curved joints using the router

I once saw a method for making curved joints, but I'm not sure I remember the details. I couldn't find anything on it either googling or looking through various books. Imagine a very shallow "s-cuve" joining 2 pieces (with the grain). I *think* this can be done with a single template and a pattern-following bit (or a bushing) by rough cutting the curved joint line, then placing the 2 pieces slightly closer together than the diameter of the bit, with the template set so that the cut will follow the (imaginary) center line of the joint and trim just enough of both pieces to clean up the edges. Does this sound right? Seems like it should work, and I am about to give it a try, but thought I'd ask too. Maybe the hardest part will be clamping down the two pieces and the template! It does occur to me that whichever direction I feed the router will be right for one piece and wrong for the other, but maybe it'll be OK since the cut won't be very deep? (Oh... why would I want to do this? Gluing the pieces back together with a thin strip of wood of a contrasting color sandwiched in between gives a nice effect.)

Thanks for any advice.

-Mike Sollins

Reply to
Mike Sollins
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| I once saw a method for making curved joints, but I'm not sure I | remember the details. I couldn't find anything on it either

| (Oh... why would I want to do this? Gluing the pieces back together | with a thin strip of wood of a contrasting color sandwiched in | between gives a nice effect.)

Sounds interesting. I can't help but would like to see it. Please post a picture to ABPW of the result!

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

Mike,

Check out some of the joints Pat Warner has on his website. Its exactly what your talking about. If memory serves me correct, there is a lot more detail in his books.

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Reply to
Woodchuck34

I saw a few pictures of this in a magazine once. It does sound right, except you don't need to (and perhaps shouldn't) route both pieces at the same time. I've carried around the tip in my head for a very long time since I always wanted to try it, too. I finally got a template bushing a week or two ago, so it's inevitable. Please let us know how it turns out.

- Owen -

Reply to
Owen Lawrence

If you do rout both pieces a the same time the cut radii will be different by the width of the bit and the pieces may not fit too well. A lot depends on how shallow the curves are.

There's a nice article in AWW#118 [Nov 05] pg 73 on how to do curved borders with 2 templates for a perfect fit of deep 90° corners.

Art

Reply to
Wood Butcher

There's something about this in a book called Woodworking with the Router by Bill Hylton and Fred Matlack which I'd highly recommend getting.

However, I've scanned in the four pages that deal with this and am about to post a zip to abpw.

Cheers,

Andy

Reply to
Andy Jeffries

Four separate png files in alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking now :-)

Cheers,

Andy

Reply to
Andy Jeffries

Thanks to all for the various bits of advice!

Reply to
Mike Sollins

Fine Woodworking #179, Sept/Oct 2005 - Cut Matching Curves. Excellent article.

Reply to
Max Mahanke

And, very conveniently, FWW's website has a video of this article!

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Reply to
Mike Sollins

Some of this curvy line work in FWW 75.

Reply to
pat

Nope, but I'm sure under the Copyright Act of 1976 (as it's a US book) posting four pages of a large book (with an attribution to the author) for not-for-profit educational purposes would be considered Fair Use.

If you like I could continue with a legal debate about whether it constitutes fair use, but to be honest there are better places to discuss copyright infringement (or not) and I don't have the time/inclination.

Get a life, more people would see those 4 pages and think "this looks like a cool book, I'll order it from Amazon" than "Cool, now I've got these four pages I won't bother buying the book, mwahahaha! (evil maniacal laugh)".

At the end of the day, I posted using my real name and my real domain name (and a valid email). If the publishers really want to sue me for it, I've left it painfully easy for them to obtain my contact details.

However, I'm sure they appreciate the public recommendation and educational snippet more than the negative press for suing someone under these circumstances..

Regards,

Andy

Reply to
Andy Jeffries

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