V-cutter, especially when the raised panel has 90-degree corners. Just insert a command that lifts the Z-axis as the cutter moves at a 45-degree angle to the cut. (Arched top doors require a little math to get the angles right.) In the doors program that I wrote for the Shopbot community, I changed from absolute mode to relative mode while I made those corner cuts. The actual "sharpness" depends on how "pointed" the cutter really is.

What kind of foil press are you using... I mean brand name, or perhaps a link.

I didn't have time earlier to give a G-code example of making a sharp corner. Right now I'm at a computer site, so I can't test the code, but if I remember correctly, this is basically how it works (assuming inch mode, 90-degree V-cutter)


% sharp_corners.tap

% set absolute mode
G90

G00 Z1.00
G00 X1.00 Y1.00

% start the cut
G01 Z-0.25 F30
G01 X10.0 F240

% select incremental or relative mode
G91

% sharpen a corner
G01 X0.25 Y-0.25 Z0.25 F30
G01 X-0.25 Y0.25 Y-0.25

% select absolute mode
G90

% make next cut
G01 Y10.0 F240

G00 Z1.00

% end of example
M30

Neat Stuff. Typo:

% sharpen a corner
G01 X0.25 Y-0.25 Z0.25 F30
G01 X-0.25 Y0.25 Z-0.25

This method of sharpening a corner only works if two conditions are met:
- the cutter must have a sharp tip
- the cutter must have flat (straight) flanks.

Does not work for ogee bits

Johan I use the v groove cutter only to do v cuts.I will take pics tomorrow of my cutters.

On the side of having sharp corners I still prefer the five piece door there is no substitute.It gives more depth and it has a more solid feel to it.It does take longer to make but that is my way of doing it.
I will put pic`s up when we make those doors step by step.

We are making std doors tomorrow with the spindle will start my door thread with them:)

Hennie,
Will look forward to it! :)

Kim I did put picks of the machine and the process somewhere so if someone knows where it is help.

Alan the luxury is about the same value of a house,to think you pay your house of in twenty years and that luxury in four years I wish I bought another house.:D
How many doors would you make to pay for a house?

Brad,
Thanks for catching that error. I could have used you today. For more than eight hours I searched the Internet for a reason that my PHP scripts were showing plain text instead of running PHP scripts. It turned out to be a typo in the httpd.conf file, a typo that I must have looked at more than one hundred times - without seeing it.
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I think that most of us would agree that MDF doors will never match the beauty and durability of solid doors, but, with the right painter who knows how to glaze, the MDF doors "appear" to have more value than traditional doors.

Louvre For Kobus
 

Kobus her are pic`s of the louvres before installed and what it looks like installed

Hennie,
Very nice looking . :) Are they used for privacy or for wind / shade protection?

Heath I think it is for privacy:D

Nothing beats REAL wood...nice stuff Hennie

Had to make these this morning