say goodbye to your hollow chisel mortiser

[Eric.]

[Bombarde16]

Fascinating solution to an eternal problem: Drilling a square hole.

I'm assuming that it was jigged up in a massive and massively expensive CNC machine. I wonder if this sort of technology will ever make it down to consumer level. For that matter, if it's even possible. An eccentric cutter head moving that fast has got to set up some enormous vibrations that would be problematic if not prohibitive in a lighter weight or even hand-held tool.

[wilburpan]

An eccentric cutter head moving that fast has got to set up some enormous vibrations that would be problematic if not prohibitive in a lighter weight or even hand-held tool.

Doesn't the Festool Domino have a cutter that vibrates/oscillates to make the tenon slot? Not exactly the same vibration as the cutter in this video, for sure, but it indicates that the problem may not be completely unsolvable.

[Dan S]

You can't make a truly square hole, the only way to do that is with a broach. You can however approximate a square hole pretty well.

This video shows how the system works, and provides some information about how close to square you can get.

[Ben@FineWoodworking]

That animation makes me think on the wankel (sp) engine.

[mikepdarr]

I was thinking rotary cutters had been around for awhile. We had one back in metal shop in the early nineties.

[nateswoodworks]

At an auction several years back I had bought an OLD 1/2" drill (you know the ones that will wring out your arm and twist it around your body) a few years back because I needed one more tool that could kill me-and it reminded me of my grandpa's. Anyways, with the drill came a small set of bits that were so cheap they actualy drilled an oval hole. They flexed but didn't break, make them cheaper and you could drill square holes around corners!

Nate

[Stephens_Shop]

That's just cool in slow mo.