How to cut coin slots

[benjamin]

I'm looking for ideas on how to cut a slot to hold a coin on its edge. It could be cut through a 1/8" piece or just cut sufficient depth to hold the coin securely in a thicker piece.

I want to cut about 48 slots side by side to hold 48 coins on edge one next to the other -- so I need the process to produce consistent, parallel slots.

The coins are 2.5-3mm thick, so I could use a circular saw blade with a thin kerf, but the large diameter of most blades would elongate the slot too far in anything more than paper thin.

My best idea so far is to just drill holes on the ends of the slot and knock it out with a chisel.

Another idea is to cut a long cove, and then divide it.

Any ideas?

[curiousgeorge]

How about using a Dremel tool with a saw bit.

[Ed in Tampa]

Bisuit jointer has a saw blade that might work.

Also you can make a cradle to mount a router and use a small straight bit. The cradle would be half circle that the piece you have the router mounted to would run through. Causing the router to cut a half circle in the project. You would govern the size of the slot by the size of cradle. This would be much like one of those chair seat forming cradles that scoop out the seat on chair seats only on a much smaller scale.

Another way would be to suspend a router above the work on a piviot that would allow the tip of the router to swing in an arc. You would control the size of the slot by how close the piviot was to the tip of the bit and how deep you cut.



Ed

[Ed in Tampa]

[ATTACH]2330[/ATTACH]

It just dawned on me I didn't explain myself well in the last post. So I quickly drew a picture. Build this jig and mount your router to piviot bar.
The more you extend the bit will increase the arc diameter. Use the spacers to adjust actual depth of cut. The cut is made by tilting the router back and forth causing the bit to swing in an arc. You could also make the support legs that hold the piviot longer or shorter to increase or decrease the arc diameter. Once you got the exact diameter you want you would simply move the jig over your work where you want the slot and tilt the router back and forth and more to the next slot.

Before I did anything I would find a bit small enough to cut the width slot you want. I have seen bits made for laminate and dremel type routers that small.

Ed

[dusty]

I'm looking for ideas on how to cut a slot to hold a coin on its edge. It could be cut through a 1/8" piece or just cut sufficient depth to hold the coin securely in a thicker piece.

I want to cut about 48 slots side by side to hold 48 coins on edge one next to the other -- so I need the process to produce consistent, parallel slots.

The coins are 2.5-3mm thick, so I could use a circular saw blade with a thin kerf, but the large diameter of most blades would elongate the slot too far in anything more than paper thin.

My best idea so far is to just drill holes on the ends of the slot and knock it out with a chisel.

Another idea is to cut a long cove, and then divide it.

Any ideas?

Could you cut the slot using the circular saw blade (thin kerf as suggested) and then run it through the surface planer until you reduced the top surface down to the point where the kerf's depth is "just right".

What size coin are we mounting here? An dime or a silver dollar? Solution might be different?

[regnar]

You could draw a center line down the middle of a board. Set the distance between the coins. Use a Fostner bit the same size of the coin and drill to the depth of the coins at each of the marked spots. Take a smaller board do the same thing as before just use a slightly smaller fostner bit. Slice down the middle of both and you should have 2 sets of how ever many you make it. Hope this makes sence.

[charlese]

...I'm looking for ideas on how to cut a slot to hold a coin on its edge. It could be cut through a 1/8" piece or just cut sufficient depth to hold the coin securely in a thicker piece.

I want to cut about 48 slots side by side to hold 48 coins on edge one next to the other -- so I need the process to produce consistent, parallel slots.

The coins are 2.5-3mm thick,....

Any ideas?

Hi Ben! Here is a link to many small router bits that should work for you. http://www.forestcitytool.biz/products_ ... &cat_id=34
You could use a OPR if available, or a router table if marked out like Ed (reible) describes in this post. See posts #2,#3,and #4, https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=2445

What part of the world do you call home?

[curiousgeorge]

MLCS is an excellent place for router bits and they ship for free...

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... erbit.html

[reible]

Hi,

Since we are a full service forum we like to present options... Here is how I think I might do it, that is if I had the need. It is much like making a cutting board in that you take strips and cut them up and then glue them back together.

So this is not to confusing I did a couple of sketches to show what I mean. Step one is selecting the wood (more on that in a moment) then deciding on how thick/long/wide you want the finish product. Then find the center and drill the number of holes you want evenly spaced. I have shown two pieces of wood, they each require the two rips shown.

[ATTACH]2331[/ATTACH]

You want all the A's to be the same size so the ripping operation can be done without changing setups, just flip the wood 180 deg and cut again. The results will be a bunch of strips that look like this:

[ATTACH]2332[/ATTACH]

Now for a glue up and finishing. That should look something like this:

[ATTACH]2333[/ATTACH]

The wood selection or staining could make it interesting as shown:

[ATTACH]2334[/ATTACH]

Having said all that I did a coin project with inset coins and was told it needed to be made out of mahogany as it was the least likely to "stain" the coins. I'm not a coin person but I did as was requested, you might want to research this if these coins are worth something.

Oh yea that darn yellow glue seems to have made my joints stand out... hope it makes it easier to see that way.

Ed

[charlese]

Yep! - I agree that Ed has come upon the best, and simplest, way to support your coins.