Tips for a newbie segmenter?

[brailsmt]

I have made a single segmented blank. It was a chess board themed shaving brush. My accuracy in glue ups is lacking. I have a crosscut jig for my table saw. I also have a bandsaw, but no jigs made for it. I would like to make some high precision celtic knot blanks and other segmented blanks. Chess is a theme with me, and a chess board themed pen is on the wish list, but I need to seriously step up my segmenting game for that. Tips are greatly appreciated.

 

[Danie Maartens]

What I have found to work is using a sled on my table saw and band saw with a fixed stop in order to get exactly the same sized segments every time. I also use a toggle clamp on the sled to hold the material.

For checkerboard pattern pen I cut four pieces of wood exactly the same size and absolutely square, I then glue these together, cross cut them, rotate them to form the desired pattern and glue together using a piece of angled aluminium covered in wax paper. For this specific pen I used red G10 between the Ebony and Maple segments.

See photos attached.

 

[mark james]

Hi Michael, welcome to the vortex of segmenting.

When you say "glue-up", are you referring to constructing the basic brick which you are then cutting into slices, or the process of constructing the slices into patterns (rotating for the checkerboard)? Each has a few challenges.

There are a wide variety of UTube videos and online tutorials with different methods. I don't have a favorite personally.

If you indicate which step you are not happy with, more specific suggestions can be made.

For the Celtic Knot procedure, I'll let others give suggestions as this design I have little experience with (although I use a 45 degree sled for several machines for many of my segmenting).

These are some great examples: https://www.penturners.org/threads/a-few-8-loop-celtic-knots.157471/

Some segmented pens from today good to be back in the shop

fixed scrool down

www.penturners.org

Simple segmenting

This is another pen in my black and aluminum series pens. This is a Sierra Vista chrome kit with a black acrylic and an aluminum knot. Spun and polished to a high shine. Thanks for looking. Any questions or comments feel free to post.

www.penturners.org

 

[jttheclockman]

I have made a single segmented blank. It was a chess board themed shaving brush. My accuracy in glue ups is lacking. I have a crosscut jig for my table saw. I also have a bandsaw, but no jigs made for it. I would like to make some high precision celtic knot blanks and other segmented blanks. Chess is a theme with me, and a chess board themed pen is on the wish list, but I need to seriously step up my segmenting game for that. Tips are greatly appreciated.

Michael, there are many many threads on segmenting in the making blanks segmenting section here. They get into all kinds of segmenting and different methods and jigs and tools used. I will give you some of my opinions and these are my opinions. I prefer to always use a tablesaw for doing segmenting work and my reason is easier to make jigs for (always need jigs) and the blade is much more stable than a bandsaw blade. Accuracy is the key word along with repeatability. You need to repeat your cuts with accuracy and this is where jigs come in. Weather you make adjustable jigs or one time solid core jigs they need to be able to set up with accuracy.

You mention the Celtic knot. Once the mystery was released how this cut was made, many went on to expand on the idea and also chose different methods to cut it. As I said I prefer tablesaw but others have used the bandsaw with great success also. You can get thinner cuts with a bandsaw and thus means less waste if that is a matter to you and you can make jigs for it too. Just abit more finicky. The key again to the knot is repeatability and accuracy (see a theme here) You need to be able to clamp and hold the blank on the same axis for all 4 cuts and this is where a good jig comes in. Here is a photo of one of mine I made to cut things like that. In this photo I cut what is referred to as feathers in a blank and show the finished blank when spun down. But the same idea is done when making a knot. The angle will have a visual effect. 35 degrees is a nice angle to stretch a knot out. 60 and 45 are the other angles used alot. Most knots I prefer not to cut all the way through leaving about 3/32" left material. this allows perfect alignment when gluing in the inlay material. The inlay material must match the exact width of the kerf of your blade to keep the alignment perfect. (Ask questions if need be) Glue up and glue used depends on materials used. I like to use a jig which I show that is a simple piece of aluminum angle. Helps keep things aligned. I use wax paper under so nothing sticks to metal. They are really not hard. I prefer to use Titebond II for wood to wood gluing and epoxy for all other materials and have had good luck. My only failure was when I tried using CA. Not for me any more.

Many other ways to do segmenting to. For other designs I have been known to use my router in conjunction with the lathe to do segmenting work but that is another story for another time. As I said ask all the questions you need. Someone will jump and answer and help. Have fun and use your imagination. But the most important thing is being you are working with power tools and very small pieces of material work safe and follow all safety rules. Make segmenting the fun part of this hobby which it is. Good luck and look forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[sbwertz]

You can do simple segmenting using spectraply blanks. cut the blanks in thin strips that have two or three or four colors and segment them into a pen. It is a way to do simple segmenting without all the glue up. We use it at the blind center a lot.