a little box in progress

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Here are some images I have taken of the process.
There will be three rings made up of Maple/Mahog fingerjointed pieces

There will be solid laminated maple rings in between the main rings.


This is the Center ring. It's Maple and Mahog' strips 1/4" square making 1/4" thick by 1" high components.

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The little pieces are finger jointed at an angle to get the round shape
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[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The fixturing and some stuff from the other ring progress. These are all blanked out and finger jointed on compound angles.

These are test pieces made from pine
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This is the little compound angle cutting rig. I just set it up like I would a Compound Sine Plate with dead accurate wedges underneath and the miter set at a very accute angle
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Here is a close up of from the operator's side. The little U clamp I made from maple to let me get the clamping right hard up against the blade.
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[John Michaels]

Will you sand the edges to make the box round and smooth or will the angles stay. This looks like a very neat project.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Here are some Router table shots

Below: A partially finished blank. See the compound angles? The thing has to lean inward and interconnect with it's adjascent pieces to form the upper and lower parts of a sphereical shape. To get that shape I cut the finger joint fixture at 30Degrees and reference off the cut in the blank against the table. Then to hold it firmly in the fixture while cutting I ram a tapered wedge into the thing.
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The sled fixture is C clamped to the Fence on my slider

Below is t he finger joint sled on my router table off the end of my TS. I am using my slider as the go to machine for all this short stroke work. It lets me get repetitive cuts as close as 0.003" with angles accurate within a few seconds.
To hold the part firmly in the fixture while cutting I ram a tapered wedge into the space above the part and beneath the lead chunk of maple.

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[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Will you sand the edges to make the box round and smooth or will the angles stay. This looks like a very neat project.
Thanks it's been one series of technical challanges after another. I've never done anything like this before. The little facets are comming out nicely as flat surfaces sort of like a gem polisher might get.