Universal machines and accessories - is it good or bad
Multifunctional machines or fixtures are attractive in their capabilities. It's so cool: saws, planes, mills, drills, cooks porridge, washes the floor, goes shopping... and it's all in one machine. 😃
The first time I had a chance to work on a combined machine was in 1996. At that time I was fulfilling an order for showcases - these were large glazed frames 0.8x2.2 meters with one divider.
On that machine, it was possible to dissolve the boards, sprinkle them, drive them through the thickness gauge and gouge the grooves.
It would seem an excellent set of functions, but if the jointer and planer are 250 mm. - this is great, but the restrictions on sawing are palpable: in fact, only longitudinal sawing with a limit of 250 mm. it was possible to saw across, but very inconvenient.
Also, this machine had an add-on to make a lathe out of it. And this was my first unfortunate experience of approaching a lathe. The machine had about 4000 revolutions per minute and the very first touch of the workpiece with the cutter knocked this workpiece out of the mount. I never installed a lathe on this machine again.
By the way, about the revolutions on the machines. It is no secret that a certain number of revolutions will be optimal for each operation. On a sawing machine, it is 3500 - 5000 rpm, for a jointer, a planer, it is desirable to have about 9000 rpm - this is if there are two knives, for three it is possible less. For a lathe, it is best to start at 1000 rpm or less. For drilling - 1500 - 3000 rpm. Milling also requires high revolutions - at least 6-8 thousand per minute
And there is another side of universality - the complication of the machine itself and, as a consequence, a decrease in the reliability of its components.
An important factor will be the ease of use of the machine and the constant readjustment for different operations, this often infuriates.
Still, there is an attraction in versatility, especially when there is little space and there is simply nowhere to place all the necessary machines.
The solutions here can be both optimal and not very good.
For example, when I started to equip my workshop, I put the circular and the router on the same table.
When working, it turned out to be terribly inconvenient: I often had to change the settings, remove either the saw blade, or the cutter under the table, remove and put stops for the router and circular.
After some time, I came to the idea of ​​a modular design, when it was possible to quickly set the configuration of the workplace. The idea turned out to be successful and I have been using it for more than 5 years.
Now I use a slightly different configuration and found an opportunity to place a jointer with a thickness gauge on the same workplace.
For those who are interested in the design of this workplace, you can see more details and download the drawings here.
And here is another homemade product that I did with an eye to multitasking - this is a device for making a variety of thorn-groove joints. (scroll through the gallery)
Who is interested in the description and drawings can be found at the link.
The development of the device itself was interesting for me and to be able to make both a spike and a groove on the same device, and in different versions, was inspiring. The design turned out to be not so simple, and when making templates it requires a fairly high accuracy.
But the reality turned out to be such that I had not so many tasks for this device.
Output
Combined, multi-tasking machines and devices certainly have their advantages - this is the ability to perform a variety of operations on one machine and the undemandingness of a large space.
At the same time, versatility requires good interaction between the parts of the machine, which leads to complication of set-up and limitation of the possibilities of individual operations.
Despite the attractiveness of the versatility and multifunctionality of combined solutions, at the present time I am still leaning towards simpler devices and machines designed for one kind of tasks: sawing, so sawing, planing, so planing.
As an example — my recent post.
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Alexander.
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