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My first effort at segmenting - Disaster and recovery

Lou Jacobs

Lou Jacobs

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Jul 18, 2018
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loujacobswoodturning.com
After making a segment cutting sled, this was my first attempt at a segmented bowl. All was going along fine until I let my attention lapse for a second taking the tool out of the inside of the bowl. It wasn’t even a catch...2CCCD350-0011-4302-B5FA-16784D4925CC.jpeg
at first I thought I had to give up on this one, but then realized I could part off the broken edge and make another ring to add on.2D247ACD-AC92-4D11-92FF-62BB44553957.jpeg
I turned it down being super careful and was able to successfully blend it in to the rest of the bowl. CB54C8AD-C9CF-4037-A193-6FAD67280BAF.jpeg
I’ve got a lot to learn about this aspect of turning, but am happy that my sled and homemade “seggies” (made on a miter saw) produced 36°, 30° and 45° rings with no gaps.
 
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Excellent recovery! Sounds like you used different number of segments for the rings in the ring stack (10, 12, 8). With 10,12, 8 (36 deg, 30 deg, 45 deg) segment rings in the ring stack you lose the ability to "brick stack" the rings. I believe you will find that the look of the turned piece is improved when each ring is offset by 1/2 segment from the ring below. Same as stacking bricks when building a wall. - John
 
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John, you’re right. The beech base has 8 segments, and the second cherry segment from the bottom has ten. All others have 12. And as soon as I test stacked them I realized that that ring stood out. At that point I was so eager to move on that I’d decided to go with it anyway. On the positive side, it gave me a chance to test run my “seggies.” (Is that the conventional name for the templates from which to set the sled?).
 
I started playing with segmented turning back at the start of the pandemic. It's a lot of fun and fairly simple, once you figure out a process. I use the wedgie sled on the table saw and can make 8,12,18 and 24 segmented pieces. It's easier to turn and finish than a bowl because there is no end grain to deal with.

Lining up the rings in a brick pattern makes things look a little better and adds structural integrity. Pick a segment at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock. Mark the exact center of these segments on the outside edge. Then when you glue to the next ring, line up each line with the segment joint on the other ring and it will be perfectly centered.
 
Nice save. I’ve created some similar “design mods”

John Torchick said:
Nice design modification. One of these days, I'm going to get brave and try segmenting.
Click to expand...

As long as you don’t mind a lot of prep work and limited time actually cutting with tools on the lathe. After I learned how to prep and turn wet wood, I gave up segmenting. Just depends on what a person likes to do.
 
If you use the one ring stack at a time method, you can always clean the last ring stack off if you don't like the results or it is not lined up correctly.
 
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