A friend is making stuff for his candle shop, and needs to taper inside 1.5″ holes. He’s been doing this by hand, over and over and over and over. I’m thinking he could use a largish chamfering bit with a plunge router to do this with. Any downside? A better way to do it?
forestgirl — you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the girl 😉
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I think chamfering bits would be too steep a taper?
I also assum that cone shaped tapering bits, like those used by charirmakers (available at LV among other places) is out because he needs a flat bottom in a solid wood candle holder?
If this is correct, I would suggest buying a 1.5 inch spade bit and regrinding the blades to the desired taper. I dunno how hard it wold be to modify the side edges to do some cutting - that would be the trick - as it's the bottom edges of the spade bit that ususally do the work.
Edited 10/11/2007 12:00 pm ET by Samson
I think in this particular instance, he's cutting through holes for candleholders (sorta like small glasses) that taper. They drop into the holes in an arced piece of wood (a barrel stave)forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another idea would be to make what amounts to a plunging tapered drum sander that could be mounted in a drill press. Use a treaded rod to act as a shank for a piece of dowel or turning giving the desired taper. Glue sandpaper to it and plunge it into the straightsided hole (made with a forstner or whatever) until it enlarges and tapers the hole as desired. More complicated than the spade bit idea, but could work. Hardest part might be attaching the paper to the tapered form so teh seam could withstand the work.
I would use one of the bits at the bottom of the page in the link below. I think the 11.250 degree bit would be perfect.
http://mikestools.com/cmt-chamfer-bits_1165.aspx
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Edited 10/11/2007 12:15 pm ET by JerryPacMan
If he is truly doing production work, he should probably contact one of the makers of router bits that will do custom work. Eagle America is one that comes to mind, but I'm sure there are many others.
I'll bet that for a couple of hundred bucks, he could have a custom made plunge-cutting bit, either for a router, or for a drill press.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
Sorry Maam, I work at Eagle America and we don't make custom bits, I wish we did. But We do have a bright idea reward and If we deem a bit worthy of production for the market we will do it. I believe the reward is $250(don't quote me) A measured drawing must be mailed in to Eagle America and reason for the bit to be put on the market.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
My apologies to ForestGirl, and my thanks to you for the correction.
When I lived in NE Ohio (many moons ago) a friend had told me that you did custom stuff.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
Thanks for the idea. He's not doing huge numbers of these, just enough that doing them by hand is a real drag.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Here is a ling to a MLCS camfer bit that is large diameter 2 1/8" but its a 45 taper may be to sharp an atack angle, but it could be used as a countersink type bit. Its at the bottom of this link
http://mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/triplewing.html
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You're talking about a taper to fit the bottom of the candle itself, right? That's usually a very shallow taper, shallower than any off-the-shelf router bits that I know of. And a chamfering bit has the additional problem of the bearing--it would prevent you from getting all of the way to the bottom of the hole.
The tool of choice for this operation is a tapered reamer, but they're expensive (about $150-250 for a candle-sized one). Because they have multiple cutting edges, you get a very smooth hole. You can get them from places like McMaster-Carr.
-Steve
Hi, Steve. Sorry I wasn't real specific in my pre-caffein-written OP. I have his email address now, so I'm going to write and get some specific info from him, but I'm now recalling these are through holes for short glass candleholders.
Mainly, I wanted to check and make sure using a chamfer bit in such a manner (large-ish bit, plunging into a hole) wasn't a dumb thing to do. I try not to recommend dumb things to my friends' husbands, LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Not being a wise A. But what about one of those antique Bung hole reamers? Drill straight then ream.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Edited 10/11/2007 5:29 pm ET by BruceS
FG, I remember seeing a bit in a craft/turners mag/catalog that created the socket for the traditional candle base. Turned wood candle sticks are a biggie in the craft buisness. Paddy
John Alexander has a very simple design for a tapered reamer that you can make pretty much any size and angle you want. It is designed for hand use, but I would expect it or a slight mod would work fine in a drill press at low speed.
http://www.greenwoodworking.com/reamer.htm
Wow, that's cool! Thanks!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I'd think a reamer like that shown in the attached picture should work nicely. They're use in metal working, traditionally held in a tap holder, hence the square end. I'd think that if it could be chucked into a drill press it should work nicely.
Check with a machine shop for a source for the reamers used to make a female morse taper. I'd think that taper should be just about right for a candle holder.
I checked a bung reamer I've got (as used in wine barrel construction) and I believe the taper is a bit more than would be desired for candles.
"You would need to rotate the router to maintain the same contact point with the template." That might be tricky, but overall an intriguing idea. No drawing needed, made sense. I'll pass it along to my friend. Going to try and get to his shop tomorrow and look at exactly what the taper is that's involved.
a google search for "custom router bits" returns hundreds of links. It would appear that a custom bit could be obtained for $125 or less. One with a pilot bearing should make tapering the sides of the hole a simple matter.
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