Williams and Hussey and an elliptical jig

[Leo Graywacz]

A short while ago I purchased the Shop Fox elliptical jig for my W&H molder. I would have liked to get the W&H jig but at $587 vs $208 for the Shop Fox I made the decision to go for the SF version.

http://www.fototime.com/AD5E3985534FCAE/orig.jpg

I went to put the elliptical jig on my W&H and first thing I noticed is the hold down wouldn't go down far enough to clip on my table. I had to get two socket screws that were 1/2" longer than supplied. Not a big deal, but an hour of my time while I was trying to get setup. But I got it setup and attached to my molder without any further issues.

I purchased the elliptical jig for a job that needed an elliptical colonial casing. I also had to get knives ground for a 2 1/2" colonial casing. I made my particle board pattern for the shape required for my casing. 2 1/2" wide and curved accordingly. I screwed a blank to the pattern and used a flush trim bit to shape it to the right shape.

Here's a video that I made while running the molding


http://youtu.be/FTXNM26n4BA

This is what I am building for my client. A curved top pass through.

http://www.fototime.com/4013E48AF907193/orig.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/F555FE3A25CC5CC/orig.jpg

[Mel Fulks]

Interesting ,I like elliptical stuff. I have been able to do those with knives we already had and ,I think, improve the design by suggesting wider casings for ellipses and half rounds by pointing out that old houses almost always have them.By pointing that out I was able to make a stock elliptical cased opening 5 feet wide that would work in any house with a ceiling 9 feet or more. Management said it wouldn't sell because because everyone would want different casings .Over a couple of years I sold 13 of them. And of course many of custom sizes and casings.

[Rick Potter]

Interesting to watch. Thanks Leo.

Rick Potter

[Peter Quinn]

Nice work Leo. Not sure the dust collection is everything it could be....:D. I keep thinking I'd like to have that jig, but I've never needed to run an eclipse. Good to know it works should the need arise. They made one at work where the outboard hold down bearing is pneumatic, on a piston, big aluminum base plate. Been years since they used it, curved stuff gets farmed out now. Always good to see your fine work. Like Mel, I am scratching my head on the colonial casing, not sure I've eer seen a house where they spent the money on eliptical or curved jambs but not on a substantial trim package?

[Leo Graywacz]

I'm copying an existing casing. They have a doorway in the house and added on a new addition. This put another doorway right next to the old original doorway. So they needed to be the same.

This was a picture of the key so I could reproduce it. But as you can see it's colonial casing. It's not the exact one I used, the outside part is a bit smaller on the flat than the casing I used. Small enough difference that the only people that will notice are woodworkers and people who go around measuring casing :p

http://www.fototime.com/2537470FB696AE1/orig.jpg

And for the dust collection. Usually I run the machine with a shroud and it collects more than 99% of the dust. I ran it this way so I could see what was going on. I was giving the molding a helping hand as it was going through its curve. The first molding I ran ended up with a gouge in it because the cutter had a section that came down to do the inside radius. After I figured out what was going on by running the molding through numerous times I ground the offending part of the cutter off.

http://www.fototime.com/FE88B1E43D09149/orig.jpg

[John A langley]

Thanks Leo glad to know the jig works on the W&H. Always like to see your work have a great day

[John A langley]

Are you going to put the ding in the key

[Leo Graywacz]

It needs to be a copy right?? So the ding is going in it......










No, I'm not :rolleyes:

[John A langley]

I laughed out loud

[Alden Miller]

Thanks for the info on the Shop Fox jig. I haven't had a need to make any curved molding yet but I might have to find a need since I already have the W&H... If I do I will be sure to point my wife towards you for the blame. :D

-Alden

[Mel Fulks]

Yeah,Leo, I agree there does need to be some symmetry to introduce a wider casing on an ellipse ,but keep it in mind as it greatly increases the presence of an ellipse and no one else is going to suggest it. One tip I discovered after doing my first ellipse is the spring line should be higher than 6 ft 8. Because the vertical line of the square head doors consists of opening height PLUS HEADER casing width. That gives an inappropriate dominance to the standard openings,since the vertical casing line of the ellipse starts to curve in at at spring line. Took me a while too to figure out that edge gouging caused by the knife drag around the tight curve. Oh,one more thing.Never allow a contractor who is going to install to have the straight casing before the elliptical is ready. Because to make a show some dufuss will nail them up and subsequently cut the curved pieces too short!,since he has no room to roll casing around to correct place. Nice work!

[Leo Graywacz]

The casing will be glued on one side of the jamb and the loose one is completely assembled. Just cut the straight legs to length and nail it up.

[Peter Quinn]

Leo, I was kidding about the dust, I understood what you were doing. Nice little machines but tough to get a visual on the operation with the hood on. Wish there was a viewing window of sorts, no idea how,it would work. I mentioned the Hussey at work has a pneumatic hold in bearing. That piston has a small togle switch to acctuate and a SPST light switch for on/off. Dumb and clumsy but cheap. The guy that taught me to set up the Hussey was walking me through a set up, bemoaning that the feed didn't have a jog in and reverse like his 5 head molder, we were talking about the viability of wiring a reversing switch on a DC variable speed motor. He reaches over to turn off the pneumatic piston, hands right next to the cutter inside the machine, hood off for set up.....hits the wrong switch......thing was plugged in. Miracle he didn't even get a nick, I turned off the machine, we both nearly wet out pants. We had the hood off to get the inside edge of the guides aligned with the knives. Oops.

[Leo Graywacz]

This one is completed. Starting the next one and hopefully finishing it tomorrow.

http://www.fototime.com/BECF83B4FAF0AE4/orig.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/EE7754851318AF7/orig.jpg

[Bill ThompsonNM]

This one is completed. Starting the next one and hopefully finishing it tomorrow.
Very nice, very nice indeed.

[Leo Graywacz]

Brought them over today. They both fit (yay!).

I didn't have to do the installation, the GC of the job took care of that.

I have a pic of the smaller archway. That was just a plop and fit installation. The bigger arch would take more time. I figured about 2 hours to get it completely in. Had to be scribed to a wall because there was only one leg on that one.

http://www.fototime.com/117F5A45E3B6F18/orig.jpg

[John A langley]

Thanks Leo that works great

[Leo Graywacz]

And here is the large archway installed. The only thing that will be different is the next day or so is a 3/16" pc of poplar will be added to the wall to make it look like there is a jamb there so it looks like a full entry. Not sure if I agree with this or not, but that what they want and that's what they'll get.

http://www.fototime.com/D4D67BB1F327227/orig.jpg

[Mel Fulks]

Well, I don't agree .That is strange!. But I don't say that as a criticism of your work,that part is good. There are two schools of thought on jobs like that. One is "that's what they want", and the other is "it would be a mistake to get involved in this". The latter is where I would have been. When their friends laugh at it and ask "who did this? ONE JAMB LEG?" They will not say "it's what we wanted,we designed it", they will just say your name. That kind of job needs a detailed purchase order .Im sure others here have seen cases where the finished odd ball job is hard to get paid for. Ive spent lots of my own time designing good solutions for difficult situations. But if I'm asked ,for instance,to draw up paneling for a wildly hodge podge room with no symmetry , a bunch of doors, a bunch of different size windows. I reccommend wall paper and leave. I have never had a case where management did not trust my decision.