How to make sides of box convex?

[Eric Thumb]

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Here is a picture of the boxes that I have been making. This is a pic of one before it was glued together and finished up a bit. It looks MUCH better after it's done (who am I kidding).

Anyway I've been using regular old plain jane maple and sending it through the planer to get to around 3/8" thick for the sides. Recently I came across some curly maple that is 3/4" thick and I contemplated doing the same with it but I cannot in good conscience turn half of these boards into sawdust.

So I began to wonder about how to use as much of the boards as possible. I have a bandsaw and thought about resawing them but I've tried that before with 3/4" boards and ended up with two boards that were too thin for me to use.

Then the idea struck me that if I could put a slight curve on the face of the board then I would not waste as much and I might even end up with better looking boxes. Basically the top and bottoms would still be 3/8" with a gradual curve to 3/4" in the middle then back down to 3/8".

The problem is......I have no idea how to do it. I've looked online for router bits and saw some of the roundover types but I don't think that any of those are quite big enough. I have also thought about putting my table saw blade at an angle and cutting it on the top and bottom then getting out my sander but I was afraid how that would turn out.

If anyone has a suggestion then I am all ears.

Thanks

[Huck Schwee]

It sounds like you will have a hard time saving wood with a curve like that. To get the most out of the curly maple, the best option I think is to do a lamination or veneer of the curly maple on top of the regular maple. You should be able to get a lot more use of the curly depending on how thinly you want to resaw. That also depend if you want to shape the front still or the type of joinery you want to use (with miters, you can get away with a pretty thin lamination).

[Michael Dedon]

Eric, I did a small box like you're talking about and used my block plane. The curly maple asks for tear out so make sure your blade is sharp. My wood was lacewood so it wasn't a piece of cake either. Sandpaper and scraper finished it off. I started with 3/4" and smoothed the upper and lower to 3/8. The back stayed flat so I could run it through the saw and cut my miters with no problems.

[Kevin McCluney]

If you have a jointer you can use it to take off most of the waste. Then use sanders, planes, etc, to get the final profile. That's how I've done the frames to connect cabriole legs, etc.

[jack forsberg]

i would screw them on a 4x4 one on each side chuck that in the lathe and turned them like i did this lid . leave them long for screws at the ends where you do not turn and shape away. You could make them as free as you would like and they will all be the same. you need a lathe though. Not a big one ether. every thing on this lid was turned on the lathe in about 20 min. very easy to work figure on the lathe and sand to a nice finish to.

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad111/tool613/crows019_zpsc2908c24.jpg (http://s927.photobucket.com/user/tool613/media/crows019_zpsc2908c24.jpg.html)

jack
English machines

[Eric Thumb]

I can honestly say that all of these suggestions are great. Thank you!

Huck, I never thought about veneering the boards and if all else fails that's probably what i will do. You have at least doubled maybe even tripled the number of boxes that I can use my curly maple on.

Michael, I have a low angle block plane and took out a piece of scrap sycamore to practice on after reading your post. Lets just say that my block plane skills leave a lot to be desired. I could round it over but it wasn't quite as uniform as I would like it to be. I could probably get it to an acceptable curve if I messed around with it a little more though.I just roughed it out with the plane. How did your box turn out? Was it worth the effort after you finished?

Kevin I do have a little jointer that has been setting around unused for quite a few years. I bought it when I started out because I read that you HAD to have one but I never could get a straight edge or a flat board off of it. So I just went and bought a planer and a decent tablesaw blade. This sounds like the perfect opportunity to drag it out of the basement. I will feel more comfortable using it to take off the majority of the waste than I would be tilting my tablesaw blade. I've set up my saw as best as I could but I still get burnt edges and a garage full of smoke when I cut chamfers, especially when cutting maple. I can then break out the plane and sander.

And finally Jack. I am intrigued with your suggestion. I have no idea what any of those things in your picture are except for your box top but your idea seems to be the most fool proof way to get the even curve that I am wanting. Unfortunately I do not have a lathe but after seeing your pic I told my wife that I need one. She said "whatever". Which doesn't sound like a "no" to me.

My plan of attack is to use the jointer, block plane and sander offensive to start with and if I completely screw it up I'll make some veneer while I am waiting on my new lathe to be delivered.

Thanks!

[Jim Tobias]

Eric,
I initially cut the sides on the tablesaw as you described. 4 cuts to get it close. I draw the points on the edge of the board to get the set up (blade angle) that I want. After that, I hate to say it, but it is just a whole lot of hand sanding. I have accumulated numerous pieces of large pvc pipe and cut out sections(longitudinally) that give me a match to the profile needed on a particular box. Attach a shop made handle to the outside fo the PVC curve and have at it. Depending on the curve, you can do some plane work to get it closer before using the PVS sanding shapes. I line the interior curve of the pvc pipe with cork, then use self adhesive sandpaper in various grits as I rough shape the curved sides.

I hope this gives you the idea. If not, feel free to contact me again PM.

Here are a few pictures of several of the box shapes.

Jim

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[Jim Matthews]

So JT, these are solid construction, rather than laminated?

My suggestion would have been to make the boxes rectangular, and take down the "corners" until you approximate a curve.
Finishing with handplanes would allow you to fair the curve, but it would not necessarily be uniform.

Further - curly maple is cantankerous where end grain (or most any grain, for that matter) is exposed.
I don't like sanding much, but the idea of using a PVC pipe section as a sanding form is clever.

You could add to the illusion by putting in splines of the same depth along the corners after the shaping is done.

****

FWIW - This sort of thing is why lamination was invented.

[Jim Tobias]

Yes, they are solid construction. The sanding took some time, but finding scrap pieces of PVC pipe for sale that large was also difficult. To get the course needed I had to find PVC scraps in the 16 - 20" diameter range. Went to a large PVC supplier and bought some scraps.

Jim