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Which is easier/faster in your opinion.
Starting with stiles that are cut to width and then coping the ends, or coping a wide board and then ripping that board to width.
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(02-15-2018, 12:06 PM)Cooler Wrote: Which is easier/faster in your opinion.
Starting with stiles that are cut to width and then coping the ends, or coping a wide board and then ripping that board to width.
You cope the rails and cut sticking on the stiles. But to answer your question, I don't think it matters. If you cope the end of a wide board you don't have to worry about tearout, but that's normally easily dealt with on rails already cut to width by adding a piece of scrap behind it.
When I built those French doors with all the narrow cope/stick muntins it was definitely better to start with a wide board.
John
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(02-15-2018, 12:56 PM)jteneyck Wrote: You cope the rails and cut sticking on the stiles. But to answer your question, I don't think it matters. If you cope the end of a wide board you don't have to worry about tearout, but that's normally easily dealt with on rails already cut to width by adding a piece of scrap behind it.
When I built those French doors with all the narrow cope/stick muntins it was definitely better to start with a wide board.
John
If I start with a wide board I usually don't have to use a sled of any type. I was thinking I might buy a nice sled if it made life easier.
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(02-15-2018, 01:02 PM)Cooler Wrote: If I start with a wide board I usually don't have to use a sled of any type. I was thinking I might buy a nice sled if it made life easier.
There's another thread right now talking about issues using a sled. Several folks, me included, find a rectangular block of MDF behind the rail works well. The work piece stays float on the table, the MDF block keeps it square to the fence w/o having to clamp it and provides support against tear out.
John
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Wide board is probably faster, but I've always cut all my pieces/stock first.
Sometime you have bowed material to work with.
If yer doing 40 doors, you can pick through and get the straight cut for the longer stiles. As your material shortens up, the bows decrease and I cut the shorter rail material out of that.
That's just one of my old business strategies. Use all of the material available to the best way. Save the crap/junk for your wood stove in the shop.
Steve
Mo.
I miss the days of using my dinghy with a girlfriend too. Zack Butler-4/18/24
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WaterlooMark 02/9/2020
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I rip all of my stile/rail stock first. Next, with a bunch ganged together on edge, they get two light passes through the planer to their final width. If I see any minor tear-out, it can usually be cut away on the shaper (actually a router table), which is the next step. Then I cut my stiles and rails to length; any blemishes will be culled out. The last step is to cope the rails. I use a squared-up block too. I strongly suggest that some type of handle be utilized; I use a short scrap of handrail or closet pole screwed to the middle. Very rarely do I have trouble with the copes, so that's why I do them last. I'm also lucky enough to have scored a stock feeder that I can easily move from the T.S to the R.T. so I can afford to run stock on the slow side without the hesitations that cause spot burning.
B.T.W. Don't forget to run the block past the stile (stick) cutter before you change to the cope cutter. That's how you stop tear-out on the shaped edge.
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