Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Woodworking => Topic started by: MartyKong on August 04, 2015, 10:11:12 pm
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:badmood: Set up my T molding Slot cutter. Made several trial passes to get the depth perfect. Made sure the bit was well tightened. Routed out the side's bottom first and rechecked with T molding - all is well. Slowly routed out the sides keeping the router level. Afterwards, I noticed in certain areas, above the gap seemed a little bit higher than the lower part. I pulled the original test piece - where I knew it was perfectly centered (Thinking the bit was loose) and rechecked. It was perfectly centered. Hoping I was wrong, I ran the slot cutter over the area and of course it removed more wood, making the gap a bit too large for the T molding splines :cry: My best guess is ??? The slot cutter added sawdust to the top and the router bed rode up on this screwing up my carefully centered slot? I really don't know. :banghead:
Anyone refill T molding slots with bondo and reroute? Does the slot need to be completely filled for this to work. Happy to listen to any ideas you guys might have. I think I need a beer :P
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That sucks. Jacking up the slot cut for t-molding is always my biggest fear when building a cab.
Apparently some high quality hot glue squirted down the gap does the trick. (I've never personally done this but I read about it everywhere) Guess you should be sure if you want to do this because getting the glue back out could be a beyotch.
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Thanks for the hot glue tip. I'm guessing that's to secure the loose areas when installing the T molding. I think I'm going to trim the barbs off a piece of T molding, use to find the bad area's, fill and reroute. If it works - I'll let you know. Thanks Vwalbridge.
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Thanks for the hot glue tip. I'm guessing that's to secure the loose areas when installing the T molding. I think I'm going to trim the barbs off a piece of T molding, use to find the bad area's, fill and reroute. If it works - I'll let you know. Thanks Vwalbridge.
Refill the entire slot with bondo (usually takes 2 passes due to shrinkage). Sand smooth. Re-route. Not that big of a deal really, just a time killer.
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You know I see a different aspect for hot melt glue, same with bondo just fill the slot with hot melt glue and you could re-route it. You would need to be quick to not melt it bad but it should work and be a super fast fix. Fill, 5 mins to cool, route and tada.
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For areas where the slot is too wide, I just put electrical insulation tap along the t-molding until I get snug fit, then tap into place as usual. I don't like the idea of using glue in case I ever want to remove the t-molding again in the future, for whatever reason.
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I use hot glue in small patches but if it's bad I am leaning towards redoing it with bondo. The big drawback to hot glue is that it doesn't always come out easy and can pull a lot of cabinet material out with it. I had to redo a section of a cabinet that I had hot glued the t-molding down and it made a mess of the slot.
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that's why I'm thinking just fill the slot with hot melt glue, let it cool, re-route like you bondo'd it which should work just dandy.
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Wired203. Wouldn't the speed of the router bit create heat and mess up the joint? I figured bondo might be stronger for rerouting. Thanks
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Yeah I'm guessing a spinning slot cut bit would remelt the hot glue and probably fling it everywhere.
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high temp go quick :-) I'll have to try it myself but the theory is semi sound
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I can't imagine routing any type of glue would work out well.
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Personally I've never had a good experience trying to correct a mis-routed slot. Haven't tried bondo, but the other solutions I've tried (various putties and glues) haven't worked very well.
Nowadays, I just route the slot before doing any other drilling or hole-cutting so if I screw it up, I just do it over on a fresh piece.
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Hey guys, Got a chance to do some testing with the Hot glue and Bondo. The first picture shows it filled with hot glue. (http://i.imgur.com/9qkD1JJ.jpg) Second picture shows it after routing.(http://i.imgur.com/2t5ExrO.jpg) As you can see there was some melting and you can see some glue buildup on the test piece. I had to go slower because of all the angles. This might work when routing a straighter side. The final picture is the side filled with general purpose Bondo. (http://i.imgur.com/SaqnXMs.jpg) Although I hate to admit to shrinkage, I went with Behrmr suggestion and used two passes. ;D A big benefit of bondo over the glue is sanding. After filling I like to sand the edge where the slot cutter bearing runs, glue doesn't sand well. Shponglefan, the fill turned out pretty well, although if you need to remove/install t molding multiple times you might run into problems. Hope this helps others.
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Oh well, I tried attaching pictures but they were too big. Started a post on the main forum on how to attach pictures. Tried the recommended Postimage.org but no luck :badmood: Hope the post helps anyway.
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https://imgur.com/ is pretty good. no signup required.
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I might have a bigger problem, the t mold spine of the new stuff I bought is a lot smaller than the original slot. So besides filling and routing an entire cabinet, or hot gluing the whole thing, is there anything I can put on the spine to build it up? Did the electrical tape really work???
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i did a test of using silicone to bond some glass to mdf and that worked well. would be fast to put a bead of silicone in the slot and then put molding in, stays pliable for a long time, just beware the fumes. no idea if it would really work though.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I tried another product I found at Menards next to the electrical tape. It's call friction tape, it's cheap, really sticky, and two layers worked like a charm!
Hope this helps others.
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I'll have to check out the friction tape. Thanks for the tip. My T molding spline is 3/32" and the slot cutter is 1/16". How far off were you? I was able to repair my damaged areas with bondo but then again I didn't have to recut the whole thing. With the friction tape are you able to remove the T molding if needed?
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I don't know how off it is but let's just say it would fall out if tipped over. Yes you can remove it with the tape.