360 Herringbone Glueing Fixture

[gr8danish]

I came up with a slick litle way of making sure that my 360 blanks glue up nicely...

I took a field trip to Home Depot and purchased a length each of 1" square aluminum tubing, and 1.5" angle aluminum extrusions. They are the "thick" versions at 1/8" thick walls.

I cut several lengths of both so that they are matching. you will find it easier to work with if you make shorter sections. 6-8" max length.

Now, for glueing my herringbone blanks, I use Titebond-III wood glue. It does NOT stick to the aluminum (no mater how long you leave it there to dry), it sets up in 20 min, and the glue lines are almost invisible.

For the first step, I'll glue up several 90 degree angles and place the parts inside the angle of aluminum. Place the square aluminum inside the angle of the wooden squares that are being glued up. Then clamp the two pieces of aluminum together making sure that all of the wood squares are pushed "in" as far as they go to prevent gaps.

Then to glue the 2nd "wing" just place one of the already glued up angles of wood (2 squares) so that one of the pieces hangs off the edge of the aluminum angle. Then glue another square of wood in & clamp!

For those of you that are COMPLETELY confused by my descriptions, DON'T WORRY! I'll be posting pictures of this process when I get home tonight.

The 3rd step requires you to glue 2 of the 3wing glued up pieces together in order to make one layer of the herringbone design. This step I haven't made up a fixture for yet, but I have one in the works. Right now, I'm starting by glueing together 1 layer, and then building /glueing the following layers together right on top of the 1st. This ensures that even though the 1st layer may not be perfect, all of the other layers match this one perfectly leaving very few if any glue gaps.

I hope that this helps someone... Maybe one of you that's read this can help me design a fixture for the 3rd step.

Happy Turning,
CM

 

[glycerine]

You lost me at "I came up with"...

 

[bensoelberg]

Pictures will definitely be helpful. I'm looking forward to seeing them as I hope to make some herringbone blanks eventually. (Maybe Christmas break...)

 

[gr8danish]

Haha... I know it's hard to visualize, and I'm sure that my description doesn't help much.

In order to understand this a little bit better, please first take a look at the pdf tutorial on how to construct the 360 Herringbone blanks. This is NOT a complete tutorial of the process, just an amendment that includes how to use my fixture

 

[gr8danish]

FIRST STEP------------------------------------------->

 

[gr8danish]

Something I forgot to type.... MAKE SURE THE PARTS ARE SQUARE. IF THEY ARE NOT SQUARE YOU WILL HAVE S-LOADS OF GLUE LINES AND VOIDS.

 

[gr8danish]

GLUEING ON WINGS...

 

[mredburn]

attach a small piece of angle under your wing at the ends,(probably with screws) mimicking your finished 3 pieces and you could clamp and glue all 3 pieces at once. By clamping across the ends as well as the middle you could glue up 2 assemblies at once, one on each end.

 

[bensoelberg]

Nice. The pics make it all much clearer. Officially added to my "must do" list.

 

[PaulDoug]

Being one that has to "see" to understand, a big thank you for the pictures. Darn, now I can't picture what mredburn is suggesting...

 

[mredburn]

Try this

Make one of thes at each end.

 

[gr8danish]

Mike-

I originally had the same idea... unfortunately, it doesn't work very well. Squaring up the pieces after each glue up is a necessary step in order to avoid having large glue gaps when the blank is complete.

I even start with MILLED squares that are within .0010" of each other, and I still get better results when I sand the pieces square to each other after glueing.

What I really need to design is a way of glueing the two 3-piece wings together to make the layers. Other then milling out a brick of Delrin with the right pattern, I'm not sure if there's a good way to accomplish this feat.

I hope that these pics will help some of you guys minimize your glue gaps on your own 360 blanks. It's cheap & effective, my favorite combination!

Happy turning,
-Chad

 

[soligen]

Here is my sugestion.

1) Cut a set of 12 squares using aluminium.
2) Coat your jigs with wax as a release agent.
3) Glue up (use epoxy) 4 three piece sections using your process.
4) Very carefully by hand, glue together the sections creating two complete courses made of aluminium.

You can now use these aluminium courses to hold the 2 wood 3 piece assemblies sandwiched between them as the glue sets.

Please ask questions if my idea is not clear. I haven't done this so I dont have pictures.

Please let me know how it turns out if you try this.

 

[LarryDNJR]

Holy Crap!! Chicken Drumsticks are .59 lb that is an awesome deal!

Nice little jig I might have to try that out.

 

[gr8danish]

Dennis, I thought about doing something like that, only drilling and tapping holes for small set screws instead of using the epoxy. I'm pretty sure that the wood glue WILL stick to epoxy, I know it won't stick to the aluminum...

I would just have to make the aluminum squares thick enough that I could drill / tap them. That's the key.

 

[soligen]

Dennis, I thought about doing something like that, only drilling and tapping holes for small set screws instead of using the epoxy. I'm pretty sure that the wood glue WILL stick to epoxy, I know it won't stick to the aluminum...

I would just have to make the aluminum squares thick enough that I could drill / tap them. That's the key.

The epoxy should only be in the joints, not someplace glue can stick to it. If any gets on the surface of the aluminium, you can scrape it off and/or use acetone to clean it off.

I'm thinking getting holes drilled precise enough would be a PITA. Although, thinking about it, you could build it all with glue, then drill and tap holes for the screws, then if you are concerned about the glue, soak the whole assembly for a day or 2 in acetone to remove the glue. Doing it like this CA may even work instead of epoxy, as the glue is temporary. Acetone is the solvent for both CA and Epoxy.

 

[gr8danish]

Yeah, I guess glueing the assembly together first WILL make it easier to assemble. I do, however, own a mill. Drilling the pieces won't be difficult, just time consuming. Every little square will need 4 holes in it, 2 tapped & 2 straight through.

I may go to the scrap-yard next week day I have off and see what raw metal I can find to play with.

 

[gr8danish]

-------------------RESULTS OF USING THIS FIXTURE----------------

The blank came out pretty well. There are still a few small voids, but not many. This technique definitely helps, but I need that last fixture to achieve perfection...

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