laminating a chair back rail/ bandsawing a chair back rail

I have tried cutting curved back rails with my band saw. I can get the curve about right, but there are a lot of marks in it that need to be sanded out, and I can't maintain the curve when I sand the marks out. Are there any tricks here? (I mean other than sawing more smoothly so there is nothing to sand out...) I suppose the outside is easy enough with a ROS, but the inside needs a drum and that is rather more difficult.

I also tried laminating by clamping to an existing chair rail. It is a bit of work, but comes out nicely. The chair rail I used was a bit too shallow, so I took a large block of wood and cut the curve I want into it. At this point I have two choices. Clamp the laminations to the female form with clamps, or clamp the laminations between the male and female forms. I suppose a third option would be to make the male and female forms a half inch thick, and then put the laminations between them. That might combine the best of 1 & 2. Whatcha think?

Reply to
Toller
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I used a stationary belt sander to smooth out my bandsawn chair back rails. I think I used about a 100 grit belt. The convex side was easy to do on the platten, and the concave side was done carefully on the wheel at the end of the belt. Worked quickly, looks good. Still needs minor hand sanding (or possibly a finer belt) but overall the process is pretty quick. This was with cherry; red oak might take a little longer. Do you have enough scrap and/or time to try one rail each way? If you discover that one way is significantly quicker or better, it seems that could save you a lot of time over a 4- or 6-chair run. Good luck, Andy

Reply to
Andy

I've been using a set of "Micro-plane" drums. If you haven't seen them, they are similar to a sanding drum that you'd use with your drill press, but instead of using sandpaper, they have a metal surface with small perforations or cutting surfaces.

I really like them because they leave a pretty smooth surface (a quick hand sanding with 220 grit is all that's needed afterwards) and they don't clog up like sanding drums can.

If you have a template of the shape you are going for, they have an attachement that works just like a guide bearing on a router bit.

The set of two (1" and 2") costs something like $20 at rockler, and the template guide is $10 or so.

Mike

Reply to
Mike

$30 is cheap enough. Is the 1" the width or length? My rails are rather more 2". thanks.

Reply to
Toller

  1. Sanding drum. Fixed on drill press or other
  2. Gauge block...same idea as a resaw block on a bandsaw.
Reply to
dadiOH

Toller wrote: > I have tried cutting curved back rails with my band saw. I can get the > curve about right, but there are a lot of marks in it that need to be sanded > out, and I can't maintain the curve when I sand the marks out. Are there > any tricks here?

Inside curves can be sanded out using a flap wheel.

I use a low cost air drill from H/F and mount a F/W in it.

Start with 40 grit.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I think that they are about 2" tall, and come in 1" and 2" widths.

I've never tried it, but I'd think for a workpiece taller than the cutting surface, you could make a first pass to get the bottom, then using the guide bearing, make another pass to get the top.

Reply to
Mike

I think that they are about 2" tall, and come in 1" and 2" widths.

I've never tried it, but I'd think for a workpiece taller than the cutting surface, you could make a first pass to get the bottom, then using the guide bearing, make another pass to get the top.

Reply to
Mike

Sorry about the double post - why does it seem that Google Groups does that sometimes? I'm sure that it's some form of user error, but damned if I can see what I'm doing wrong.

Reply to
Mike

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