RE: Couple questions

[Lew Hodgett]

Watched an old NYW today where Norm used some recycled pine boards (From an old barn) to build a circular table of perhaps 32"-36" diameter.

The board for the top was in the neighborhood of 12" wide and cupped.

Norm's solution was to kerf each board about 1/2-2/3 thru, then run them thru the planer allowing the infeed rollers on the planer to flatten the board as they went thru the planer.

The jointer and table saw were then used to square up the stock to prepare for glue up using biscuits.

Prior to glue up the kerf cuts were filled with thickened epoxy and allowed to cure.

When the epoxy was cured the glue up was completed and allowed to cure.

Light sanding prepared the rectangular blank for circular cut out using shop made band saw jig for cutting out circles.

Now for the questions.

1) Why would you use kerf cuts to make a table top, especially epoxy filled kerf cuts.

No matter what you do, those filled kerfs are going to show in the finished piece.

IMHO, no matter what you try to do to hide the kerfs, they are going to look like ugly on an ape.

YMMV

Why not just rip the wide boards in half, machine square and reassemble using standard glue up techniques?

Done correctly, a flying red horse at 5 ft won't be able to see the joint.

2) Never have figured out how to position a square blank on Norm's band saw circle cutting jig to start the cut without having the blank bind the saw blade.

In the example above, we are talking about an approximate 36" square blank yielding about a 32" circle.

What am I missing?

Lew

[Jerry - OHIO]

Didn't he put the kerf side down ?

Jerry

[Jerry - OHIO]

He starts on a flat & cuts slow to start the cut then drops it on the pin. Only way I was able to do a 4 footer!

Jerry

[Larry W]

Lew, I'm shocked! I never thought I would see you say that epoxy was NOT the best way to fix something! :)

[Lew Hodgett]

--------------------------------------- Of course, but my comments were directed toward the vertical surface.

No matter how you approach it, the filled kerf will be visible on the table edge.

Lew

[Lew Hodgett]

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

Sometimes I've been known to use a bottle of good single malt to "fix" things over the years.

Everything has a place.

Lew

Lew

[Lobby Dosser]

Bread board. Yes, I know it was a circular table. Makes for a more interesting design and build.

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------- That requires a visible layout on the top side while the pivot is on the bottom side.

Seems kind of trickey to me.

Lew

[RicodJour]

I have a number of neodymium magnets of different diameters and strengths. You can pop one in the hole and very easily find dead center on the other side.

R

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------------- "RicodJour" wrote:

strengths. You can pop one in the hole and very easily find dead center on the other side.

------------------------------ Near as I can tell, Norm didn't have any of those and he didn't have a layout line to follow.

Back to the basic question.

Lew

[RicodJour]

The two NYW videos for that table are on YouTube. There are other odd things in there. When he's cutting out the circle on the bandsaw you can see that he'd already cut the other side, but there's a squared- off discontinuity which I couldn't quite make out whether it was from the original glue up, or if he cut off some bits to allow the thing to fit on the bandsaw. It's also odd that the other side he cut would almost have to mean that he either flipped the top (not likely), have a double-edged bandsaw blade (are there such things?) or something else.

In other words, your two questions raise a lot more.

R

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------------- "RicodJour" wrote:

things in there. When he's cutting out the circle on the bandsaw you can see that he'd already cut the other side, but there's a squared- off discontinuity which I couldn't quite make out whether it was from the original glue up, or if he cut off some bits to allow the thing to fit on the bandsaw. It's also odd that the other side he cut would almost have to mean that he either flipped the top (not likely), have a double-edged bandsaw blade (are there such things?) or something else.

In other words, your two questions raise a lot more.

------------------------------------- The more I think about this project, the less suited the bandsaw becomes.

Think I would have the retangular blank bottom side up, then scribe a circle 3/8" proud using a trammel point, followed by trimming to the line with a saber saw.

Then drill the 1/4" dia. pilot hole to accept a circle jig for a plunge router and a 3/4" straight bit to finish piece to size.

Edge treatment of choice to complete.

Lew

[RicodJour]

I agree that an oversize piece in a bandsaw is doable but dubious, but why not do it in one shot with one tool? Lay the thing on a sacrificial surface and use a 1/2" bit with the router on a trammel base. The edges are going to get some routed treatment anyway.

R

[Lew Hodgett]

why not do it in one shot with one tool?

------------------------------- Personal preference.

Trying to get a finish cut while hogging out a full 3/4" dia. of material in one pass is more than I can do.

Try to limit finish cuts to less than 1/2".

Lew

[Nova]

Cut the kerf for the bandsaw blade to enter using a saber saw or circular saw, when the layout side is face up, before mounting it on the bandsaw.

[basilisk]

The way I do this is to drill a 1/4" pilot hole in the center of the blank to accept a guide pin that rides in a slotted channel mounted on the bandsaw table, the pin can be spaced out as far as needed with waste strips of wood but is free to move out as far as the lenght of the slot. You can easily cut any size round from any size square blank by quickly feeding in the blank as you turn it until you hit the stop.

Hope that made sense.

basilisk

[Lew Hodgett]

---------------------------------- Makes sense except for one thing.

The pivot point on Norm's jig is FIXED.

Back to the drawing board.

Lew

[Larry W]

Instead of all that conjecturing and fooling around with bandsaw circle jigs, for a circle 32" in diameter you can make a simple jig out of scrap and do a _perfect_ job on a tablesaw in about 20 minutes (or less)

Here's the 1st result from google:

you don't have a sliding table, an alternate method is to start with the blade lowered and gradually raise it as you cut the circle out.

[Lew Hodgett]

----------------------------------- Safety!!!

Lew

[Larry W]

Except insofar as a bandsaw is inherently safer than a table saw, with normal precautions safety will not be an issue.