Hi all,

I've been looking through a book by Malcolm Tibbetts called "The Art of
Segmented Woodturning". He makes some absolutely wonderful pieces and I
wouldn't mind having a go at segmented turning myself. Only trouble is that
he uses a veritable arsenal of tools - and due to a combination of space and
budgetary restrictions I try and get by on as little as possible. This
means, for example, that my disk sander is a piece of abrasive stuck to a
plywood disk attached to the scroll chuck on my lathe! He advocates use of a
12" disk sander, a mitre saw for cutting the segments, a jointer and a whole
host of other stuff. He certainly seems to make good use of his tools but
quite often you find you can produce perfectly acceptable results with a
minimum of equipment. I'd be interested to know from any segmented turners
out there how much tooling is necessary to produce good quality results -
for example, do I need to shell out on a "proper" disk sander and a mitre
saw. I have a good quality bandsaw and wonder whether I can get away with
that. Your experience and advice is welcomed.

Many thanks

Kind regards

Ron Headon
Swindon, England

"Ron Headon" writes:
I've been looking through a book by Malcolm Tibbetts called "The Art of
Segmented Woodturning".

Hey, I just got that myself but haven't had a chance to really read it
yet.

This means, for example, that my disk sander is a piece of abrasive
stuck to a plywood disk attached to the scroll chuck on my lathe!

Mine is on my faceplate. So? I built a plywood table that sits on
the bed of the lathe that lines up with the center of the disk, too.

He advocates use of a 12" disk sander,

12" disc on the lathe.

a mitre saw for cutting the segments,

Table saw and incra.

a jointer

Ok, I've got one of these. You can use a belt sander or your disc
sander along with a "safety planer" on a drill press to thickness
wood.

I'd be interested to know from any segmented turners out there how
much tooling is necessary to produce good quality results

I use a jointer/planer to prepare my stock, and a tablesaw to cut it
and match half-rings. Disc sander for facing the rings.

I think the thing to do is try try try! Pick an inexpensive hardwood
(maple around here) and see if what you've got is accurate enough for
the results you want.

do I need to shell out on a "proper" disk sander

I thought you already had one ;-)

I have a good quality bandsaw

Bandsaws aren't accurate enough that way.

what incra do you use?

Rob

shavedwood.com


DJ Delorie wrote:
"Ron Headon" writes:
I've been looking through a book by Malcolm Tibbetts called "The Art of
Segmented Woodturning".

Hey, I just got that myself but haven't had a chance to really read it
yet.

This means, for example, that my disk sander is a piece of abrasive
stuck to a plywood disk attached to the scroll chuck on my lathe!

Mine is on my faceplate. So? I built a plywood table that sits on
the bed of the lathe that lines up with the center of the disk, too.

He advocates use of a 12" disk sander,

12" disc on the lathe.

a mitre saw for cutting the segments,

Table saw and incra.

a jointer

Ok, I've got one of these. You can use a belt sander or your disc
sander along with a "safety planer" on a drill press to thickness
wood.

I'd be interested to know from any segmented turners out there how
much tooling is necessary to produce good quality results

I use a jointer/planer to prepare my stock, and a tablesaw to cut it
and match half-rings. Disc sander for facing the rings.

I think the thing to do is try try try! Pick an inexpensive hardwood
(maple around here) and see if what you've got is accurate enough for
the results you want.

do I need to shell out on a "proper" disk sander

I thought you already had one ;-)

I have a good quality bandsaw

Bandsaws aren't accurate enough that way.

writes:
what incra do you use?

I have the incra 5000. However, even after aligning the angle with
feeler gauges to within a few thousanths of an inch over the 18"
length, it still wasn't accurate enough to get it "just right" for
wide rings, so I use the half-ring-trim technique.

The flip stop comes in handy for segments, though. I use a two-phase
technique for cutting segments:

Phase 1 - rough cutting. I use a drafting triangle clamped to the
waste-side sled (the one that doesn't slide, for incra) as if it were
a rip fence. To set this up, I measure a segment on the stock,
position it for the cut, and use a t-track clamp to clamp it to the
sled. Then I position the sled so that the point of the stock is at
the near edge of the waste side sled, and clamp the corner of the
triangle at that point. I push the sled forward so that the point of
the stock is now near the tip of the triangle and clamp the far corner
down. Now I have the triangle clamped along the leading edge of the
waste side sled, and one edge is parallel to the cut and the right
distance away. Note: the triangle is short enough that the stock
leaves the triangle before beginning the cut, like any good crosscut.

Ok, now that I have a stop, I cut a dozen blanks. Cut, flip, cut,
flip, etc. Now I have a dozen trapezoids slightly longer than needed.
I run a pencil line down all the angled edges of the trapezoids so I
know which ends I've trimmed.

Now I set up the flip stop. I set it for 1/32 long and trim one end
of each rough trapezoid. Set four of them aside. Move the stop to
1/16 long (note that the incra stop makes this easy - it's moved one
notch each time) and trim the other end of the remaining 8.

The reason for this trimming step is that the trimming is done with
the SAME long edge against the SAME part of the fence each time, and I
don't have the rest of the stock influencing the angle at all. It
results in fairly precise cuts that way, and I don't have to worry
about how parallel the long edges of the stock are.

Ok, so now I have parts for two half-rings with slightly long ends.
Use one of the short trapezoids to mark the long ones with a marking
knife so you know where to trim them to later. Glue up the half
rings, leaving the marked ends unglued. Lightly sand. Use t-track
clamps to clamp the half rings to the crosscut sled, aligning the
marks you made with the edge of the sled, and trim them. Note which
side is "up" for each half, when you glue them together keep one half
up and the other half down, so any inaccuracy in the blade's angle is
cancelled out instead of doubled.

Now, sand the whole rings on the disk sander. I make pencil marks on
that side first so I know when I've sanded just enough.

As I glue each layer on to the form, I let it dry enough so that I can
true it up and thickness it on the lathe. I use a ruler across the
ring as a reference, and a second ruler from that to the bottom of the
form to check the "height" of the ring, since in my cases I'm usually
following a plan and it's the absolute height of the ring that's
important and not the relative thickness of it; I can't allow for
accumulated errors in ring thickness.

I use a long block and sandpaper to do the final flattening and use a
straightedge to test for flatness.

When clamping each ring on, also, I turn the ring relative to the form
after the tailstock is brought up to squeeze out any excess glue.
This seems to get rid of the dark glue lines, since bubbles of excess
glue can keep the rings apart.

Ok, this answer was longer than I expected ;-)

A while back, I found a jig for a tablesaw that will help you cut the
segments-- I find it much easier than using a chopsaw & safer. The
only problem is that you have to make a jig for each type of segement-
ie. 8, 10,12 segments. I don't remember the website, but it may be on
the woodworking webring at
http://q.webring.com/hub?ring=segmentedwoodtur
Also, Kevin's woodturning has some neat ideas. If I remember the link,
I'll repost. I think I still have the plans in an excel spreadsheet
that you can have (assuming I didn't erase it when I reconfigured my
harddrive this week)
good luck, Phil

I found the link for the jig
http://www.turnedwood.com/framesled.html
Cheers