Fluted Tapered Columns

[Bradley Gray]

I need to make 6 fluted tapered columns for a fancy fireplace surround. 2 are 4"d x 36" the rest 3"d x 28".

I am trying to decide between turning then fluting with a router set-up on the lathe and fluting 1/12th segments then assembling.

Anyone done either?

[Bill Orbine]

I've done flute on assembled straight column on shop made rotary jig with a shopmade indexing plate. Never heard of flute before assembly. I think you're running into trouble fluting before assembly.

Are the flutes itself tapered beside the column? That would be interesting!

[Mel Fulks]

I made some staved and splined. We sent them to our turner. Fluted them with router on lathe. The most often seen mistakes on modern columns are flutes too far apart and too shallow. Best advice is don't copy any modern thing labeled
as a column.

[Bradley Gray]

Thanks guys. My lathe has an index plate. The flutes are not tapered but do need to end short of the ends of the column.

I am thinking I'll make a router guide that sits on the ways of the lathe and use a plunge router

[John Sincerbeaux]

This may be one of those situations where it would be cost effective to use a commercial tuning service? I think it would be fun to create a jig and experiment but i think it would cost a lot in terms of time and possibly waste stock? I think having your columns made with CNC equipment might be the way to go?
You also could try posting this on the “Turners” forum.

I recently made this pedestal table base using individual staves. 18 of them.
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[Jim Becker]

These are often made using CNC these days...a so-called "fourth axis" in many cases, although there are dedicated CNC lathes, too. The design is basically "wrapped" in software around the workpiece and both the taper/profile and the fluting is cut. If the design is reasonably simple enough, turning the column profile on the lathe the normal way and then using an indexed jig to allow fluting with a router will work fine. It when you get into more, um...fluid...profiles, like the one that John posted in the previous reply, that either "more machine" is needed or selecting from a commercially available product may be required.

[Bradley Gray]

I looked at commercial columns with the client but could not find any she could love.

I will likely turn then flute on the lathe using the lathe's index plate and a router jig.

These columns have been made by humans for thousands of years without CNC

[Mel Fulks]

And there are many variations, seems the biggest variation is girth. Some of the moderns ones don't have entasis....
and just don't look right. Determine the girth to height ratio and diameter of base and top. Bottom third of column is straight. Entasis is drawn by putting a flexible stick tight to the bottom third and bending stick to touch top of column ,not counting cap.

[Jim Becker]

These columns have been made by humans for thousands of years without CNC
I hope you didn't take my comment to be that CNC is required for fluted columns. I was only suggesting that more complex designs "these days" are most likely created that way because of the way that the "4th axis" can follow the contour. Otherwise, the fluting is a pretty manual process once the column is turned on a lathe, but again, this is for a complex contour. For tapered columns with a simple contour...it can all be done on the lathe using a jig and a router.

[jack forsberg]

I’dProbably do it on the spindle molder after turning with an indexing head jig I have from woodworkers tool works .Not that you can probably find one of these but it might give you an idea or others who do not have indexing on there lathe . It is possible with this fixture to do the entire turning on the spindle moulder


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8uXyJ8La7o

[Mel Fulks]

Jim, I'm wondering what would be a complex contour, excluding cap and base.

[mreza Salav]

I have done several of these (some straight and some curved) and always done on the lathe after turning or when it was too big to do on the lathe made a box and used router to "turn" them and the flute. The big column you see has a slight taper. It's easy to jig up a router setup.

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[Jim Becker]

Jim, I'm wondering what would be a complex contour, excluding cap and base.

Look at post #5 in this thread for an example image. You cannot just run a router down a jig to flute something like that shape.

[Peter Christensen]

Jim you don’t think you could put a bit with “V” profile wing cutter and follow a template? The bit being at nine o’clock not twelve o’clock.

[Bradley Gray]

Thanks, Jack that is an awesome indexer. I have 2 old Walker-Turner lathes that have an index head so I'm going to try a router jig on the lathe. The posts will taper so That will be fairly simple by sloping the jig.

Mreza, Thanks, that is what is am picturing. What kind of router bit did you use?

[Mel Fulks]

Look at post #5 in this thread for an example image. You cannot just run a router down a jig to flute something like that shape.

Thanks, that is clearer. I don't think of complex in regard to a line curving just one way, I read it as a line consisting of of convex AND concave sections. "I am a modern, but bad modern design is foreign to me"

[jack forsberg]

I have done several of these (some straight and some curved) and always done on the lathe after turning or when it was too big to do on the lathe made a box and used router to "turn" them and the flute. The big column you see has a slight taper. It's easy to jig up a router setup.

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I think your work clearly illustrates what Mel was trying to describe . That there are actually fundamentals or dare I say academic truths to the shape of what it is you are manufacturing. Perhaps being A professor you may appreciate the finer points of Art when study in academia is Applied over recognizing parts pulled off the shelf to look like knock offs of the Parthenon . At the end of the day the only ones amused are the Illiterate. Pretty much the wrong forum for both mel and myself To even talk a finer points as it cuts into your Enjoyment.! it’s safe to say that there is a grossing to off-the-shelf Configurations that are so Easy to just drop money on . Still for many here that might be the height they hit

[Jim Becker]

Jim you don’t think you could put a bit with “V” profile wing cutter and follow a template? The bit being at nine o’clock not twelve o’clock.
I think it would be very difficult to follow a profile like the object in that photo in that manner due to the shape of the workpiece.

[John Sincerbeaux]

I think it would be very difficult to follow a profile like the object in that photo in that manner due to the shape of the workpiece.


Jim is correct.
I made this by fabricating individual “staves”. On each piece, i used two different router bit profiles followed by rasps to blend.
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[mreza Salav]

Thanks, Jack that is an awesome indexer. I have 2 old Walker-Turner lathes that have an index head so I'm going to try a router jig on the lathe. The posts will taper so That will be fairly simple by sloping the jig.

Mreza, Thanks, that is what is am picturing. What kind of router bit did you use?

For flutes I usually use round nose bits of various size (from 1/4" radius to 1/2" radius) depending on the size of the column.