How to cut a square slot in a small piece of wood.

Tintin

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Nov 2, 2011
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Hello Gents,

I have racked my mind on how to cut a square slot in the center of a 127mm x 127mm square piece of wood.

I am trying to make some piggy banks for the holiday season and needed to cut this slot in the base so that the coins may be removed once the bank is reasonably full. I am trying to cut a slot about 40mm x 40mm but was wondering about the best way to do it.

I was leaning towards using the MFS 400 with my 1400 and a straight cut bit; but was having trouble keeping the thing steady over such a small piece. I was using supporting material to keep the thing steady but then I wasn't able to batch the process out as I was making about 5 of those.

I would appreciate if you could please take the time to direct me to the best way to batch the process out.

Best Regards,
- Tintin

(OF1400, OF2200, MFS 400, TS55, MFT, Kapex, RO90, LR32, HL 850, Domino, CSX and that's it.)
 
How thick is the wood?  If its something like 1/4" (6mm) You could probably use a razor knife and straight edge to score the outline of the hole, and then follow up with a chisel.  When scoring, use several firm passes and not one hard pass.

For something thicker how about you hot glue the MFS to the wood.  that should peel off cleanly when your done and stay put if you're gentle.

Daniel

 
Hi Dan,

Thanks for the reply.

The wood is about 9mm thick. I could use a chisel and yes for something this small, it would probably be a better idea. But what if I had to use a power tool?

Best,
- Tintin
 
If you have the short lengths of the MFS, which based on your list you do, I would use hot glue to "clamp" it in place. 

Unfortunately you don't have a drill press with hollow mortiser based on your list.  That would be best for making a small square hole.

Daniel
 
Hi Daniel,

Thank You once again.

So that is good. I had read the MFS manual and just was making sure that I did not miss a trick with it.

MFS had worked fine but it was difficult to batch it out as I had to eyeball it's setup every single time; which is something that I wanted to avoid. Not that anyone would notice a few mm's in the base.

Best Regards,
- Tintin
 
The Domino could be used to do it.  You would still have to chisel out the waste to square up the hole of course, so it's not that much different than a router and template.

If you have a tablesaw and the workpiece is square, you could cut it in half, cut half the slot with a dado stack, and glue it back together.  The glue line would be hardly noticeable.
 
Can you not use two strips of wood that are longer than the MFS that can be clamped outside the MFS range by the edge clamps on the MFT? 
That would capture the piece from moving and then just lay the MFS profile over the 127mm square piece and align them to cut the hole and clamp them down to the table with Festool sliding clamps.

Below is a drawing I did in Sketchup to show you what I mean.  I could not find the clamps in the 3D warehouse on Sketchup but did find the MFS and the MFT table.

I removed two of the MFS pieces so you could see how the two strips of 1 x 4 could clamp your center piece in place.  You may need to put a 1/4 inch piece of ply under the piece so that when you rout through it, it does not hit the table.

You could batch this by just double sticking some alignment blocks so that things stay in alignment and are repeatable as you chance out the pieces by sliding them under the MFS and then re-clamping.

Hope this is self-explanatory.

Neil
 
For multiple pieces I would build a fixture from mdf to hold the workpiece and then use a template to pattern rout the slot with the OF1400.  
 
i would cut a template out of mdf etc . make the sqaure  larger for a guide bush.
then scew on strips underneeth to allign the piece centrally. then put a togle clamp or two down there to hold it.
 
I guess it depends on how many you have to make, but for stuff like this, I would cut the hole out of a larger piece of wood, and then cut the wood to size.  For example, if you have a board 127mm wide, and 2400mm long, you could cut the slot, and then cut the end off, moving to the next piece, and so on.  That would make it a little easier to hold the piece, at least till you get close to the end.  

ETA:  I missed the part where you only need five.  That should not be too hard to get out of a longer stick.  I would probably cut the hole with a drill, jigsaw, and chisel for cleanup. 
 
Hello Gents,

Thank You for taking the time out to post throughtful replies.

I like the idea of building a fixture to hold the small piece and then using the template routing.

Best Regards,
- Tintin
 
Can't you set up the 90-degree angle iron like pieces that come with the MFS to make a "corner" or capture your work piece? That's what they are most useful for, repetition.

Tom
 
Hi Tom,

Thank You for your reply.

That's exactly how I ended up doing it. Two issues though:

(1) Since the pieces themselves are very small, fastening the MFS on them was a challenge.
(2) Even when I got the MFS in the exact position, I would have to do this from piece to piece. In other words, the process was not repeatable.

IMHO I should have built a jig to hold the each pieces in while the MFS would be "slotted on" to the work piece.

Best,
- Tintin
 
Even when I got the MFS in the exact position, I would have to do this from piece to piece. In other words, the process was not repeatable.

I must be missing something...

If the pieces are all the same and you set the angle iron pieces on the MFS and don't move them, then nest the pieces against the angles the same way, each piece will be oriented the same relative to the MFS and that makes the process repeatable. ('Sorry for the run-on sentence.)

Did I miss something? I can see where it would be tricky with small work pieces but possible with an appropriate set up.

Tom
 
Tintin said:
I have racked my mind on how to cut a square slot in the center of a 127mm x 127mm square piece of wood.

There's a number of different methods. Here's what I'd use.
Drill or hole saw almost to width and height.
Jigsaw or file almost to dimensions of square.
Finish up with a razor knife to exact desired dimensions.
Done!
 
I know it's history now but I believe I would drill a hole in one corner then set up stops on a router table to mill a wall, starting at the hole. Rotate three more times and you are done.
 
Hi Tom and Everyone,

Once again WOW... amazing ... I learnt so much from your replies.

Tom - I tried that approach... since the piece was so small, it was hard to get the MFS centered... but I believe that you are correct. I should have thought my setup through so that the MFS would align in the same exact position... piece after piece.

Best,
- Tintin
 
Since you were doing a batch, why didn't you cut the slots on the long piece, first?  Then, cut the final pieces after the slots were cut.
 
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