Jig for making staves

[John Terefenko]

Did not want to hijack anyone's post so I thought I would start a new one. This could fall under the section of segmentation so that is why I am posting here and in the general woodworking forum. I am looking for a plans or photos of a jig to be used on a tablesaw for cutting staves. The size of the staves are going to relatively small such as 2" tall and maybe 1" wide at the widest part. But the key is to be able to make a cylinder in different number of staves such as 8 or 12 or more. I know it is a compound cut. It tapers from the widest to the narrowest and is also beveled on both sides. Hope I am making sense. I have done a small version of it with 8 sides but need to refine something to make them more accurate. If this is not clear I probably could post a photo of what I got so far.

[Malcolm Tibbetts]

John, for cutting such small compound mitered-staves, I use my sliding compound miter saw. I just posted a photo in another thread here (segment cutting sleds). When using this setup, the biggest difference is the use of a matching compound cut "stop block". Of course, a table saw sled will also work very well.

[Bill Wyko]

You should pick up Malcolm's book too. It's very informative on this subject. The book is a plethora of information on the segmenting systems.

[John Terefenko]

I did pick up Malcom's book at the last woodworking show this past month but there is such a small blurb as to something I am trying to do that he does not go into much detail. I was hoping someone has done something similar and has a photo of their jig to hold the pieces and make true repeatable cuts. I will not use a miter saw to cut segments for I feel it is too unsafe and feel more confortable using a tablesaw.

[Bill Wyko]

I agree with you, it is dangerous to make such small cuts. Here's what I did to make it safer. It's not OSHA approved:rolleyes: but it keeps my fingers well away from the saw. I'd like to say also that it should never be attempted w/o a zero tollerance fence as well.

[John Terefenko]

Thanks for posting and I guess this setup works well for you. My theory with mitersaws and cutting small pieces is with the big motor assembly coming on top of the piece it gets out of view and clamping is difficult. with a tablesaw the blade is below the work and you have a way to clamp small cuttoff pieces. They are always in view. I just need to come up with somesort of sled that I can change the angle easily. I do have a dubby sled but feel it is too big for what I want to do. May have to try to copy it and make things on a smaller scale.

[Bill Wyko]

I think you would have to have a sled for every angle of tilt on the blade in order to maintain a zero tollerance. If zero is not an issue I'd think you could do what you're looking to do.

[Randy Rhine]

Here's a picture of the sled I use to cut small staves. It's adapted from one I saw in Malcolm's book. Although I haven't used it for compound miters, something similar could be adapted.

Also, for setting the blade angle on the tablesaw, I recently started using the Wixey gizmo. Prior to using it, I would set the angle, make test cuts, fiddle a bit, make more test cuts, etc. The Wixey is dead on and saves from having to make the test cuts.

randy