A couple of twisted ladders

[Dale Lynch]

Here are a couple of twisted ladder segmented pens.A Myrtlewood/Walnut Duke,and a Oak burl/Redwood burl Jr.Retro.Not the easiest to turn or finish,lots of skew in scraper mode with these.C&c welcome.

 

[ossaguy]

Those look super! Could you tell us how that's done?

I've never seen that before,really cool looking.

Steve

 

[pensbydesign]

interesting design like it nice finish and fit on the pens looks good

 

[Dale Lynch]

Thanks fellas,I'm glad you like them.How do I make them?Well I haven't got the process down yet,still trying to get the segment intersections to line up when turned.All I can tell you now is I used compound cuts with my power miter saw set at 45 degrees miter and 31.5 degrees bevel.Made one cut glued it back up with a segment then rotated the blank 90 degrees.Made the next cut overlapping the first,glued up another segment and then continued the same pattern down the blank.

This is a dangerous method of segmenting because my fingers are about 1/2" away from the blade for most of the cuts.I have not figured out a way of holding the blank other than with your hands because of the way the cut is made.

 

[SDB777]

Well done!

Must be some sort of mini clamp that could be used? Or maybe a small jig that you could clamp it too? Anything to keep ya from having to have the digits that close....





Scott (I use a skew as a scrapper sometimes too) B

 

[CharlesJohnson]

Sorry. I don't have a jig to offer. I 'do' hold small pieces to the fence with a throw away.I can tell you.You don't want to play with turning blades with fingers. I lost. Never new any one who won. I was lucky. Only lost Half the second bone in the right pointer. They picked the pieces out of the flesh and put me back together. It will never be right. But believe me. You don't even want the really hard pain. Much less any losses. No pen or other product is worth it. Especially when it can be prevented. Mine was very similarly Dumb. Even though it seemed safe at the time. But I knew I was to close. And paid for it. Do safely enjoy this great craft. Lets keep our regret-ts to projects that don't turn out. We can just redo them. Have a great day!

 

[Dale Lynch]

Here is a look at my current setup for making these blanks.Anyone got an idea on how to hold the blanks?I'm thinking that I may just have to remove the stock fence completely and build new.

 

[randyrls]

Here is a look at my current setup for making these blanks.Anyone got an idea on how to hold the blanks?I'm thinking that I may just have to remove the stock fence completely and build new.

Dale; Do you have a band saw or table saw?

If not, take a look at this jig I made some time ago for my TS. The hold-down could be adapted to the miter saw. If it clamped on both sides of the saw cut, both the cut and off-cut would be held without your pinkies close to the blade.
http://content.penturners.org/library/tools_and_jigs/celticknotjig.pdf

 

[Dale Lynch]

Yes I do,2 bandsaws and a tablesaw.1 bandsaw keeps throwing the lower tire off while the other needs a new motor.The table saw has soo much runout even Magoo could see it without measuring.

I like the idea of clamping it from both sides,just not sure how to go about doing it.The blade path is a large sweeping arc which is the the trouble I'm having.The underside of the blade is really shallow while the other side has the motor that gets in the way as well.

I think low profile hold downs is the way to go with a dedicated fence for that angle.I've seen the T track and holdown packages offered by rockler for the TS and DP.I wonder if they could be used on a mitersaw?If so then the next obstacle would be to figure out how to cut a T track slot accurate enough with the tools stated previously.

Dammit,I hate having a lack of ingenuity.

Thanks for the tips,at least it will get me thinking.

 

[mikespenturningz]

Very nice indeed. Great job on these pens. As you probably already know I use my bandsaw for all of this type of work.