Help Devestated!!

[Evilpenguin]

Hi all

We were trying to cut the groove for the t-molding and screwed it up!  Its only a small 2 foot section on the control panel.  I am wondering if there is anyone who has tried to glue the t-molding to it by cutting down the strip that runs the length of the t-molding. There has got to be a way or a product that will work.  Someone save me from a long depressed state!

Jason

[MonitorGuru]

Go get a container of wood filler (or mix it yourself putty), fill the entire channel with putty, let harden a day or so, then attempt to reroute the hole.  

VERY recoverable (assuming you just got it crooked or too wide).

[old school gamer]

Sorry to hear about your screw up. A few questions and I can help...1 what kind of wood are you using?  2 I doubt very much that wood putty or any other type of filler will work depending on how bad the screw up is. 3 I know its a little late, but always practice on a scrap piece of wood before you do anything crutial. 4 How did you screw up ...was the depth not set correctly or did the router move on you. 5 I duobt that the T-mold can be glued on succesfully, you might get it to stay but in the long run it will probably fall off.  Sorry for all the bad news. Is it possible to make another control panel? Also it is easier to cut the t-mold on any piece BEFORE assembling it......... ie the sides,back or anyother place you want t-mold.

[NoOne=NBA=]

What exactly is messed up about it?

[zaphod]

Go get a container of wood filler (or mix it yourself putty), fill the entire channel with putty, let harden a day or so, then attempt to reroute the hole.  

VERY recoverable (assuming you just got it crooked or too wide).

I agree.  Depending upon how severe it is (and whether it is on the front of back of the CP) you may be able to get by with filling in the bad spots with wood putty, leaving enough of the slot for the molding to fit in.  I've done that on some spots where I wasn't paying attention and let the router base come up at an angle, which chewed too much material.

Hot glue will also work in a pinch.  

Do you have a picture of your faux pas?

[PiNPOiNT]

I messed up huge on one of the sides of my cabinet, my router depth somehow changed on me between cuts. and its off center now, so what i was thinking of doing (havent got my t-moulding yet) but was to cut off the part that fits in the trench, and just glue the damn thing straight onto the edge of the sides. and hopefully that will work. or re route the side again, properly in the middle ending up with an even bigger trench, and filling it all with glue as i put the t-molding on.  either of those ideas should work in theory.  Ill let you know how it turns out.

[Evilpenguin]

Well I guess I should clarify, exactly how it happened.  I don't have access to a router so we thought why not use a table saw.  I gave it to someone who is pretty good with wood and he cut it but not in the middle.  Now the only part that is messed up is probably about 5 inches.  I can upload a pic if that will help.  I bought some filler that says it can be drilled into, so it should work.  Ok so nobody has tried glueing it?  Also does anyone know if you rent a router from home depot whether you can rent the bit as well?  Or if anyone has any other ideas on how to cut the slot that would be great.  If you guys need a picture I will set one up.

Thanks

Jason

[PiNPOiNT]

Unfortunatly your not going to be able to find a store that will rent a routher, due to the "high" cost of the bits, it isnt worth their time to rent the router if people are forced to buy the bits for a 1 time use.  (This is what home depot told me), so other then buying a second hand one, or borrowing one from a friend, your out of luck.  However, now that i've used a router for the first time, i love it, it is by far, the MOST FUN tool you'll ever use

They start about $75 brand new at home depot.

im sure you can find something else to route around your house to make it worth the purchase.

[old school gamer]

First of all , a table saw blade has 1/8" thickness or more. For t-mold,the slot needs to be 1/16' thickness ( at least mine was ) , so the groove you cut is probably going to be to wide. Check and make sure it fits into the slot and is not sloppy. The t-mold needs to fit SNUG. I have 20 years woodworking experience,and it would be very difficult to cut the t-mold slot with a table saw, Im not saying its impossible, Im just saying use the right tool for the job.

[rdagger]

Go get a container of wood filler (or mix it yourself putty), fill the entire channel with putty, let harden a day or so, then attempt to reroute the hole.  

Wood filler or putty may not work.  I had a similar problem and filled the channel with wood filler and let it dry for 2 days.  The problem is that as soon as I tried to route the piece again, the slot cutter ripped most of the wood filler out.  The wood filler did not adhere to the MDF enough to withstand the force of the slot cutter.  You probably need to experiment on some scrap pieces with different types of fillers or glues and see if one works best.

[SideShow Rob]

I also lacked a router for cutting the T-moulding slot - and I used a combination of hand-saw and the flat of a screw-driver to cut the slot (saw for the initial cut, and the screw-driver to widen the slot).

One area that I cut was off centre - I hadn't realised my tape measure wasn't flat against the side as I measured the 9mm distance required...

All I did was widened the cut further, to get to the centre as I should have done, with more use of the screw-driver.

The slot was too wide for the T-moulding to fit tightly...so I applied a thin bead of liquid nails (hot glue should do the job too...) into the slot, and weighed the area down as it dried.

Once dried, it was as good as the rest of the T-moulding...

[SirPeale]

I'll second the 'get a router' recommendation.  I've used it like six times today, and I'm no woodworker by any means.  It's indispensible for cab making.

So far I've used it to cut out my control panel top, route the t-molding for it and route the space for the joystick dust cover.  If I had to do this any other way it would have taken me six times as long.  Took me all of ten minutes.  It just buzzes right through the wood.

