I have had the LN string inlay set for a couple of years and finally got around to a project using it. I even tried to loan the set to my oldest son who passed on borrowing it for the time being. Am I glad he did!
Here is the preliminary first pass:
Crop Circles & Rust first cut 600.jpg
The LN Radius cutter can only cut a circle as small as 1.3" diameter. The brass circle at the top is just a piece sitting on top. In order to make the brass inlays with wood "stringing around them, I have to turn a 3/8" dowel, drill a 1/4" hole trough it and epoxy a brass rod in it.
The LN straight line cutter was problematic in that it is similar to a panel or marking gauge that has a fence for registering against an edge. I removed the cutter and arm and used it freehand against a card scraper. The circle is actually domed and whatever straightedge I was to use had to bend along the dome. I clamped the card scraper in place.
You may notice what looks like a bit of fraying on one or more of the straight lines. I am not sure if the is due to the rosewood I used as the stringing being rather well . . . stringy or if it is due to the free-hand use of the cutter arm. I have since bought the LV freehand cutter with the same thickness as the LN set which should work better on the second part of this sculpture.
This next picture shows the piece masked off after drilling the inlay holes and epoxying the dowels in place. I masked it with painter[s tape to allow finling down to the surface without marring the wood surface (too badly)
Crop Circles & Rust first cut masked.jpg
Next we have the nearly finished piece:
Crop Circles & Rust final no sphereq-700.jpg
A friend gave me an iron belt pulley that was rusted. He and his wife love the look of rust. They don[t know this piece will be theirs. Hopefully they won[t notice that the rust is new. The original rust came off when I used coolant oil to drill 4 holes in the front for some brass accents. I had to bead blast the ring after masking off the upper and lower rims to retain their patina. I used sodium hydroxide and salt and accelerated the rust in the same oven I use to powder coat the sphere seen in the pictures below:
Crop Circles & Rust final side with rust ring.jpgCrop Circles & Rust final top view-700.jpg
You may noticed that the second picture is artfully cropped to hide the screw up when I first tried a mill to cut four holes/slots in the ring. Some brass or copper thingy will be crafted such that only my friends in the creek will know of the mistake.
This next picture better shows the "domage" (a technical term) and the four slots on the rust ring where the brass dowels will go.
Crop Circles & Rust final no sphere front view.jpg
I am designing a second ring of rust with more inlay as part of the Crop Circles and Rust sculpture. When I first put together the design I realized the LN radius cutter could not make small enough circles I had in the design. Another day redesigning the sculpture I had an epiphany (fancy word for another potentially dumb idea). I could make an adapter for the radius cutter to allow the pivot point to be closer to the cutter. I came up with the following adapter. Here it is on and off of the LN radius cutter:
LN radius cutter with tight radius adapter.jpgTight Radius Adapter for LN Radius cutter.jpg
The cutter can now cut a circle just over 1/2". an interesting thing is that there is a set screw on the cutter head you can replace with the pivot point and make a 1/2" circle (that is the only circle you can make, but now I can go down to 1/2" I will still have to make a dowel or two for the new portion, but now I can execute most of my original design. (Yet I still can't fix a dang spokeshave)
I will be glad to post pictures of the project as it continues and possible designs prior to putting the cutter to wood if anyone is interested.
Many Kind Regards . . . Allen
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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
