Cube grain direction

[Darrell Stokes]

I’ve been playing with this form as a trinket bowl or ring dish. It’s made from a cube mounted at corners, just like a tri-corner bowl.

The difficulty is that in no direction do you get a clean downhill-to-the-grain cut, since no matter which corners you mount, the grain runs at about a 45° angle.

Does anyone know of a good method to make a cube that has grain running corner-to-corner?

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

My guess would be to cut a straight grained piece at 45 degrees. example a block of wood 2" thick by 4" wide the first cut on one end at 45 degrees then measure 2" at 90 degrees to the first cut and make the second cut at 45 degrees then cut the end off square and then at 2" to arrive at a cube.

 

[Darrell Stokes]

My guess would be to cut a straight grained piece at 45 degrees. example a block of wood 2" thick by 4" wide the first cut on one end at 45 degrees then measure 2" at 90 degrees to the first cut and make the second cut at 45 degrees then cut the end off square and then at 2" to arrive at a cube.

That would make the grain run between two edges, but it would take another angle change to make it run from point to point!

 

[Don Wattenhofer]

That would make the grain run between two edges, but it would take another angle change to make it run from point to point!

Gee you are hard to please! How about if you calculate the diagonal dimension and cut a square slightly larger then make 4 45 degree cuts on one end to form the first point then figure out how to hold the piece for the final 4 cuts.
Maybe I should stop guessing !@#$%^&*()_+

 

[Darrell Stokes]

Haha! Thanks, Don. Maybe I should just keep turning them like I have been, and resign myself to the extra sanding.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

You want the grain to run from one corner of the cube to the diametrically opposite corner, the body diagonal.

That will waste a bit of wood, and the cut lines will be geometrically complex.

Consider that the Body Diagonal, (b) equals the cube length (l) x the sqrt of 3. So if your ultimate goal is to make a 4" cube that means b = 4" x 1.73 = 6.9". So you will need to start with a cube thats at least 7" to end up with one that's 4".

I thought I had my head wrapped around the cut lines, then I realized it was just knotted. So at this point I'd just like to say that sandpaper was created for a reason.

 

[robo hippy]

It could be cut out so that you have end grain from one corner of the cube, diagonally to the other corner, so you end up with it being an end grain turning. Major pain to do, and you would waste a significant amount of wood...

robo hippy

 

[hockenbery]

I’ve been playing with this form as a trinket bowl or ring dish. It’s made from a cube mounted at corners, just like a tri-corner bowl.

The difficulty is that in no direction do you get a clean downhill-to-the-grain cut, since no matter which corners you mount, the grain runs at about a 45° angle.

Does anyone know of a good method to make a cube that has grain running corner-to-corner?

skip the cube- band saw your blanks - sort of a flat-topped pyramid.
opening will be the small triangle
need to get the centers real close.
this hollows face grain and you can get the traditional bowl grain patterns.

alternatively, you could cut the the flats on the bandsaw after the shallow hollowing of a Round bowl.
guaranteed sharp corners.


Using a cube
you can get a pretty good surface using light cuts with a sharp tool.
with a cube cut with endgrain,facegrain, side grain surfaces there is no downhill cross cutting to get a clean surface.
the interrupted cut further impedes getting a clean cut.

lots of practice on traditional NE bowls helps.
a Guy in our club who is really good with the Ellsworth gouge turns these from green wood that need little sanding.