Drawer utensil holder

I’m interested in trying to make a drawer utensil holder by carving out an area for forks, spoons and knives out of a big block of wood (either some 12/4 stock or a glue up like a cutting board).

However, to be actually usable, the holes for the utensils would need to be about 2" deep, so I don’t think that would work with the x-carve because the bits aren’t really that long right? I’ve just always heard you can only cut about an inch depth. I suppose I could do two pieces of stock, one that is cut all the way through and one that is cut most of the way through and glue them in a stack, but any other thoughts come to mind?

Thanks!

If you have a stock X carve cutting two pieces and gluing them up is your best solution. Steve

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The X Carve with it’s belt system is not ideal for hogging out large voids and does so slowly. This video talks about that

That said, you might be able to use the X-Carve to design a template and then use a hand router with follower bearing to exactly follow that template.

Another strategy would be to cut your material all the way through rather than hogging out the tray and then adding a bottom to your project. This video discusses that when explaining how to make nesting planters.

Finally, I personally find designs that hog out lots of material to be wasteful of both time and materials and I instead prefer designs that achieve similar results through gluing up cut pieces. It might be possible to cut many pieces of this project on the X Carve before gluing them up and doing final finishing. It might be interesting to do alternating slices of contrasting woods the way some cutting boards are made.

I think this is a great project and would have great appeal as an ETSY store item or at a faire.

Very good stuff, thank you. I love the idea of not trying to hog out the whole void and rather cut out the shape and put a piece of plywood or something else at the bottom just like this 2nd video shows.

However, 4min into this video on modular puzzle planters, it talks about how his stock was almost 2" thick and the bit would bottom out into the collet. I’ve been wrestling with that question for years. For that problem specifically:

  1. I think there is still enough clearance under the stock X-Carve to fit 8/4 stock like is shown in this video, even without needing all the new fancy belt/carriage upgrade Inventables just came out with right?

  2. More specifically, this does need a bigger bit, but which bit would do the trick for this like is shown in the video, if all I have is the stock Dewalt router that comes with the x-carve? Honestly, for this and other projects, I would want to do almost exactly what is in this video. I see that @JanVanderlinden posted some links on this topic to some bits, but I’m not sure which I could use and what feed settings to really cut out a shape in 8/4 stock like shown in this video in one pass.

Thanks!

I posted that to show you there are longer bits available.
Your collet does not have to rub on the work piece.
Use the square end cutter to take out the majority of stock and the ball nose to finish up the sides and bottom radius.
I never run the router over number one setting and my feed ~80 IPM.
I know it can be done as I make cigar ashtrays all the time.
Hope this helps you out.




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Very good stuff, thank you for forwarding. It looks like realistically 1.5 inches is about the deepest you can go as a pocket and similarly 6/4 or so lumber is probably about as thick of lumber you can cut all the way through (like shown in that modular puzzle planter video). Looks like these bits are 3" long, but only 1.5" of cutting height and you would need to go fairly slow to do so. Or could you go deeper because not all of the remaining 1.5" of the bit is in the collet and if so, what would the realistic deepest be that you could go?

All seems reasonable and fine, just making sure I’m not missing anything.

Thanks!

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