This exclusive range of cutters was conceived and designed by Wealden in 1996 to enable mock linen fold panels to be produced with the router. Linen fold is a traditional effect used on furniture and panelling, which was usually hand carved, making it a skilled and time consuming operation.
The panels produced with this router method offer a very good simulation of traditional linen fold and, when the necessary jig has been manufactured, are quick and easy to make.
APPLICATION DETAILS:
The panels are built up from 76mm (3 inch) wide strips (or plaques), which are glued to a plain backing panel of either solid timber or plywood/MDF with a facing veneer. It is therefore possible to produce finished panels of 2,3,4 etc. strips giving finished widths of 150, 225, 304mm etc.
The operation is best carried out with two routing machines, however this is not essential, the minimum requirement being an 8mm or 1/2 inch shank machine and an adaptor or collet for the 1/4 inch shank cutter T2932.
IMPORTANT. If the 8mm shank version of the T2931 is purchased it needs to be used in a machine of at least 750 watts power rating and the cut depth needs to be achieved in several passes to prevent overloading the machine and damage to the cutter shank.
The plaques are produced in three stages:
Firstly 76mm (3 inch) wide strips of timber are moulded in two passes with the Linen Profile cutter T2931. This operation needs to be carried out with the router mounted in a table and will produce strips of moulding with the profile section as illustrated below the photograph of the panel.
The second and third operations are carried out with the aid of a jig. Full instructions and templates for manufacturing this are provided with the cutters. The second operation then involves cutting the moulded strip into the required lengths for the plaques, and profiling the ends of each with a bearing guided panel trim cutter, such as T8016B or T8016B½ or similar. If a suitable cutter is not already in your toolkit, one will need to be purchased separately.
The final operation, using the Linen Radius cutter T2932, moulds the ends of the strips with a profile to produce the linen fold effect. This is again carried out using the jig.
Whilst the use of these cutters to produce linen fold panels is straightforward, it requires some experience with the router and in the production of jigs, and is not really suitable for the router novice.
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