Hello
I'm trying to suss out the best method of multi-sided milling - ie. milling a piece of wood (usually 130 x 65 x <1300 mm but may change) pine on all 4 sides.
Willing to purchase the right tool if necessary to get the job done accurately & hopefully quickly as well.
Has anyone approached multi-sided milling on a large-ish scale; what are the pros & cons?
Here are the methods i have tried &/or thinking of trying:
1/ Dowel registration method: has been giving me pretty good results but i'm limited to 2 sides & it takes a while to setup & clamp (I will be milling a lot of parts).
2/ Template profile method: the results have been pretty good also but can take a while to remove/replace the parts in the template.
Have been cutting template from MDF so after a while it starts to get a bit loose. Plus haven't tried 4 sided stuff yet.
Not tried:
3/ Spin indexer & tailstock: I can't figure out how the stock is fixed with the 5C collet - does it use a chuck? I could'nt find a 5C 3/4 jaw chuck.
4/ Custom jig:
I came across this jig & this looks exactly what i need but i'm wary of how much movement there would be with the stock.
Stock also needs to run parallel to table.
Is there a version of this manufactured by a company?
5/ Custom jig 2:
a flip jig someone has made; may be a bit small for the large stock
6/ Rotary 4-axis & chuck:
like this one; i'm only dealing with 90degree increments so servo control may be overkill.
7/ Dividing head: Very expensive - don't need it to rotate up/down
So yeah, i'm a bit lost at what method is the best to get good accurate results with a large number of jobs.
I'm also new to engineering so am unsure of the benefits various tools provide.
Thanks for any help.