To add to Kevin's notes on getting segments to fit, the technique that I adopted
was to glue up the ring trying to get slightly open places opposite if possible.
When the glue was set, I took it to the bandsaw and sawed through the two
opposite joints and reglued them. If there were other open joints, I repeated
this for them. I found it worked very well and cut out all of that trying to
sand things just right. A couple of very good segmented turners that I know have
adopted my technique and say it works very well for them too.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com

In article , Kevin Miller says...

Tom Nie wrote:
Kevin,

That's awesome work. The detail is impressive. There's been a lot of
discussion about "how long did it take...." but I just gotta ask, "How long
did it take"?

Thanks. It took a year and a half! But there were weeks or even months
that I didn't do anything on it. I seem to have a problem doing one
project at a time. The entertainment center I promised my wife has been
patiently waiting for about 3 years now. It's probably about a third
done.

And how do you do such accurate segmenting? Almost looks like Malcolm
Tibbetts kind of work.

The late Ray Allen was asked that. His reply was "If it doesn't fit I
don't use it." I try to follow that philosophy but have to admit that
I'm not as anal about it as I should be. If you saw my joints compared
to his in real life, you'd notice the difference.

A more pragmatic answer is that I glue up half rings, then sand them
edge on the disk sander to true up the surfaces that mate with the other
half of the ring. One trick; when you sand mark the side that's up,
then when you glue the half rings together, flip one over. That way if
your table/grinder angle isn't exactly 90 degrees the the edges will
still mate up properly. Hope that makes sense.

Sometimes, rather than sanding the edges, I'll mount them on a board
with a hold down and run it through the table saw to true up the edge.
Either way works well.

S'later...

...Kevin