Lamination BLUES .....

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OSCAR15

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I need to pick some brains as I haven't yet tried lamination of blanks. I am trying the celtic knot, (double cross). Found info, built sled...
My first try wasn't great. I am not too fond of using clamps to hold blank to sled at 45 degree angle. Makes me a bit jumpy as it comes rather close to business end of a 2 hp table saw. My first try, I could not figure out a way to clamp the lamination...A 90 degree would be no problem, but at 45 degrees the pieces slide when you clamp them. I used a 5 min epoxy and held it by hand...Gotta be a better way. Then, when I cut for the second insert, the X didnt line up. All I can think of is I must have turned blank end over end as well as 180 degrees. I didn't move stop so this would mess up if cross wassn't dead center of blank.
Last question....How to cut acrylics? I use a mitre box and backsaw (by hand). Can any power tool do the job safely without chewing up the plastic? Thanks OSCAR
 
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As for a holding the blank at 45 deg. I recommend 2 things:
1) Glue a piece of sand paper to the fence to help hold in place
2) Temporarily attach a stop to the fence to help keep the blank from moving, this will help keep the alignment for you celtic knot pattern, assuming the blank end is square to the sides.
I always lightly mark where I want my cuts to be so don't mess up. DAMHIKT [;)][;)]
I'm sure others will have other suggestions, that are better than mine. Hope this helps
 
use ca or clamp pieces of wood on either side of the blank before clamping the ends. The wood cauls will stop the blank from sliding.

----------- wood caul
=====/====== blank
----------- woosclamping caul
 
This link is to an article on segmented pens. The 3rd section shows a technique for clamping.
http://www.penturners.org/content/SegPenBlanks.pdf
 
Make sure the sides of your blank are 90 degrees (square) and the cross section of your blank is exactly square (equal dimension on each side)if your are making multiple cuts by rotating the blank on each side. Anywhere there is a dimension or angle that is slightly off makes for alignment problems later.
 
All good advise so far. One other thing that will affect the lining up of the laminations for a celtic knot is the piece being laminated in MUST be the same with as your saw blades kerf thickness.
 
Thanks for all the advice....MY first attempt was awful...Second attempt gave me the double crosses with decent (but not perfect symetry). I decided to turn it anyway to see what would come out of it...
After I rounded the edges of the blank with belt sander, I put it on lathe...It blew out as I got it almost down to bushings...
Several hours of laminating..shot to hell.
Gives me a greater respect for all the lamination work I have seen on this site. I probably will git it another shot later on..
I think the most important thing needs to be patience. This is not one of my virtues, but I am bound and determined to do this! Once again, I thank all of you for getting me started on this...I am in awe of the really complex laminations I have seen here...I used 5 min epoxy to do glue up. Is CA better? OSCAR
 
One point I think that was missed was the sharpness of the saw blade. A dull or even a slightly dull blade will also try to "scoot" the blank around. Nothing makes me smile like really sharp tools. "Lifes to short to work with dull tools".[8D]
 
i have tried laminations with epoxy, all blew up!! Use thin or med ca, for my celtic pen, cut light sand, med ca on one piece shot of acc. on other then stick and hold. repeat for othe side of blank.
 
The hard part for me was cutting the lamination insert to be the same thickness of the sawblade kerf. Not extremely noticeable on a 2-cut, but it stands out like a sore thumb on third and fourth cut. Hand cutting may be good, as long as you can match up the kerf with a insert of same thickness.

I had similar clamping issues. Clamp too close to blade, but changing clamps and a slight clamping point rearrangement and problem solved.

CA glue is good for acrylics and other artifical stuff, especially since everyone is eager to get from the prep stage to the turning stage. I've gone back to wood glue such as Tite Bond for most of my woods. Usually means I can only get one cut/glue operation per night. Not a problem when I'm doing 4-5 pens, but quite tedious when I only have one order to get completed.

I tried gorilla glus and some other urethane glues. Good glue, just totally unsuitable for gluing up pens blanks due to the glue expansion that occurs during curing. Even with a totally clamped down glue-up, the curing expansion forces things out of alignment. kein gutes.
 
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