My next project will be a china cabinet (I hope!) and I'd like to make a curved molding at the top. Is that possible without a shaper? I have a molding cutter for the TS and a router table, but can't envision how a molding about 4 inches wide with 3 or 4 contours could be fashioned in my shop. Am I reaching for the stars on this one. I will post a picture of china cabinet on ABPW.
dave
Goddard and Townsend made it their life's work to try and achieve this, and never succeeded. Imagine how the history of 18th century American furniture would have been changed, if only such a thing had been possible without modern power tools.
Yes, use a RAS!
There is a tech tip in the current Fine Woodworking that might help. It involves using skatboard wheels to keep a curved piece centered on a router bit. Not exactly the same application but I think it could be adapted with some imagination and fiddling.
Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va.
You can make profiled scraper blades just for the job. That is how I would approach it.
Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a
Does one child rape really change Strom Thurmond's lifetime record? For better or worse?
Thanks. that's one of the mags I get. I'll look for the article this morning.
dave
snipped-for-privacy@vt.edu wrote:
I saw a tall chest with a curved broken pediment in the DuPont Winterthur museum. It was made in Philadelphia IIRC and was no Godard or Townsend. It was made by scraping and there is a chatter mark to show that.
(G&T would have dies before releasing such, I guess).
If you mean an edge molding that goes around curved corners, that could still be done with a scratch stock.
Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a
Does one child rape really change Strom Thurmond's lifetime record? For better or worse?
You can actually quite easily make curve mouldings with the equipment you have. If it is an outside radius part you are trying to make just set up your router table fence with a slight gap a little bigger than the moulding bit you are using. Run the outside of the radius against the fence resting both edges of the radius against the gap between the fence. Take small cuts maybe 3/32 in passes if you are using hardwood. You can also start low with your bit and raise it slightly with each pass. Inside radiuses are also pretty easy. Clamp a small board to your router table that has been rounded to approximatly the same radius as the bit you are profiling with. The board will have to be notched at the bottom so it sits over the bit. Then just run the inside part of the radius against the rounded part of the board once again taking small passes. If your moulding is lets say 2" high just make your 2 1/4" or a little more so you have wood on your moulding to run against the rounded part of your clamped stop.
Using a router table, you can make a curved molding in 3 or 4 (or more) built up sections. It takes a little longer than with a shaper or molder, because each step requires a different radius.
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