Need advice on safely cutting small pieces

[Tom Hoffman]

I am making some arts and crafts pieces and need to cut small pyramid shaped "buttons" of 1/4 sawn white oak. I've attached a drawing of the size, shape, and dimension. The pyramid relief chamfering requires jig like accuracy in order for them to look sharp and crisp. I do not have a stationary disk sander, but have just about everything else. Suggestions appreciated.

[Jim Becker]

Whenever working with very small workpieces and spinning/moving blades, any kind of jig you can use to securely hold the workpiece without getting your hands close to the cutter is the way to go. They are worth making, even if for a one-off situation, and really "pay for themselves" for repeat projects.

For your chamfering, a sander is the preferable way to shape the wood without tearout. If you have a belt sander, you can probably rig it up to work similar to a stationary sander. If not, make a jig that operates similar to a "shooting board" and use a sanding block.

[Jamie Buxton]

Tom --
Try again on the drawing?

[Tom Hoffman]

Well, I thought I uploaded an image. Didn't work. I'll try again.

[Jamie Buxton]

Tom --

Do you have a tablesaw with a blade good enough to make a finished cut? If so, here's how I'd do it...

I'd make two sleds with the fences angled to cut the facets on the top. I'd also use an existing sled with its fence at 90 degrees. (If you don't have one already, this would be a good nudge to build one. It is useful all the time.) My stock would be a long stick 5/8 by whatever your other dimension is -- you don't say. The sleds would have stops so the cuts are repeatable. I'd cut the four facets at the end of the stick, then cut the little piece off the end of the stick, and repeat. If you don't like the quality of cut of the tablesaw blade, you could sand the facets before you cut the small piece off the end of the stock -- however, you may find that you lose the crisp corners, so there's a trade-off.

As you're putting the stops on the sleds, be sure to not trap off-cuts between the stop and the blade. In things this size, the trapped off-cut isn't particularly dangerous to you, but it may deflect the blade sideways and chowder up the facet.

A basic motivation in this approach is, as Jim says, keeping your fingers away from things that can hurt them. The sleds also form zero-clearance surfaces to reduce chip-out on your workpiece, and to prevent off-cuts from getting wedges in places you don't want to be.

[David Brown]

and what I did was glue ebony blocks on the end grain of a pc of cherry, then saw cut so whole deal was to size and square, then 20 degrees on saw, w/ miter gauge and stop and rotated, then raised blade at 90 and cut off came out fine. :p :p

[Dave Wright #2]

Now that's small. Any forming tool, including sandpaper on a block of wood, will work fast enough. Problem is that the workpiece is likely to get damaged during the final cutoff if done with power tools, or difficult to cut smoothly and accurately with hand tools. It's just too small to hold well and approach accurately.

You want to attach the button when it's still square topped, and then form the pyramid with a chisel or block plane. Use sandpaper instead if you want a slightly softened look. Practice a bit and they'll look perfect.

This method assumes that the piece is supposed to be attached to a larger project - like an A&C tenon pinning cap.

[Doug Turner]

You might try hot gluing 1/4" thick blocks to a waste piece that is long enough to handle safely. After shaping ( a lion miter trimmer would be ideal), you can pop the hot glue bond off with a chisel and have a finished product.Doug Turner

[Bruce Page]

Tom, I made some ironwood pegs with the diamond recently. After milling the stock to the needed dimensions, I put the “diamond” on the ends with my spindle sander. I clamped a small piece of wood to the table to serve as a fence and adjusted it close to the spindle. The spindle sander gave me an excellent finish and it only took a few minuets to safely make each peg. My pegs are a little different than your buttons but the same process would work.