Stringing, Fluting, Beading and such

[Chip Sawdust]

So I transferred my drawing to a piece of alder for practice. 

[Chip Sawdust]

Using a scratch blade to clean up the corners. Also bought a Pfeil 3-10 gouge to do some curve clean-up work.

Made a platen to protect the wood from pivot divots while cutting arcs with the radius tool. Backed with sticky sandpaper and held with a little c-clamp. It’s transparent so I can find my marks through it.

[Tom King]

I like your solution to the damage by the pivot pin.  That was my biggest concern so far from watching this.  This is one phase of woodworking that I know nothing about.

[Chip Sawdust]

I don’t know much either Tom, I’m just watching (mostly) Latta’s videos and trying stuff out. This is all practice for the time being. 

But since I’m cheap, I tried to make my own straight line cutter using my marking gauge. Ummmm.... I need to work on that. It’s tough to do at home without a fixture and not really knowing how to do it. I’m open for suggestiOne from machinists!  

Here’s what I came up with for a cutting blade using a piece of old kitchen knife, a Dremel and a triangle file. It did make a groove, but it’s not there yet.

 

[Chip Sawdust]

Here’s some string installed. Maple in alder, not much contrast. 

[Chip Sawdust]

So I made some progress after getting a few more things lined up... I bought these blades for LN and although the trimmer set was back ordered for over three weeks I finally got the set.

Got the cutter blade as well for straight grooves. 

Made a couple tools out of them...

 

[Chip Sawdust]

Bought some black anigre online, pretty good price for three pieces that’ll last me ages... and that’s what I wanted to lay into the alder, rather than maple which has little contrast.

Cut some stringing, finally cut my straight grooves with my new cutter tool, and started setting it all in place. 

 

[Chip Sawdust]

I cut a plug out of alder and just cross-grained the installation for the visual effect. Started trimming the high spots on the strings with the bevel down on a chisel, then went to my scraper (which I need to sharpen), then finished with my small block plane. 

I think it turned out well for my first attempt at this new avenue (for me) in woodworking. 

 

[pkinneb]

This is really cool thanks for taking us along on the ride makes me want to give it a try

 

[treeslayer]

20 hours ago, Chip Sawdust said:

I cut a plug out of alder and just cross-grained the installation for the visual effect. Started trimming the high spots on the strings with the bevel down on a chisel, then went to my scraper (which I need to sharpen), then finished with my small block plane. 

I think it turned out well for my first attempt at this new avenue (for me) in woodworking. 

 

That looks great @Chip Sawdust and opens up a whole lot of possibilities, thanks for posting your work, I have got to try that this summer 

[Chip Sawdust]

Thanks guys I have more ideas and methods to try so I hope it you’re patient with me as I fumble through this.  

I ordered some holly for its totally white properties and plan to use some on my wife’s end tables she ordered up. Those are made of sapele so the lighters stringing will be better. 

I have some really unique plans for banding as well; stay tuned!   

[Mark J]

Nice work.  This is something I'd like to do to at some point.  Never heard of  black anigre?  Is that a wood species or some other material?

[Chip Sawdust]

On 3/21/2019 at 6:24 AM, Mark J said:

Nice work.  This is something I'd like to do to at some point.  Never heard of  black anigre?  Is that a wood species or some other material?

Hey Mark, anigre is a species that takes dye well. Holly and satinwood do too, but they’re cost prohibitive. I bought a piece of holly recently, had to be an online purchase, and for a 3’ board it was $70. Good thing I’m not using it for structure! 

[Chip Sawdust]

So I’m making these end table for my wife, and while she didn’t order it, I’m adding stringing to them. First are the legs, for which I opted to use African mahogany. This is a tricky wood to work with as its grain is really hard to read. It’s also full of stringy, relatively loose fibers. I much prefer oak or sapele! 

Anyway, here are a few pics of the progress...

First, make a zero clearance insert for a circular saw blade; it has a 1/16” kerf to save material. 

Then put sandpaper on a straight edge and slice a strip with a utility knife. 

[Chip Sawdust]

I cut grooves with my radius tool and straight lines with a dremel and a 3/64” bit. Drag the strips through the sizing jig/die until you’re happy with the fit. Add glue (I used a syringe) and press the stringing into the grooves, trimming with a chisel or exacto as required. 

[Chip Sawdust]

I’m having trouble loading pics from my phone but will revisit this later. 

[Chip Sawdust]

So for the dremel base fence rather than pay StewMac $X for it, i made a little fence of oak. A couple slots for adjustment and beveled a little relief for sawdust. 

[Chip Sawdust]

I replaced the marking gauge cutter with an exacto blade as the marking gauge blade “wasn’t cutting it” so to say. This setup worked well, but I think a dedicated cutter is in the future. 

the dang picture won’t upload. Oh well. I also made a dedicated string cutting board with a tiny lip for a fence, to hold the wood against. It’s far better than the straightedge with sandpaper backing on it. 

I’ll try that pic again...

 

[Chip Sawdust]

You can see the exacto blade is barely visible. While this worked, I eventually tapped it down farther. This is why, with this thin a blade, I think a bar with screwed-down tension will be better. 

Edit: screwed down vs. wedged like this thing is. The wedge holds the blade in place; it should have mechanical tension in the form of screws or some such. 

[Chip Sawdust]

So I started my first pack of banding tonight. Tomorrow I’ll unclamp it and see what it looks like. 

One layer each of holly, then anigre on the outside, two layers of sapele. Should look good on these African mahogany legs, I’m thinking. 

[Chip Sawdust]

Busy looking bench at this stage of the game. If I had a shop twice the size — I’d fill it up with other stuff! Lol

[Chip Sawdust]

And speaking of beading, using scratch stock o ran a bead around the tops of my end table project tables. The end grain is a bugger, but it cleaned up ok. Then I’ll put a rounded taper underneath with the router table. 

It’s  fun using these beading tools. A friend said it didn’t look like fun, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

[Wood Basher]

14 hours ago, Chip Sawdust said:

You can see the exacto blade is barely visible. While this worked, I eventually tapped it down farther. This is why, with this thin a blade, I think a bar with screwed-down tension will be better.

I made a very similar tool, using a scalpel blade. I made mine for use purely as a marking gauge rather than trying to cut the sides of a recess. With the blade barely protruding (like your photo) it works fine. If I have the blade extended much further the wedge doesn't hold it in place firmly enough and it gets pushed back into the tool. This is a pain because if I don't want to mark the full length/width of a board I would like the blade extended further so I can see where I am marking. So in short, yes I agree with you that a screw arrangement would be better than the wedge.

[Chip Sawdust]

So continuing on - I watched Latta use a home made pivot base for his Dremel. I don’t care much for the one they sell, but I have this StewMac base anyway so I took screen shots of his and built one like it. 

Start out using the SM base as a pattern, grab a few basic tools and some polyacrylic or whatever it’s called... and my small band saw with really fine teeth on the blade to cut 45 degree angles...

 

[Chip Sawdust]

Mark, measure and drill a few holes. Make sure the countersinks on the bottom are flush or beyond, on the bottom so screws don’t ever scrape your material.