Celtic knot disaster

[TYLER WOOD]

Well, I guess I should not expect perfection for my first time trying a celtic knot, or for just third or fourth time trying segmenting. But the way the disaster happened is what is frustrating.

I had a pen blank of cocobola with a maple celtic knot glue up, drilled, rounded down, sanded, and was finishing buffing. The glue lines were, for me atleast, perfect! I thought the circles were the same size, the ends matched up, the kerf of the blade and the maple were the exact same size. All was well and good, but could not take my hand off the piece. I was making ONE LAST pass on buffing with compund on the lathe with a rag. At the end with the celtic knot, I felt it. The glue joint FAILED!:mad: One gorgeous almost pen down the tubes. Or down to the tubes, what ever.

What is bad, is I am trying to get ready for a pretty exclusive showing of 3C's Customs (me and 2 friends) turnings at an event coming up. This would have been one of the nicer more expensive pens, but it won't happen now.

Sorry for the long post just had to rant. I did try to glue the pen back, we'll see. I just don't think the glue joints will be really nice like they were.

[Jim Myers]

I had the same thing happen when I was trying this "new" process out.

I guess I did not get enough glue or just plain tried to press too hard on such a thin glue line that it shattered apart.

After beating my head on the wall I ran another blank through the process and made sure not to press so hard.

Still trying to get good knot lines to line up here but getting closer.

Of course rather than letting me throw out the blanks that are imperfect the LOML takes them to work and shows them off.

[TYLER WOOD]

I forbid and do not allow LOML to get ahold of mistakes. They are convineintly places in the depths of hiding in the corners of my messy garage/shop. She can't see them when the door is open, and she dare not venture inside for fear of what she may find lurking in the corners. I do live in a very small west Texas town. We have varmits. That works to my advantage sometimes.:D

[Jim Myers]

My problem is the "Shop" I have is also the laundry room/freezer/lawn equipment/anything else we can cram into the garage.

She sees me working on something and comes over to look.

I was using pine to make some test blanks and run through various finishing tests so I don't ruin "good" wood and next thing I know she says "well you can't give that one to anyone else so why don't I take that off your hands....."

Next thing I know I am like a lost puppy dog looking for approval and pressing the pen parts into the newely finished blank and the next day wondering what happened.

The weird thing is that even though the knot turned out bad the low cost pine from the borg finished up real nice.

[Whit Whitfield]

Where can I find instructions on how to do the Celtic knot. I find them interesting.
Whit Whitfield

[Ralph Lindberg]

Where can I find instructions on how to do the Celtic knot. I find them interesting.
Whit Whitfield

It's really simple (at the basic level). Take a blank and angle cut it (I would use a CMS). Glue in a color strip (one local is using craft paper on his pens). Rotate the blank 90 degrees and repeat (for four bands)

Rant: It's technically not actually Celtic knot work, as in true knot work the bands alternate in passing over and under each other, See http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Celtic-knot-basic-linear.svg/800px-Celtic-knot-basic-linear.svg.png

[Mike Vickery]

Jim - I don't do the celtic knots but I have done a lot of scallops in the past which is a very similiar process.

A miter sled for the table saw like one would use for segemented turning works great for these. Just use a stop block on your fence and the knot (or scallops) will start in the same place every time. Just make sure you start with a perfectly square blank.

A vacum rip fence will enable you to accurately cut strips to laminate into the blank. Also will help you make perfectly square blank.

if you follow the link bellow page 11 has a picture of my miter sled and vacum rip fence. Note the stop block I am using in the photo is not what you would need for this style of pen. For the scallops or celtic knot I use a piece or scrap wood attached to the angled fence with a c clamp.
http://www.distinctiveturnings.com/tutorials/SegPenBlanks.pdf

The idea for the vacum rip fence came from
http://www.davidreedsmith.com/Articles/VacuumRipFence/VacuumRipFence.htm#Vacuum%20Rip%20Fence
I would say his design is a little more accurate but mine works well enough for me.