Flutes in a post

[SonomaProducts.com]

I know you said stop giving ideas but here is one of my custom tips, no charge. This only applies if the flutes will terminate before the end of the material rather than running of the end and butting into a plinth or head block.

I use a frame and use spacers to cut the flutes. The really cool feature is to use a radius ended bit core box (or cove I think) and ramp out at the end of the flutes. So at the end of the frame you have a ramp so the bit lifts out of the material over about 1/2" so instead of a radiused end to the flute you get a sort of a point. Woodworkers will scratch their head and customers will never notice. But this is what it would look like if you did it by hand with gouges, etc.

[GarageWoodworks]

I was also considering stopped flutes for the reason you mention. In the picture provided by the client it looks like the flutes are not stopped and continue into lower molding.

[GarageWoodworks]

Dammit! I like this. Ok stopped flutes it will be. I need to practice this one with the ramp. I might post a few test runs if I have time in the next day or two.

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------ Nice! I like this. It didn't dawn on me to do it from both sides.

------------------------------------------

How quickly they forget.

The old center the groove trick.

How many times has Norm used the end or end trick to center a groove using a T/S when building panel doors?

Lew

[GarageWoodworks]

My router table fence will flex sometimes (I need to work on a new one). I think I might feel more comfortable hand held on this.

[GarageWoodworks]

Tons.

[Steve Turner]

I think it's worth going the extra yard to get that look. I used that same effect on my armoire project:

I hand-carved the ends of the flutes with a small gouge. I could have used the router and ramp method, but I kinda enjoyed doing it the neander way.

[charlie]

what kind of wood (or finish) is that? it's pretty red in the pictures.

[Steve Turner]

Honduras Mahogany. Water-based dye stain. Many (MANY!) coats of garnet shellac to fill the pores (most of it taken back off with a card scraper and/or sandpaper, sometimes having to re-stain if I got too carried away), and after I got enough shellac buildup to fill the pores, I finished sanded to 400 (or was it 600?) grit and sprayed a final coat of satin nitrocellulose lacquer. The finish is *deep* and rich, and you can see all the way to the bottom of the pores of the wood, unlike the effect you get with most wood fillers (and I think I tried them ALL). I would have preferred just dispensing with the red stain and going straight to the garnet shellac, but SWMBO had a controlling interest in the color of the piece. :-)

[Ulfius]

I think he meant the flipping to be used so that only two spacers (for five flutes) would be needed instead of four - not used as a centering technique. The two outside flutes get made from the first pass, then flipping gets the opposite flute just by flipping the board.

[dadiOH]

Got a molding head for your saw? That profile looks like one that is a pretty standard cutter and a saw is a lot faster. The cut will be much better too since the cutter is revolving parallel to the grain rather than cross grain like a router bit.

[Woody]

An added advantage to this technique is that you (largely) avoid burning at the end of the stopped flutes. This is particularly an issue with cherry and maple.

~Mark.

[GarageWoodworks]

Unfortunately no. That does sound like a much quicker solution.

[dadiOH]

Spend $100 sometime. Includes some cutters, additional available at $18.99 per set of three (were $5-6 not long ago)

> dadiOH

[-MIKE-]

This thing is pretty cool...