[bwest]

For mistakes like this one, I find that mixing some sawdust and extended set epoxy works better than putty or filler.  The epoxy is fluid and "flows" into the slot easier.  Sometimes a gel epoxy is a better choice, but maybe not this time.

I have a saw blade with a kerf width of 1/16", however it is not nearly as accurate as my router.  You would need a high quality tablesaw and fence to achieve average results compared to a router.

Contact a local cabinet shop or woodworking club, many times they will make a cut for little to nothing if you are nice.  I suspect it would atleast be cheaper than renting a tool.

[old school gamer]

I have a saw blade with a kerf width of 1/16", however it is not nearly as accurate as my router.  You would need a high quality tablesaw and fence to achieve average results compared to a router.

1/16" kerf is very thin, I have a high quality table saw and fence ( the same saw Norm Abraham from the New Yankee Workshop has) and I doubt that I could cut a nice slot in the control panel. Of course without seeing the damage done ....we are all just guessing how this can be fixed,but I really dont think ANY type of filler will work in a situation like this were a goof needs to be fixed a RE-done. My suggestion is to start again and use the proper tool for the job,or better yet send it to me and I will make the cut FREE of charge!

[MonitorGuru]

Honestly, you DO NOT NEED a top of the line heavy duty/large router to do TMoulding.

Go to Harbor Freight and pick up their $19.99 Trim Router.  It's fast (22K RPM) and has enough power to cut a 1/16" slot.  It is not big enough to do 3/4" channels inside the cabinet frame, but to do a slot, it will work just fine.  It's always on sale for $20 and well worth it, in fact a lot easier to handle than a full size one.

$20 router and $16 MCS bit = a nice solution.

And yes, if you let the putty harden you definitely can reroute a clean channel.

[Wienerdog]

Where do you live?

[FractalWalk]

I once had a similar problem. I had to route out a slot on a beveled edge. I tried cutting a narrow groove with the table saw, then removing most of the spine of the T-molding, I glued it into place. The results weren't bad but not good enough for my tastes.

[DeathDealer]

I cut the slot for T-molding off center in part of my cab, I simply re-routed in the center and applyed Hot Glue, put pressure until dry and it works just fine.

[8bit]

You can find hardware rental stores, but that is all something that will depend on where you live (home depot is not one of these stores).  However I dont think they would have a slot cutting bit to rent.  Now if you have the money to afford the bit (its like around 25$) and can access the router then that will make a huge difference.  As old school gamer pointed out the width on the blade that was probably used is far too wide for what your going to do.

[Tiger-Heli]

Honestly, you DO NOT NEED a top of the line heavy duty/large router to do TMoulding.

Go to Harbor Freight and pick up their $19.99 Trim Router.  It's fast (22K RPM) and has enough power to cut a 1/16" slot.  It is not big enough to do 3/4" channels inside the cabinet frame, but to do a slot, it will work just fine.  It's always on sale for $20 and well worth it, in fact a lot easier to handle than a full size one.

$20 router and $16 MCS bit = a nice solution.

And yes, if you let the putty harden you definitely can reroute a clean channel.

Could you explain the differences between Harbor Freight's $19.99 trim router and $29.99 Plunge Router?  What is each good for?  Pro's/Con's?

[bwest]

A trim router is a small tool used for flush trimming laminate and such.  It does not require much torque because it cuts thin pieces.  It is designed to be used with one hand and is easy to move around.  It is not designed to handle standard routing chores and can quickly become unsafe (to user and tool) if too much is asked of it.

A fixed router can do all the above and standard routing chores.  However, a fixed router must set the depth prior to cut and this somewhat limits its use, such as in routing away wood under a CP for the joystick (this is a job for a plunge router).  Fixed routers do edges only.

A plunge router can do all of the above, and start a cut in the middle of a work surface.  You set a stop for the pre-determined depth of cut, align your router over the work surface, then plunge down to the stop and begin your cut.  In addition, a plunge router can function just like a fixed router for edge cutting tasks.

All in all a plunge router is best if you can only own one.  Then either of the two above are good second choices.  Many times you can safely use a smaller router for bigger tasks if you take multiple small cuts each pass to attain the finished cut.  I have successfully bought many tools from Harbor freight for limited use.  They will do the job, but for how long is uncertain.  Good luck with your tool buying.

[Lilwolf]

dont' fix it right away... route the sides property and also over the bad section.  And have that be in the middle of tmolding (so each side holds it there)... then decide if thats enought stability...   If not, add wood glue to that area or some filler when its wet, add the tmolding and center it.

As for the router... you will want a good plunger at some point.  I have a crap 35 dollar plunger router.  And its great for most things.. but it can't be set at a specific depth... so it sucks for tmolding.

get the cheap 20 fixed router will do... and the combination might be better then 1 55 router though.

[RecycledPast]

Learn from my mistake, hot glue dries quickly.

I used a small table saw to cut my grove for the T-molding and a few sections were a little wide so I applied hot glue in one inch increments all the way around my CP but by the time I started to hammer in the t-molding the glue was dry so I had to use a screw driver to remove all the glue spots and start over.  

[pathdoc2]

If you can trim off about 1/4 inch from each side of the panel and try using a router to make the correct channel for the t molding.

[Evilpenguin]

Good news everyone.  I manged (very slowly) to cout out the correct groove with a .......hand saw!  Worked perfectly for the little area I had to cut out.  The part that was screwed up I filled with polly fila and it worked like a charm.  So I am not devistated any longer, more like excited!

Thanks for all your replys!

Jason