Router Bit For This?

[Mark Kristan]

I'm trying to build at roller stand from a plan I found in a magazine. I have all the parts cut and formed but I can't see a way to cut matching grooves through 2X4 stock. The upper and lower legs are mated with splines and, to adjust the height, there is a threaded bolt (1/4" thick is typical, I suppose) which is housed in a slot cut into the upper and lower legs. I can't figure out how to cut a slot all the way through 2X4 stock, just wide enough to house the threaded bolt. The plan indicates to use a router bit - is there a router bit out there that will cut a groove .25" wide and 1.75" deep? Is there a better way to make this cut? TIA.

Mark

[glenn bradley]

Drill a 1/4" hole at the start and end point of the slot. Use a 1/4" straight bit (I prefer spiral) to take 1/8" bites between the holes till you reach depth capacity (usually about 1"). Flip your material and complete the slot from the other side. Router table preferred but an edge guide or shop made jig could work as well.

[Bill White]

Glenn nailed it.
Bill

[Greg Hines, MD]

I would use a dado stack set for 1/4" width and your height to plow out that groove.

Doc

[Paul Murphy]

One more option is to rip your stock full length to the slot edge, then rip a full length 1/4" section from the offcut where the slot will be. Cut the 1/4" length to form the slot ends, and glue the 4 pieces back together.

You have a slotted 2 x 4 minus 2 saw kerfs in the time it takes your glue to dry.

[Mark Kristan]

Thanks for the advice, I am getting er done, but have an unrelated question (except in as much as it is part of the same project). Has anyone ever heard of a nut which, rather than being round and threaded on the inside (perhaps part of the very definition of a nut, and I should be calling this something else), contains six flat surfaces? (exactly like the outside of a common hex nut). There is a hex shaped piece of rod, perhaps an inch long, protruding from the ends of the three conveyor belt type rollers I have. I'm trying to figure out a good way to attach the six ends of the rollers to the tops of the stand. If there was a T Nut like thing, which I could drive into the two by stock, shaped and sized on the inside to accept the piece of rod protruding from the rollers, this would seem to be the perfect way to secure the rollers to the tops of the stand. Has anyone ever heard of such a piece of hardware or know of a better way to mate a hex shaped rod to wooden stock? TIA.

Mark

[Philip Johnson]

Do a search for "internal wrenching bolts" it is a bolt that uses an allen wrench to hold it maybe you could drill through your board and install the bolt and insert the hex head of the roller into the head of the internal wrenching bolt.