Jigging around

The Gorse Fox headed out to the garage. There was sawdust to make. He wanted to round over the end of some wood so that it could pivot without binding. The blessed Norm Abram used to have a jig for his bandsaw that he used to cut circles from sheet material. The Gorse Fox thought it would be possible to adapt this idea and use it.

A quick trip to B&Q, a little measuring, cutting, glueing and screwing later and the jig was done and nestled neatly on the band saw's cutting deck.

The dowel pin just this side of the blade acts as a pivot around which the wood could rotate and the blade then cuts at the required diameter. Simple really.

Well it that was the theory. In practise the Gorse Fox had to fiddle a bit. Don't get him wrong, the jig was fine. The problem was the stock to be rounded over required such a tight arc that the width of the bandsaw blade would bind in the cut. A quick 'adjustment' with the mitre saw allowed an initial rough cut so that there was less waste wood to bind against the blade. Then the bandsaw and jig finished the job without a hitch.

Now there were several of these 'spars' that needed the same treatment. Having mastered it on the first prototype the rest were easy. The photo on the left shows one of the finished articles. The Gorse Fox still needs to smooth them over a bit with the belt sander, but that can wait. There is still much design work to complete

As he finishes off this blog entry he is starting to think of the various items that need to go on the shopping list so that this can all be finished.