how was this made?

So far people suggested laser, water jet, steel rule die.
Water would damage the wood, laser would leave burn marks, and I'm not sure if a die would be able to punch out a 3/4 thick piece of wood. Also the beveled edge, not sure what the most cost effective method is to produce it.

Would these tiles be cut from a larger piece of wood that produces multiple pieces, or would they be machines individually? I would like to make something similar but I'm not sure what the most effective method of production would be.

What you are actually looking at is flooring tiles made from 5/8" engineered hardwood with a 9 ply baltic birch substrate and a 5/16" wear layer.

CNC router is the obvious choice. Put enough router heads on the bridge to span a sheet of material. Multiple tiles cut at one time. Note there are no sharp internal corners on either design.

Yeah, pattern routed. In production, there wouldn't be any need for CNC, either, since you'd use physical templates and hard automation.

The clue that the more complex pieces were routed is all of the corners that should be sharp and square,have radii because they were cut with a rotating bit.

Yes, I noticed there were no sharp corners too. Thanks for the info guys.

sfriedberg said:

Yeah, pattern routed. In production, there wouldn't be any need for CNC, either, since you'd use physical templates and hard automation.

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Your reference to ". . . templates and hard automation" for production is curious to me. By "hard automation", do you mean something akin to a hydraulic tracers or ??? Are tracers still generating "production" in 2015?

There are a lot of different automatic profilers still out there, though I don't know if new ones are made. The newest machines I've seen (& that was over a decade ago) were Italian or Euro.

The inside corners indicate a router, so I can't think of a name, but the profiler could work on the same principle as a Rye starting in the 20's or 30's, a linear profiler if you flip the part and do it twice, or an A & B Lockdrive but with a router spindle. I believe I saw automation on an Onsrud inverted pin router, which is still made, at one of the IWF shows in the 80's. I've still got one of the yo-yo's it was spitting out but can recall the details of the drive.

Most of these have a version of an automatic turntable or carrier, that rotates around a spindle. Either the spindle is on a frame that is spring (or air) loaded an can swing in and out; or the work carrier is. A linear profiler, the spindle swings as the work travels in a line past it, to push in and out of the pattern contours.

I'm not seeing automation specifically advertised for the Onsrud, but don't really have time to look right now. But it is old technology to apply it.

https://www.cronsrud.com/inverted_routers.html

There are bandsaws that will rough shapes like that at blazing speeds, too. But I've only seen the videos.
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Thank you Stephen.

An outfit called Bardle Doo Manufacturing makes the machines that cut those tiles.

Looks like Bacci still make linear profilers, with multiple heads.

(John spelled it wrong. )

http://scosarg.com/bacci-fc2-twin-head-linear-copy-shaper.html

On that same site in the youtube window, check out the auto copy shaping machine.
Looks like the Chinese still make them new, but the system goes back to the 20's or 30's in the US.

Edited: Here's a direct link to the Chinese machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO0oWTeHp-A

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Couldn't you shape a log with a moulding machine and then slice it up with a table saw

I suppose grain would be wrong, but that's another reason I hate working with wood

JP Machining said:

Couldn't you shape a log with a moulding machine and then slice it up with a table saw

I suppose grain would be wrong, but that's another reason I hate working with wood

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Yes, and in some cases that is desirable to do it that way (as in the customer wants that feature). I am guessing these parts are a little bigger than a person would want to slice on a table saw, but a band saw then ran through a widebelt sander would be viable. Depending on the species and thickness, it might be an issue to not lose any chunks on the edges due to it being end grain, but it could be done.

If it were me as a cnc router guy, I'd setup all four spindles and either work on a sheet at a time or individual blanks, then find some poor guy to load/unload it.

I think CR Onsrud quit automating their inverted machines when they got into building cnc's, at least I didn't see any when I went to visit a couple times. They also make multi spindle cnc routers and carving machines. If I recall a tech showed me a 18 spindle machine they built for a gun stock outfit. Would have been app 2007 ish.

thanks for information. How much wood profiler are there? I want to use bigger wood tiles than the pics sprunk has posted. where can I find that?

There aren't any "standard sheet sizes" for flooring blanks, though I suppose they could be engineered and ordered. Typically, the manufacturer laminates their own substrate to match their own current marketing story.

These probably are -not- 4 x 8 sheets. They may be somewhat random length "planks" to start.

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Those are beautiful, how are they held to the substrate?

Those are beautiful, how are they held to the substrate?

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It says they are glue down.
We use trowelable Urethane flooring adhesives for similar products. Not cheap (~$200 - $300 per 5 gal) but IMO it's a waste of money to use anything else for a permanent installation.

Enigma Flooring Sextant from Jamie Beckwith Collection


About | Jamie Beckwith

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Just FYI, waterjets don't actually damage wood. Oddly, they don't even seem to get it very wet. you set the water level lower than the wood and you put a sacrificial sheet of backing on top and bottom and that stops the splash up and it cuts so dang fast that no much gets adsorbed.

I've seen a large 2-3" thick natural edge dining table being set up to waterjet some bow-tie inlets and legs pockets into.

very interesting

On that second image, only that one tile is out of whack. All other tiles alternate the grain.
Is only the top "veneer" profiled and then glued to a solid board below, or is the full thickness of the board profiled?

If I were to make them, I would make bigger tiles from the supporting layer and profile their outer edges so they also interlock. The top layer can then be individual pieces glued to the bigger tiles in a controlled environment.
That would make for much faster and smoother installation when on site and cut down on manufacturing cost. They could also be glued up in a jig to ensure the smaller tiles fit the big ones just right!

Is only the top "veneer" profiled and then glued to a solid board below, or is the full thickness of the board profiled?

Click to expand...

That type stuff is almost always made up as blanks in the form of planks, then run through automatic profilers. IOW, no way except for some of the custom matches we do, that the top layer would come separate.

in the second half of the 19th c. up until maybe the depression in the 20th c.; there was a common and widely installed product called "wood carpet". It's hay day was the decades just before WW1. it consisted of aproximately 5/16" thick feature elements arranged in geometric tiles and glued to linen backer. Contrary to the name ("wood carpet") it did not roll, but was delivered in more or less "large" sheets. It was laid out over diagonal T & G subfloor, and nailed down with "many" face nails/brads per element, in a geometric pattern.

Wood carpet border section, folded ribbon pattern, Office of the Treasurer, USA; 1860's



We replicate it for repairs or historic restorations with similar pieces to match, but glue them in. Sometimes we take up entire floors, catalog them, de-nail them, and then reinstall over diagonally laid
3/4" plywood (2 layers in gov't work) with modern adhesive.

I have posted in the past that with modern plywood and adhesives, this is a very practical and conservative method for modern complex floors. Think about it: 25/32" (standard thickness) T & G strip flooring is worn out when it had been sanded down about 3/16". The tops of the grooves start to split and feather off, and the 1/2" of wood under that is doing nothing if the flooring is laid over subfloor.

But as far as your post, all the "engineered" floors as in the PO's examples, are laid up complete in the factory. After cutting out, most with the micro-vee edge detail are also prefinished. (Some like Pergo and similar, the entire top layer is impregnated with dyed acrylic). The installers lay them out and glue them down.

Early 20th C "engineered floor" parquets, ballroom, Marjorie Post house (Hillwood Museum). Hide glue panel lay-ups, field installed in "cut back adhesive" (tar).





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