Hi there!

I'm working on a project in which I have 4 small square "legs", about 3
x 3, only 10 inches long. It's soft wood. I would like to do 2 stopped
flutes on each side of the four legs. It's like a dado with a round
bottom.

If this would be a "full" length flute, I would use a round-sole hand
plane, with some flat stock as a fence. I've tried that, and it works
just perfect! But, how can I do the same flute but in a "stopped"
fashion?

The plane won't go further once the sole reachs the wood. Using carving
chisels seems to be roguh (or probably I don't have the neccesary
skills). I tried to create a scratch-stock scraper, with a round blade
(actually, I used the same plane blade with an added burr), but it
leaves a very roguh surface (maybe because it's soft wood?).

Any idea on how to accomplish this?

Many thanks in advance!
Nautilus

A router with a coping bit? Pretty standard stuff.


nautilus wrote:
Hi there!

I'm working on a project in which I have 4 small square "legs", about 3
x 3, only 10 inches long. It's soft wood. I would like to do 2 stopped
flutes on each side of the four legs. It's like a dado with a round
bottom.

If this would be a "full" length flute, I would use a round-sole hand
plane, with some flat stock as a fence. I've tried that, and it works
just perfect! But, how can I do the same flute but in a "stopped"
fashion?

The plane won't go further once the sole reachs the wood. Using carving
chisels seems to be roguh (or probably I don't have the neccesary
skills). I tried to create a scratch-stock scraper, with a round blade
(actually, I used the same plane blade with an added burr), but it
leaves a very roguh surface (maybe because it's soft wood?).

Any idea on how to accomplish this?

Many thanks in advance!
Nautilus

Perhaps I'm not fully understanding what you intend to do, but my
vision of a flute along the long axis of a leg could be done with a
plunge router and a fence, using a fluting bit, couldn't it??





nautilus wrote:
Hi there!

I'm working on a project in which I have 4 small square "legs", about 3
x 3, only 10 inches long. It's soft wood. I would like to do 2 stopped
flutes on each side of the four legs. It's like a dado with a round
bottom.

If this would be a "full" length flute, I would use a round-sole hand
plane, with some flat stock as a fence. I've tried that, and it works
just perfect! But, how can I do the same flute but in a "stopped"
fashion?

The plane won't go further once the sole reachs the wood. Using carving
chisels seems to be roguh (or probably I don't have the neccesary
skills). I tried to create a scratch-stock scraper, with a round blade
(actually, I used the same plane blade with an added burr), but it
leaves a very roguh surface (maybe because it's soft wood?).

Any idea on how to accomplish this?

Many thanks in advance!
Nautilus

Thanks for the reponses! And sorry for my bad english.. it's hard to
explain!

A router would do the job for sure! But I wanted to do it with hand
tools, as I don't have power tools, mainly because I enjoy to work the
old fashion way. The "stopped flute" runs across the long side as you
stated, but NOT all the way (typically, those kind of legs has 3 flutes
on each side). For examlpe, in the 10 inches leg (3in x 3in perfectly
square), the flutes runs from 2 to 9, leaving one inch "untouched" on
each side. This tiny inch of wood is the one that complicates the
things, as I can't run a regular hand plane (with a round bottom), from
the beginning until the end, because the sole can dig deeper on the
surface.

But hey.. now that you said that, maybe a router plane is what I
need... altoguth, I don't either have one (so it might be a good
project itself also).

Thanks again!
Mariano

Just in case, here I'm trying to "draw" the stopped flute:

---------------------
| |
| /\ /\ /\ |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| \/ \/ \/ |
| |
---------------------

Hope it adds something to the descriptions!

Thanks a bunch!
Nautilus

Your round bottom plane should do the job.
Attach the fence as if you were going to do a full length flute. Start the
plane just short of the desired end of a flute and stop planing just past
the middle of the flute. Make the second pass by starting a little closer
to the desired flute end point and finishing a little shorter than the first pass.
Keep making each successive pass starting a little closer to the desired end
point of the flute and stopping a little shorter than the previous pass until
you have that half of the flute complete.
Readjust the fence and finish the other half of the flute the same way.
Then clean up the ends with a gouge if necessary.

I hope this helps.

Art



"nautilus" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there!

I'm working on a project in which I have 4 small square "legs", about 3
x 3, only 10 inches long. It's soft wood. I would like to do 2 stopped
flutes on each side of the four legs. It's like a dado with a round
bottom.

If this would be a "full" length flute, I would use a round-sole hand
plane, with some flat stock as a fence. I've tried that, and it works
just perfect! But, how can I do the same flute but in a "stopped"
fashion?

The plane won't go further once the sole reachs the wood. Using carving
chisels seems to be roguh (or probably I don't have the neccesary
skills). I tried to create a scratch-stock scraper, with a round blade
(actually, I used the same plane blade with an added burr), but it
leaves a very roguh surface (maybe because it's soft wood?).

Any idea on how to accomplish this?

Many thanks in advance!
Nautilus