Say you needed to make some reasonably large radius, curved cuts in
8/4 to 12/4 material and you wanted to minimize to the extent possible
any loss to kerf. How would you do it? Not many options to my
knowledge. Would a water jet be able to do this? Laser? Some sort of
"string saw"? It's important that the cut be square throughout as
well. High-tension, thin kerf bandsaw blades...an oxymoron? Scroll saw?

On 1/6/2012 6:18 PM, JayPique wrote:
Say you needed to make some reasonably large radius, curved cuts in
8/4 to 12/4 material and you wanted to minimize to the extent possible
any loss to kerf. How would you do it? Not many options to my
knowledge. Would a water jet be able to do this? Laser? Some sort of
"string saw"? It's important that the cut be square throughout as
well. High-tension, thin kerf bandsaw blades...an oxymoron? Scroll saw?

Lathe

JayPique wrote:
Say you needed to make some reasonably large radius, curved cuts in
8/4 to 12/4 material and you wanted to minimize to the extent possible
any loss to kerf. How would you do it? Not many options to my
knowledge. Would a water jet be able to do this? Laser? Some sort of
"string saw"? It's important that the cut be square throughout as
well. High-tension, thin kerf bandsaw blades...an oxymoron? Scroll saw?

You didn't specify the material. Styrofoam--hot wire. Wood--bandsaw.

--
Gerald Ross

I'm like, you know--I mean--whatever. LOL LMAO SOL

"JayPique" wrote in message
...

Say you needed to make some reasonably large radius, curved cuts in
8/4 to 12/4 material and you wanted to minimize to the extent possible
any loss to kerf. How would you do it? Not many options to my
knowledge. Would a water jet be able to do this? Laser? Some sort of
"string saw"? It's important that the cut be square throughout as
well. High-tension, thin kerf bandsaw blades...an oxymoron? Scroll saw?
================================================== ===============================
Water jet for sure. I believe the laser would light it on fire having to go
that thick but I don't know lasers.

On 1/6/2012 10:17 PM, CW wrote:


Water jet for sure. I believe the laser would light it on fire having to
go that thick but I don't know lasers.

You could rig an inert atmosphere for the laser with argon gas like in
MIG welding. exclude Oxygen, no fire... Would the water jet leave
enough water behind to swell the fibers?

"JayPique" wrote in message
...
Say you needed to make some reasonably large radius, curved cuts in
8/4 to 12/4 material and you wanted to minimize to the extent possible
any loss to kerf. How would you do it? Not many options to my
knowledge. Would a water jet be able to do this? Laser? Some sort of
"string saw"? It's important that the cut be square throughout as
well. High-tension, thin kerf bandsaw blades...an oxymoron? Scroll saw?

If the material is wood and it's a relatively large radius you can use a
relatively thin, but fairly wide (for the beam strength) blade on a bandsaw,
with a relatively slow feed rate, for the 12/4... faster feed rates for
thinner material. The slower feed rate should keep the cut straight through
the thickness, and assuming the blade is square to the table, square.

John