Frank Pellow
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,743
Late last year, I went along with some other folks and obtained very good hardwood at auction for between $1 and $2 a board foot. My share was about 400 board feet of cherry, hard maple, soft figured maple, jatoba, and cumaru. One of the figured maple boards is about 4 metres long, 40 centimetres wide and 3 centimetres thick but it is very warped. Here is a photo of the worst end of the plank:
[attachimg=#1]
I wanted to use it in some way that would take advantage of the width and show the great pattern in the wood while, at the same time, being able to cope with the warp.
Something square like the top of a small table or something round would fit the bill. What’s round? A lazy Susan turntable is round and I know of several people (including us) who could use one. Lee Valley sells inexpensive, made in the USA, lazy Susan Bearings: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=44042&cat=1,250,43298,43316
So, I purchased 5 sets of 6 inch bearings and started in to make some turntables.
The other end of the plank was also warped, but not a much. So before starting to cut parts of the turntables, I cut and planed this roughly 90cm x 40cm x 25mm piece:
[attachthumb=#2]
then set it aside for a small table top in some future project. Next I cut a planed four roughly 40cm x 40cm x 20mm pieces for the top part of the turntables.
I had read a couple of ‘how to’ articles about cutting circles utilizing a table saw sled and decided to give it a try. The idea is to insert a cut-off nail projecting up through the sled at a point which is away from the blade a distance equal to the radius of the circle. I used my Incra sled to test things out:
[attachthumb=#3]
The nail is 185 millimetres from the edge of the place in the sled where the blade runs. The projection is fitted into a hole drilled in the middle of the wood.
The first step in cutting the circle is to trim away most of the excess wood in several passes:
[attachthumb=#4]
By the way, the wood is clamped down to the sled although the clamp does not appear in the picture. I spite of this, I feared kickback and remained quite nervous throughout the task.
Now comes the nifty part. The sled is positioned in a appropriate spot, then the wood is slowly spun around in a clockwise direction on the nail in the middle and this quickly results in a circle of the size desired:
[attachthumb=#5]
I realized that I should not have drill the hole all the way through the top and did not do so on any of the remaining circles. I won’t give away the turntable that has this minor flaw in it, rather it will be taken to Pellow’s Camp.
I decided to build my own sled before continuing on and cutting the other circles. This way, I can secure the wood to be cut in a way that I am more comfortable with and I can drill lots of holes into it without any worry. Here is a photo of the sled under construction:
[attachthumb=#6]
Here the sled is being used and the wood is jammed onto the clamped board to guard against kickback:
[attachthumb=#7]
I cut four large circles from the big and four small circles from a more narrow figured maple board.
The next step was to round over the edges on my router table:
[attachthumb=#8]
That’s a Triton router in the table hooked up to a Festool vac.
Next I sanded the edges with 80 grit paper making use of both on of the grips from my Lee valley hand sanding grip set ( http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20183&cat=1,42500 ) and my Festool Deltex 93 sander with a soft pad:
[attachthumb=#9] [attachthumb=#10]
The tops and bottoms were sanded with a Festool Rotex 150:
[attachthumb=#11]
A turntable mechanism is first screwed to a base then a hole is drilled through the base in order provide access when screwing on the top:
[attachthumb=#12] [attachthumb=#13]
I assembled all the turntables temporarily, and will take them apart, sand them top 320 grtit then apply Tung oil to them before assembling them again. Here is a picture of the four temporarily assembled turntables sitting on the part of the plank that has not yet been milled:
[attachthumb=#14]
I’m not sure what I am going to do with the rest of the plank but I suspect that it will also be used to make the (thinner) tops for lazy Susan turntable.
Next week, I will finish the four turntables that I have started then will update thius thread with photos of the completed lazy Susans.
[attachimg=#1]
I wanted to use it in some way that would take advantage of the width and show the great pattern in the wood while, at the same time, being able to cope with the warp.
Something square like the top of a small table or something round would fit the bill. What’s round? A lazy Susan turntable is round and I know of several people (including us) who could use one. Lee Valley sells inexpensive, made in the USA, lazy Susan Bearings: http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=44042&cat=1,250,43298,43316
So, I purchased 5 sets of 6 inch bearings and started in to make some turntables.
The other end of the plank was also warped, but not a much. So before starting to cut parts of the turntables, I cut and planed this roughly 90cm x 40cm x 25mm piece:
[attachthumb=#2]
then set it aside for a small table top in some future project. Next I cut a planed four roughly 40cm x 40cm x 20mm pieces for the top part of the turntables.
I had read a couple of ‘how to’ articles about cutting circles utilizing a table saw sled and decided to give it a try. The idea is to insert a cut-off nail projecting up through the sled at a point which is away from the blade a distance equal to the radius of the circle. I used my Incra sled to test things out:
[attachthumb=#3]
The nail is 185 millimetres from the edge of the place in the sled where the blade runs. The projection is fitted into a hole drilled in the middle of the wood.
The first step in cutting the circle is to trim away most of the excess wood in several passes:
[attachthumb=#4]
By the way, the wood is clamped down to the sled although the clamp does not appear in the picture. I spite of this, I feared kickback and remained quite nervous throughout the task.
Now comes the nifty part. The sled is positioned in a appropriate spot, then the wood is slowly spun around in a clockwise direction on the nail in the middle and this quickly results in a circle of the size desired:
[attachthumb=#5]
I realized that I should not have drill the hole all the way through the top and did not do so on any of the remaining circles. I won’t give away the turntable that has this minor flaw in it, rather it will be taken to Pellow’s Camp.
I decided to build my own sled before continuing on and cutting the other circles. This way, I can secure the wood to be cut in a way that I am more comfortable with and I can drill lots of holes into it without any worry. Here is a photo of the sled under construction:
[attachthumb=#6]
Here the sled is being used and the wood is jammed onto the clamped board to guard against kickback:
[attachthumb=#7]
I cut four large circles from the big and four small circles from a more narrow figured maple board.
The next step was to round over the edges on my router table:
[attachthumb=#8]
That’s a Triton router in the table hooked up to a Festool vac.
Next I sanded the edges with 80 grit paper making use of both on of the grips from my Lee valley hand sanding grip set ( http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=20183&cat=1,42500 ) and my Festool Deltex 93 sander with a soft pad:
[attachthumb=#9] [attachthumb=#10]
The tops and bottoms were sanded with a Festool Rotex 150:
[attachthumb=#11]
A turntable mechanism is first screwed to a base then a hole is drilled through the base in order provide access when screwing on the top:
[attachthumb=#12] [attachthumb=#13]
I assembled all the turntables temporarily, and will take them apart, sand them top 320 grtit then apply Tung oil to them before assembling them again. Here is a picture of the four temporarily assembled turntables sitting on the part of the plank that has not yet been milled:
[attachthumb=#14]
I’m not sure what I am going to do with the rest of the plank but I suspect that it will also be used to make the (thinner) tops for lazy Susan turntable.
Next week, I will finish the four turntables that I have started then will update thius thread with photos of the completed lazy Susans.
