Spokeshaving a long curved Workpiece

Hello, All

The question is: how do you fix (secure, hold) long, sinuous workpieces at eye level (more or less) so that you can fair the edges with spokeshaves?

I am making a chair, and some of the pieces are long-ish (up to 48") and sinuous. I traced outlines of the longest ones, and cut them freehand on a band saw. I did not make templates for them. Now it is time to fair the edges. If I had templates I might just go ahead and use a bearing-guided bit on a router table. But I would actually prefer to fair the edges with spokeshaves. I can put them in my face vise, but I would have to work bent over at almost 90 deg. I have come up with a Rube Goldberg vise that I will be glad to share, but I would rather hear from anyone who has already solved this problem.

Doug

Interesting timing on this - I haven't actually done this, but I've added it to the list of possible shop fixtures to build as needed...

One of the instagram feeds I follow posted it a day or two ago, looks like it might help elevate a workpiece up above the level of the vise itself.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Blv4ywjB5-w/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Just speculating, but could you trap a pipe clamp (or, better, if you have a long enough F-clamp, the F-clamp) between two pieces of wood that are then clamped in the face vise?

Rube Goldberg's designs usually involved cats and dogs, and they're notoriously unreliable in a shop setting: a dog is likely to get all excited if someone stops by and ruin your layout, and a cat will get bored, fall asleep, and stop doing its job.

Attachment 390594Back leg of a rocker
Drawknives to rough shape then spokshaves to round...
Attachment 390595
One use for a leg vise..
Attachment 390596
Same with the short legs up front....
Attachment 390597
Might as well do the rockers, too...

I am not sure why they need to be at eye level. I use a leg vise and work with the pieces at an angle.

Once the pieces are bandsawn close to the line, I find that the spokeshaves and block planes fair the curve automatically. You don’t have to stoop down or sight down the piece frequently.

I’m working on a set of chairs right now and I used spokeshaves on many of the parts. Here’s a few photos of how I held the center back slat. I shaped the front and back curves while the parts still had parallel edges. Simply held in a ench vise.

Attachment 390612

After the front and back was shaped i used the bandsaw cutoffs to hold the parts in the vise to shape the edges.

Attachment 390613

I think you will find you get better control on the shaves working from above rather than at eye level.

Attachment 390615

Same process for the side slats as well.

Attachment 390616

One possibility is to mount another vise in your face vise.

If you do not have another loose vise at hand, you could rig up something to use your face vise as the screw force unit if it opens far enough. Like a leg vise you would need something at the bottom to hold the 2X's (or what ever you use) apart to be effective. The ends could be shaped to hold the work.

If you will be drilling the parts for spindles, you could use where the mortices will be cut to mount the work piece on a screw on the end of a solid piece to raise the work height.

jtk

Do you have a shaving horse? If so, that would lower your eye level closer to the work. If not, use a face vise and a chair or stool. Good luck. Bob

When I do spokeshaving like this, I use a set of wooden hand screw clamps and cinch them in my bench vise.

+1 for Handscrew in a vise. A block with a V-groove also helps a lot with rounded pieces.

I am intrigued by but have never tried holding a workpiece between a stop on a bench and a chest plate. But that does look to be effective in some uses. You could handle 48" by flipping the piece.

Also, the combination of spokeshave plus block plane seems to yield a fair curve more reliably than just the shave (for me).

A little off topic, but I find a rasp is better for fairing a curve, particularly if the piece is sawn out roughly (after rasping, I do finish with a spokeshave to get the parts smooth). A spokeshave has such a short bed that it tends to ride over bumps or wavy parts. A rasp can be skewed to get as much of the blade as possible on the piece; typically 5 inches or more. This is the same logic that tells us that a No.7 plane is better for flattening than a No.3 plane (assuming the workpiece is long relative to the No. 7).

This isn't my idea; it's the approach that Gene Landon taught (though I believe he skipped the spokeshave altogether).

Thanks, gentlemen. Lots of good ideas. I tried the handscrew (twin screw wooden Jorgenson clamp) clamped in my face vise, as recommended by Bill & Ted. It worked fine, although I had to put a pin through the round screw handle to get it tight enough. I was considering putting oversize jaw pads on it to get more surface area for friction. But I finally went with an in-line vise clamped to a board, clamped in my face vise. See photo. (If it's blurry, I can't tell -- that's why I need the workpiece at eye level.)Attachment 390656

Bob, why didn't I think of a chair? I don't have a shaving horse but I do have a chair!

Doug

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Originally Posted by Doug Hepler

Thanks, gentlemen. Lots of good ideas. I tried the handscrew (twin screw wooden Jorgenson clamp) clamped in my face vise, as recommended by Bill & Ted. It worked fine, although I had to put a pin through the round screw handle to get it tight enough. I was considering putting oversize jaw pads on it to get more surface area for friction. But I finally went with an in-line vise clamped to a board, clamped in my face vise. See photo.

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Doug, I've done a similar setup to the one you show. When I did, I used my shoulder to support the far end that is otherwise sticking up in the air. Works well, though obviously only for the parts of the workpiece away from the end that I'm supporting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert Cherry

I’m working on a set of chairs right now ....

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Beautiful work, Robert! And I thought I was brave for doing 2 chairs at once!