curved inlay stringing

[Phil Mueller]

We all got to see Mike Allen’s beautiful stringing work on his mail box project. It inspired me to stop procrastinating and at least get the small arch groove cut on my demilune table legs. Yes, this project seems to be going on about a lifetime now, but I do get distracted from time to time.

The plan is to do traditional stringing down the outside edges of the table legs, with a small arch at the top. The tool I have at hand is the Steve Latta cutter offered through LN.

The challenge is to get the arch in the exact same location on each side of the legs. For that, I have found it best to build a jig. Plus, it keeps you from having to punch a hole into the leg as a pivot point.

The jig was made with some scraps and fits onto the end of the leg. Marks are made on the leg to indicate the start/stop points (I just used a piece of poster board as a guide - in this case 3/16th from each table leg side). Then the cutter is adjusted to meet the arch. A radius point is then made with the tool. This will ensure every arch is in the same place on every leg surface.

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I begin with very light passes, then go as deep as the stringing requires.

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The thing with this tool is that it cuts both sides nicely, but has no ability to clean out the waste. For that I use a couple of the small inlay tools from LV.

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Doesn’t look too great, but serves the purpose.

The LN tool does work well, however, you must keep in mind that the cutters are offset. The back cutter is set to the right, and the front cutter is set to the left. So if you are doing a stopped groove, as I was, you have to stop short and sort of free hand with another tool to finish the inside line on the left, and the outside line on the right...probably doesn’t make sense...but I think it’s sort of a con of the tool.

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The first took about 15 mins. The second about 10, once I figured out the right tools and got my method down. 8 more to go.

[Mark Rainey]

Nice Phil, a couple questions. The hollow aspect of the jig fits over the end of the table leg. Is there depth stop so the jig does not slide over the leg too far? How do you keep the leg from sliding in and out of the jig?

[Phil Mueller]

Hi Mark, yes, it has a stop at the end. So just slip it on to depth and clamp it. The nice thing is I’ll be able to make any final adjustments to the groove once I start to add the stringing. It will realign perfectly, if needed.

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[Christopher Charles]

Phil,

Thanks for sharing and clever jig. Looking forward to seeing more.

Chris

[Mike Allen1010]

Great idea Phil- thanks for sharing! Trying to get 2 different inlay grooves to meet perfect my can be a handful. FWIW, I find it helpful to get close to meeting using fenced/ pivot point cutter and then finish free hand with exacto knife and magnifying visor. Maybe not perfect straight but at least both grooves meet.

Looking forward to rest of your table!

Cheers, Mike

[Bill McNiel]

Phil,
Truly a solid post. I love it when someone comes up with a technique/solution and presents it in a manner that my old brain can follow.

Mahalo - Bill

[Phil Mueller]

Thanks all. Mike, yes, I’m stopping a hair short on both ends and finishing with a chisel and/or xacto and whatever might be needed to clean up where they meet. It’s good the stringing is flexible . And yes, without the optivisor this would be a complete mess!