Elliptical Arch for an Oak Door

[Leo Graywacz]

Needed to make some casing for the interior of an Oak door. The casing is custom, picked out by the customer and I designed and had a knife made for my W&H molder. Half the house will have this molding around the doors and windows. It's a mix between Douglas Fir (VGF) and Poplar which gets painted.

Here the exterior of the door, I don't have an interior picture.
http://www.fototime.com/1EAD8CF63323259/orig.jpg

Got some Oak glued up in an arch for the front door.
http://www.fototime.com/A008674A054856D/orig.jpg

Made the template a few days ago along with the other arch with the narrow center.
http://www.fototime.com/1A0A0911A3BC05A/orig.jpg

I didn't have clamp points, so I just glued some on.
http://www.fototime.com/7A5269EFC75064A/orig.jpg

Then the next day after I let the glue up dry overnight I started the milling process.

Came out nice, so relieved that there was no chunking out of the wood.

Here's the blank, screwed to the template and I scored a line with my razor knife where the shoulder of the profile is. Hopefully preventing an major chipout from happening.
http://www.fototime.com/2227AD87D47BF03/orig.jpg

I ran the molding through twice. As shallow of a cut that I could make while the molder still had a good grip on the blank. It's a pretty heavy cut, especially with Oak an only having a 2HP motor on the molder. And then the final cut which takes about 5/32" off the whole 5 1/2" wide molding. The score that I did with the knife actually worked. There were two small areas that might have become a problem if I hadn't done it. (The world may never know).
http://www.fototime.com/E48C98973BD5344/orig.jpg

Here's the center. Another problem spot because of the grain switch over. Smooth as glass.....
http://www.fototime.com/02C2959AB701778/orig.jpg

And here's the tight radius of the faux ellipse.
http://www.fototime.com/C421923A1BBB28B/orig.jpg

The two boards are actually the same color, the whole molding came out of one 11" x 12' board. It's just the lighting. If I flip the camera angle around, they change color again.
http://www.fototime.com/C963D3CCBA04466/orig.jpg

Glad it came out nice. I really didn't want to have to bang my head against the building.:rolleyes:

[julian abram]

Leo, very nice work. I'm sure that would have been a pucker moment as it started moving through the planer.

[Leo Graywacz]

Oh it moves a lot through the molder. I don't have video of this being run, but I have video of me running some 2 1/2" colonial elliptical casing. I ran the casing without the shroud on so I could see it and help guide and steady it through the elliptical jig. The casing I'm doing now is 5 1/2" wide and throws a lot more chips. I decided to use the collection shroud on it, makes it that the more nerve racking as you're running it because it's harder to help it along. I did a dozen practice runs without the knives in the molder to make sure I got the motions down pat.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTXNM26n4BA

[Jim Becker]

Really nice challenging work, Leo!

[Mel Fulks]

Looks good, I would make sure they understand that your glue up avoids the too often seen short grain and avoids some rough surfaces. When I'm doing a number of those I use one pinch dog on the back of each joint ,then let the added piece hang over the bench edge to get some pressure on the face side. Works real well on hot days. Each left and right side is,of course, handled more than once but no notching and heavy clamps are needed.

[Leo Graywacz]

I've got lots of clamps. And the notching only takes a few minutes. How do you make sure that the pcs are flat and true if they are hanging over the bench (for pressure).

Also with the clamps I can make sure the whole unit is flat and true. Pretty essential for a smooth run.

The added clamp points are attached with 2P-10 and yellow glue. The 2P-10 keeps the clamp point put while the yellow glue sets up. After 1/2 hour I can apply quite a bit of force without worrying the clamp point will pop off. This is the first time I"ve used the secondary mitered pcs. Usually I just glue boards up in a straight line configuration. But this is getting stained and it's a pretty hard curve.

[Mel Fulks]

When I mallet in the pinch dog the pieces are on the bench and I'm holding them together. They work well and actually over pull ,so letting the newly added section hang over helps to equalize the pressure and keep the unit flat. Before we found Italian bending ply I used to make the elliptical frames by staggering the joints of solid wood layers in the same way as for casing . Then band sawing and and using a plywood template to dress three layered units to a template and gluing again. Yeah,lot of work. Glued the IBP on a form made of two pieces of plywood ,blocking,and a bottom. Clamped with steel banding. One piece of IBP was wider to make it easier to rip off waste edges.

[Leo Graywacz]

I need to make an elliptical casing, but not for this Oak job. It gets to be made from Douglas Fir. I'll be resawing some Fir and sanding it to 3/32" to bend around a particle board frame. The jamb will be 8 1/2" wide.

[Leo Graywacz]

Finally got around to the installation portion of the curved trim. It's going to have
tall wainscot in the room, which is why it's painted the way it is.

Here's the large window in the dining room. About 12' across the glass area.
http://www.fototime.com/63FDDD2DAF8F800/orig.jpg



And here's the curved Oak door trim on the front door.
http://www.fototime.com/DAD9E89FFF758C6/orig.jpg