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Print ArticleOnce your shop has come to the conclusion that between the time, labor, seam compound and material savings benefits it’s time to purchase a v-groover — how do you decide on which v-groover is right for your needs?
Surface Fabrication asked Greg Hunter, case good design and marketing specialist with Auto ‘V’ Grooving, to talk about the things to consider when purchasing a v-groover.
Surface Fabrication: What are the most important things to consideration when purchasing a v-groover?
Greg Hunter: In v-grooving, precision and the stability of the depth of the cut are crucial. The v-groover must be of a quality construction to maintain this depth throughout the cutting process and the production workload — at least until the cutter is changed. Whether the v-groover has a moving head or a stationary head, the machine must be able to hold the cutting depth at all the variable cutting speeds of inches per minute — up to 60 lineal ft. per minute — and for different thicknesses of material.
A solidly built v-groover eliminates vibrations, any unwanted cutterhead movement fluctuations, and provides a solid cutting area for brittle material demands.
SF: Special considerations for operating the machine?
Hunter: Simple and safe operation is a must. Even our most sophisticated, programmer-free v-groover has a learning curve of two to three hours. This is important to fabrication shop managers. You want to avoid any dependency upon a skilled and experienced operator who can be sick or on vacation. With simple operation and a two to three hour learning curve, a good number of your staff can become qualified operators. Some shops even make each fabricator do their own v-grooving as part of their “pride in quality” work culture.
Unrelated, occasionally through operator error, the critical support of the cutting area can inadvertently be cut. You want to make sure this cutting area can be quickly and inexpensively repaired and without precise, expensive and time-delaying special machining.
SF: How can a fabricator be sure the machine will produce quality seams?
Hunter: In my opinion, a vertical rotation of a 9-in. diameter cutter configured in a climbing cut rotation ensures high-quality seams, economically over the full workload of a typical busy and prospering fabrication shop.
SF: Explain the importance of the taping system?
Hunter: For brittle materials, such as stone and solid surface, the underside of the cut must have tape applied. The tape is about .003 of an inch thick. The v-groover has to cut down through the material, but not through the tape.
The tape serves three purposes: It keeps the resulting two pieces of material together; it acts as a hinge when the joint is glued and folded; and, finally, it acts as a glue barrier to keep the joint compound inside the joint rather than squeezing out. Squeeze-out demands more labor time to clean up the outside finished face, which brings up the point of applying the tape.
A v-groover should have an automatic tape applicator. Sometimes people forget to load tape or the roll won’t unroll — a cut without tape means you now have a separate piece no longer attached to the main workpiece and a potential missile. Our solution to ensure the tape is always applied was the development of a “smart” taping unit that can sense if tape is not being applied and lift the cutting heads without cutting the workpiece. Quickly the operator resets the machine, corrects the oversight and production continues safely. Of course, the tape applicator needs to be able to flash a warning when the roll is nearly empty for timely replenishment of the roll of tape.
SF: Discuss the handlings of end cuts.
Hunter: If you have ever tried to do an end cut across a 30-in.-wide piece of solid surface, you know it can be up to 12 ft. long, and around 200 lbs. It’s a skill developed through experience — and it is anexpensive skill gained with lots of expensive, wasted and scrapped solid surface. The v-groover you buy needs a fast and accurate system to ensure the end cuts travel at 90 degrees to the cutter.
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Compact V
Monument Toolworks offers the Compact V, a v-groover designed for solid surface v-grooving and backsplash coving for small- to mid-size fabricators. It is simple to set up and run reports the company. The 800-lb. machine uses industry standard carbide inserts, and no adjustments are required after changing inserts. V-grooving is accomplished with a roughing head and a finish head. Splitting the workload over two motors ensures a fine finish and long life for the 220V router motors. It also offers a built-in cove station and has a 5 ft. long adjustable fence that can be precisely adjusted with the stainless steel guide assembly. Loosen the two fence locks, turn the crank until the precision scale reads the required position, lock the fence and the machine is ready to v-groove. The stainless steel parts require no lubrication. The cove bit cuts by referencing the finished surfaces of the splash. This bit also cleans up any glue squeeze out and the splash is ready for assembly to the top. The feeder power is 1.5 hp, the feed sped is 6.5 fpm, the v-groove power is 3.25 hp x2, the cove station is 3.25 hp, it requires 220-volt single-phase power, extracts dust using a 2-in. hose shop vacuum and works on materials up to 3/4 in. thick. The machine comes complete with tooling, mounted on a simple roll around, ready to run. |
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Cove and V-Groove Cutters
Colonial Saw offers Striebig vertical panel saws, which can not only saw, but v-groove solid surface material on one machine with minimal changeover time. The cutters utilize profiled inserts to create coves and V-grooves in various depth solid surface and SSV materials.The saw can v-groove in both directions (X & Y axes) without rotating the material. The machine makes seam-ready cuts, v-grooves solid surface and can make backsplash coves. The machine is suitable for many types of solid surface fabrication, including 3CM, counter tops, vanities, store fixtures and commercial applications. |
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RC-1028 V-Groove Router Bit
Amana Tool offers the RC-1028 industrial insert V-groove router bits. The design uses a high grade carbide insert knife specially designed for miter folds, sign making and lettering applications. The router bits are suitable on laminates, plywood, solid wood, aluminum and foam, plastic and foam and solid surface materials. The design includes a reversible knife, which can be rotated when one side becomes dull. Once the insert knife shows wear on both sides, it can be replaced and secured using the locking screw system, ensuring safety and cutting accuracy. The bit is available in angles ranging from 60 to 150 degrees with a ¾-in. shank and angles ranging from 45 to 160 degrees in a ½-in shank. |
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Star V Model Basic MLV
Star V Machinery Ltd. now offers its open-sided linear Star V model Basic MLV. The groover features a space saving design, requiring only 48 by 43 in. of floor space. The standard version comes with a 3-hp, 220-V single-phase motor to allow the smaller fabricator to run it in a shop without 3-phase power. The Basic MLV utilizes a 9 ¼ in. cutter head for feed speeds up to a full sheet length per min. |
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SVG-30
Auto 'lsquo;V' Grooving Inc. manufactures a line of high precision v-grooving machinery. The company offers its patented dry and dust-free cutting process with its SVG-30, a double-headed, high volume v-groover which handles thickness up to 3 cm and lengths up to 10 ft., with no limit on material width. Cutting thinner stone at 7 to 8 lineal ft./min. and thicker stone at 3 to 4 lineal ft./min. The machine comes complete with specially designed diamond cutters, a specially designed "dry" cooling system and a high volume extra fine filtered vacuum system for a dustless cutting environment. The cut is clean and dry, ready for glue-up and the normal edge treatment and polishing. Changing the cutters allows for cutting solid surface on the same machine. |
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V 1003
The Profilematic V 1003 is an automatic feed through V-Grooving machine. The machine automatically applies the tape from top and bottom depending on what application will be performed. The V 1003 can perform a v-grooving cut from the top and bottom at the same time. The positive chain top and bottom driven transport system allows for v-grooving of smaller and larger work pieces. After glue up the countertop can be fed through the machine to profile the front edges like bull nose or round overs on linear edges. The V 1003 has a complete safety cover for quiet, dust free and save operations. |
