Brett Bobo
12-28-2012, 11:06 AM
I was planning on purchasing the Whiteside 3070 t-slot bit, which cuts the t-slot in one pass and has a 1 1/16" large diameter, to avoid purchasing t-track as I'm making several new crosscut and miter sleds. Then, I looked at Woodcraft and noticed they have two other versions of the t-slot bit made by Whiteside--a small (item no. 128256) and a medium (item no. 128257). The medium cuts a 3/4" wide slot and the small cuts a 5/8" wide slot; however, both of these bits require a straight groove to be cut first.
What's interesting is that I don't find either of these two bits listed in Whiteside's catalog. The 3070 bit appears to have too large of a large diameter to where the head of the t-bolt or t-nut, if applicable, will spin when trying to tighten. If true, this may not be much of an issue since the head of the t-bolt or t-nut will just snug up tight to the "shoulders" of the t-slot when tightened down.
Aside from the slot widths and one setup/pass vs. two setups/passes, what are the differences between these bits? Does one accept t-bolts and the other accepts t-nuts with threaded rod? Are there advantages to one over the other? My preference is to have a one pass bit and even though price isn't really a big factor here, the 3070 bit is about twice the cost of the other bits, including the Lee Valley mentioned below.
I also found that Lee Valley also has their version of the t-slot bit (item no. 16J60.71) that uses t-nuts and does cut the groove and slot in one pass.
Thanks in advance,
Brett
What's interesting is that I don't find either of these two bits listed in Whiteside's catalog. The 3070 bit appears to have too large of a large diameter to where the head of the t-bolt or t-nut, if applicable, will spin when trying to tighten. If true, this may not be much of an issue since the head of the t-bolt or t-nut will just snug up tight to the "shoulders" of the t-slot when tightened down.
Aside from the slot widths and one setup/pass vs. two setups/passes, what are the differences between these bits? Does one accept t-bolts and the other accepts t-nuts with threaded rod? Are there advantages to one over the other? My preference is to have a one pass bit and even though price isn't really a big factor here, the 3070 bit is about twice the cost of the other bits, including the Lee Valley mentioned below.
I also found that Lee Valley also has their version of the t-slot bit (item no. 16J60.71) that uses t-nuts and does cut the groove and slot in one pass.
Thanks in advance,
Brett