Quote Originally Posted by ngwagwa View Post
I make wooden fishing lures using a template and a router and I can profile and round over both sides in a couple of minutes and don't think it would be faster by CNC. There's a video here showing how I make them, may give you some ideas? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsZSE...ature=youtu.be
Interesting video.
If I could get the total time down to 10-15minutes per handle, I'd be happy, but it's just time consuming.
Screw the template on, and doing the trim on the bandsaw I estimated takes 5 minutes minimum.
Then profiling to the template is realistically 5 minutes, as my router table can't take that deep a cut as it's not rigid enough, so takes a bit finessing to avoid too many gouges.
Removing the template then rounding over takes another 5 minutes.
That's 15 minutes already, not including tool changes.
I machined 3 handles today, and it took me nearly an hour, including tool changes and tidying up afterwards (even with a good extractor, the router table throughs a lot on the floor).

Then even if I bought another router and made a jig/sled for thinning the ends, I'd estimate that'll be another 5 minutes.
So that's about 25 minutes per handle, and doesn't include time for sanding the handle to get rid of the ripples from the router table resonating/flexing, which is about 5-10 minutes per handle.

So even with everything as streamlined as possible, that's 30-35 minutes per handle.

If I switch to a CNC table, I guess labour input is likely to be around 5 minutes per handle, including swapping tools/blanks, if I can do 3 or 4 in one setup.
That's a 20 minute saving per handle. Plus there is the option I could probably switch to cut timber and have the router finish the surface, saving money on planed timber.

However, I need to workout if the labour saving will be worth the cost of building the machine.