| June 2011 Meeting
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Dick Sowa was nice enough to come in and show us how he does some of his segmented magic. You can see some of his beautiful work below...I think the results speak for themselves! He advised us to make a plan and layout all features of the final pieces before you start so that you know how much wood you need, etc. Here are a few pages that will help you bring your next segmented idea to fruition if you weren't able to attend the meeting: Dick's Segmented Edge Length Spreadsheet
When cutting staves, Dick uses a Wixey digital angle gauge for his table saw to get the angle right every time. He cuts them across the grain of the board so that all of the outer wood is essentially long grain around the outside of the finished cylinder. Once he has the staves cut and has made sure that they fit right, he rolls them up in duct tape (outer edge to edge) and then applies the glue (Titebond #1) to them. Once Dick has a healthy portion of glue between the pieces, he rolls them up in the duct tape and follows it with rubber bands (as shown below).
When cutting segmented pieces, Dick uses a unique sled (as shown above) for each layer that has the same number of segments (one for 8 segments, one for 12, one for 16, etc) so that the angles are always exact even if the lengths of the segments change from layer to layer. The sled runs on two runners that fit in the miter slots for better repeatability. He flips the leftover segmented material after every cut so that the next piece will have both complementary angles. He makes sure all lengths are the same by using a special stop. To the right of where the blade cuts the segment, Dick has placed a small dowel on the surface so that the pieces roll away from the blade once they are cut.
Dick has also built a custom clamping jig for assembling the segmented pieces. It consists of a board covered in wax paper with concentric nail holes that correspond to different diameters of segmented rings. He places the nails in the holes with the right diameter and wraps a rubber band around the nails first. Then he takes the pieces (after having knocked any fuzz off the ends) and begins to apply glue to them by dabbing the ends in a glue puddle. Once Dick has all of the pieces in place, he then begins removing the nails until the nails are gone and the rubber band is now holding the segments together. During the first few minutes, he can adjust pieces to make sure that they are flat in the same plane. Once he is happy with the results and he has clamped them with a large hose clamp, he uses a clamping press made from a bench vise to ensure that the pieces stay where they are supposed to be while the glue sets up.
And now on to final assembly...Once Dick has the segmented ring centered on a waste block, he glues the rings down using hot melt glue. At this point, his only goal is to true up the face and knock the corners off the ring. Because it is held on by a few drops of hot glue, he advised turning with caution. Once it is close to flat, he makes it perfectly flat by sanding with sandpaper stuck to a flat board long enough to hit both sides of the ring at once. Now that he has one face true, he can glue it to the next ring. Dick uses the tailstock to align the rest of the rings with the just flattened ring. Once the glue is set, you can turn off the hot glue off the waste block used to turn the last ring.
Dick's final words were to not finish the final piece too soon. The glue can swell the pieces with moisture that may take a month to leave. If you sand and finish the piece, you may end up with glue lines that protrude from your actual segments!
The pictures below show some of the items brought in for the monthly President's Challenge entries and show-and-tell. Congratulations to our President's Challenge winner Lynn Southward shown with his segmented marble and base! We also had a second place winner in Jim Nickless' with his multiple marbles on turned tees. As always, thanks to all of those that brought in items for show and tell and those that brought in flag bases.
Our July President's Challenge item is to turn a handled mug that must be used at the picnic. Ted has CA (super) glue and accelerator for sale. He has 2 oz bottles of thin, medium and thick for $6 each. He also has black glue for $8 each. Don't forget about our special challenge of turning wooden flag holders for our veterans at the Ann Arbor VA hospital. All bases should have a 3/16" hole to accept the flag. We are starting a mentoring program for our membership. If you are willing to help by fielding questions, please get in touch with Craig or Scott.
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