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Subject: Re: Dovetail drawers machine

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Message Thread:

Dovetail drawers machine

12/25/23       
Akram

Hi, we are looking for Dovetail drawer machine under 10 K any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

12/25/23       #2: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Karl E Brogger  Member

Website: http://www.sogncabinets.com

I have a Cantek. It works, but I'm not a huge fan. Depends how many drawers you do to justify what you should spend. I do about 6-800 a year, I've been eye balling a Mereen Johnson CNC dovetailer. They're $80k. It's one of the next things on my list to get.

12/29/23       #3: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Tim Member

Not sure how many drawers a month you intend to make but as Karl points to, it’s good to know in terms of how to proceed and make a decision. I think you need to consider it as purchasing a manufacturing cell, not just one item.
At a 10k budget I’d buy a JLT drawer clamp and look for an older machine at auction. If you need an upgrade on the machine down the line, great, but you’ll still have a drawer clamp at a relatively low point of entry.
I really like my Omec 650A. It’s a small cnc dovetailer, unlike the Cantek, it skips unneeded dovetails and you can run parts really fast for such a small machine, it has an auto cycle where you just work the pneumatic clamps to run it. It was about 23k. 3 years ago. If 10k was the budget, I’d go with Karl’s suggestion. I have a Cantek edgebander that is absolutely fine, no frills and parts are cheap, I can work on it myself (just maintenance 7 years in), it does the job, I think I like my bander more than Karl likes his dovetailer.
Consider all the equip, beyond just the dovetailer that you need for an efficient drawer making station. We have a JLT drawer clamp that I feel is critical, a little south of 5k. These days. I think I’m all in 30k on my drawer station, consisting of, Omec dovetailer. FB marketplace purchased table saw setup with a power feeder and dado stack to groove the drawer stock after dovetailer, a sanding station ( just a RO to hit the insides, glue/assembly happens here too), then into the clamp. We have a nice little horseshoe production line setup. Once complete, drawers go back out to the larger shop floor to get edge sanded (another piece of machinery to consider) and then to a little shaper that is 75% of the time setup to notch the drawers.

12/31/23       #4: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Kurt Member

Hi Folks.
Im new to the forum after a suggestion from a Canadian Woodworking member for a more industrial/commercial experienced forum.
I have an old brookman dovetailer which works well. Bits are pricey (have 21). Machines go cheap comparatively (under 3k), and setup is simple (with manual). I almost pulled the pin on a Cantek this fall. Sold for 1500 Cad, but I was under the impression they were not the best dovetailer based on online reviews. My brookman was an upgrade to a porter cable jig where you manually run the router through it. Since I only build a handful of custom kitchens a year(slowly transitioning from carpentry to millwork) the brookman suits my needs for now. I have to score the inside of the pin drawer side when using baltic ply to avoid tearout, I am not sure if this would be the case on any dovetailer? On maple it cuts best, no scoring required.
I agree with Tim, drawer clamp would be an asset. Tim, are you using solid wood drawers and finishing after assembly? Im using prefinished, edgebanded baltic birch for majority of kitchens. I notch the backs of my drawers with a dado blade on a dedicated table saw after the dovetailing, but before assembly, would love a drawer notcher tho. I want to transition to solid maple drawers but I was thinking of still using 12mm pre-finished baltic bottoms, and pre-finishing the insides of the drawers before assembly. Looking forward to being a part of this online community, and I hope I didn't go too off topic.
Good luck with your dovetailer decision.
-Kurt.

12/31/23       #5: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Tim Member

We do primarily solid, a good bit of Wh. Oak, but mostly 5/8 soft maple that we buy from one of our lumber suppliers. We bring in the 3 widths we use most. I think 4.25”, 7” and 9.25”. We use 3/8 maple on an MDF core for bottoms. Currently we are finishing as the last step but have considered pre finishing the stock on the inside and bottoms just before cutting to length and dovetailing.
We use Mozaik for cabinet software. That outputs a cut list to an upcut saw with automated stop. Bottoms are cut and labeled on the cnc.

1/2/24       #6: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Akram Member

Website: http://www.americanvisioncabinets.com

Thanks for everyone helped responding,

I never thought of building our dovetail drawers before until one of the biggest doors and drawers company in California closed last month, left us dealing with other small companies which now they have got to deal with a lots of work load they ware not ready to handle.
Our last 3 orders came with so many problems and mistakes, that left me to think about getting our 1st dovetailer machine and see if we can produce our drawers.
We are using Mozaik for cnc cut, and Mozaik has a dovetail drawer options but I guess cutting a lots of small drawer boxes on cnc we will have a Vacuum problem parts will start moving and will get damaged, so we are thinking about dovetail drawer machine now.
We are planning of getting pre made Pre Finished Baltic birch rounded and edgebaded strips to start with.
Cross cut on a clean table saw blade
Running through dovetail machine Cantic or Omec per your suggestion.
Assemble it on JLT clamp
Please let me know what is missing on this process.
Thank you in advance.

1/2/24       #7: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Tim Member

That sounds like a good start to me. This is just a personal preference but I’ve never banded the top edge of a BB drawer. Since it’s veneer core layers are exposed at the dovetail, I always preferred to just leave it as is.
I have a colleague in my area that cuts all his drawers from Mozaik on a Homag 4x8 router with a single pump. He uses the Vortex tooling kit for them. I never heard him say he had an issue with hold down. If your doing mostly small stuff I’m sure it could be a problem. If all you intend to do is BB you could get the drawer clamp and try out the vortex setup since you already have the software and cnc.
Try onion skinning and see how small you can go. It’s pricey tooling but far less than a dovetailer.

1/3/24       #8: Dovetail drawers machine ...
Kurt Member

Thank you Tim for educating me as well. I find the new water based prefin BB a lot slipperier than the old urethane, so it would be interesting to see how stationary it stays with the vacuum pump during machining. I have also constructed BB drawers without the edge banding but by the time I sand, micro bevel the drawer edge and apply wipe on poly, Its faster for me to put through the edgebander. I dont mind either appearance. There are a few companies in Quebec that make nice hardwood drawers for companies who dont want to produce their own. I personally find it nice to be in control of my own timeline for every aspect of kitchen construction, but Im a drop in the bucket compared to the volume you fellas do.
Cheers.
Kurt.

 

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