Safely Sawing Round

[Frank Kobilsek]

How do you safely saw spindle work in half - long ways?

I have an idea for a craft show item but I'll need to split the item in half after turning. I have thought of the paper joint but that is a lot of prep and I have too much rough dry turning stock to spend time a jointer etc.

Assume Minimum dia of 1/2" and max of 1 1/2" and 3 to 6 inches long.

A picture of fixture or method would be great. Thanks

Frank

 

[Gynia]

Sounds like you already know the answer.

Cut in halve, glue back together with brown paper in the joint, Turn the profile you want, split the turning, clean up the glue joint.

good luck

 

[john lucas]

Frank I 2 suggestions. One of course is the paper joint. You can use white vinegar to get the paper and glue residue off. I have also used a belt sander but the glue tends to clog the belt. You can however get the glue off the belt with a file card.
The second suggestion is to simply use longer stock and secure it at the ends only. Turn it and then cut off the excess. You could glue the ends together or simply make a jig for the headstock and tailstock to hold the wood together. It could be as simple as a reverse cone turning into some scrap wood.

 

[Mike Peace]

I use a wood screw clamp, the kind with two handles, to cut round pieces on the bandsaw, both cross cut and ripping. This clamp provides a flat surface to slide on the table and hold stock firmly while keeping your fingers away from the blade.

 

[Betty Scarpino]

How do you safely saw spindle work in half - long ways?

I have an idea for a craft show item but I'll need to split the item in half after turning. I have thought of the paper joint but that is a lot of prep and I have too much rough dry turning stock to spend time a jointer etc.

Assume Minimum dia of 1/2" and max of 1 1/2" and 3 to 6 inches long.

A picture of fixture or method would be great. Thanks

Frank

I cut spindle-turned items like this, sometimes as large as 12" diameter and bulged in the middle as well. You can safely cut a spindle-turned object lengthwise by affixing it to a scrap of plywood or even heavy cardboard. Use hot-melt glue to attach the spindle to the plywood. I sometimes also use masking tape to hold the object, especially if it also has a bulge and doesn't lay flat. I wrap the masking tape completely around the object and the base it's sitting on.

If the object is really unstable (bulged in the middle and rocking), then you can hot-melt-glue wedges under various sections to stabilize the object. The most important area to stabilize is the end where the wood is cut last.

Once you've successfully adhered the object to a base of plywood or cardboard or MDF or whatever, then simply cut it lengthwise, holding the base that the object is glued to as you push it through the bandsaw blade (keeping your fingers to the side of the blade).

The hot-melt glue comes off of most wood quite easily. But if it doesn't, simply heat the glue with a hairdryer, then peel the glue off.

I once had a student cut a 14" diameter sphere in half using this quick-jig method. We made the cut safely and easily. We did use a lot of wedges, hot-melt glue, tape and a fairly thick plywood base.

Good luck and don't place anything in front of the bandsaw blade that you don't want to have cut . . . like your fingers.

Betty Scarpino, editor, AW

 

[Joe Greiner]

To safely work on any small object, attach it to something a lot bigger, or leave it integral to something big and make the final cutoff after all other operations.

Also, remember that the lengthwise cuts after all turning will produce pieces that aren't perfect half-circles, because of the kerf from cutting, which may be slightly off-center. If you want perfect half-circular cross sections, the paper joint before turning is probably the only way.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Resawing, even with the most appropriate of blades and the best of guides often leaves rough surfaces. I use a plane or a thickness sander on flat work, you would have to run the same routine, only with sandpaper on a board for your spindles. All in all, I'd go with the split, where a cabinet scraper or the same plane would clear up the residue nicely.

Other alternatives include double stick tape all along and fasteners on the ends, as has been implied. Help along the way to the final turning can include padding and hose clamps.

 

[Ted Evans]

One may also start with your stock a couple of inches longer than the turning will be, leaving both ends square. On shorter pieces, I used the fence on the bandsaw for the piece to ride against, on longer pieces, use an appropriate length auxiliary fence, enough to support the square ends of the turned piece. Quick and simple.

 

[hockenbery]

frank,

I often turn small molding pieces such as you describe without glue.

I cut the stock into either 4 square, two rectangles that make a larger square or for an outside corner an "L shape with a square to fit in the "L"

grip on end in a stronghold chuck and use the large cone on the Oneway live cent as a cup to grip the other end. turn the profile.

If both end have square element like 1/2 columns it is all done allow a 1/2" waste on each end to trim away marks from the cup and the chuck.
I also can turn points or balls in the tailstock end by taping the pieces together.

one project was 3-4" long Acorns for ceiling corner molding. These came to a point for the Acorn. These I gripped in the chuck Taped together and turned the point of the acorn. I then used the small cup of the Oneway center without the point for support to turn the rest of the acorn. I used this for an outside corner by cutting a square out on the bandsaw. The room had 4 inside corners and one outside corner.

For something small you can use hot melt glue and put the finished piece in the microwave for 5 seconds and pull the parts open.

Big advantage with the paper joint is you can glue two boards together an cut all the turning pieces already glued up. It is really hard fro me to get two pieces cut to finished size to line up perfectly with a paper joint.

-AL

 

[Frank Kobilsek]

Thank you all for the help. My current shop is limited to a bad band saw and a great lathe. So milling into a paper joint pairs is not within my current capabilites. Being the 'waste not want not' kind of turner I have an abundance of 1" to 4" squares 12" to 24" long, sawn from green wood (bowl blanks that split before they got roughed. This turning stock is certainly not straight. The project that sparked the question came from an old Steven Hogbin book. He had turned simple spindle forms and then split them and used the halves as a butter knife or cheese spreader. These will make perfect Christmas gifts for the teachers at my wife's school.

So Mike's clamp idea or Betty's glue it to something else idea fit my needs best. Again thanks, this turned into a very informative thread.

Frank

 

[Bill Pottorf]

Sawing spindles with bandsaw.

Frank, I used a "V" block from plywood on the bandsaw which was longer than the spindle to resaw through the walnut threaded handle to cut it in half. If you hot melt the spindle to the v-block and use a fence to guide the cut, it will work fine. I am posting a couple of pictures for you to see what was cut in half for "Took A Plunge". It was fun.