Hi,
I thought I would post a series of pictures of a jig I built today to use on my chop saw to support angled rip cuts.
I have been working on a set of Morris chairs and I have been tossing several ideas back and forth as to how to make a bent arm. I looked at several methods, narrowed them down to three methods.
The first method I looked at involved cross cutting the arm stock at 3 degrees and using biscuits to attach the long grain to long grain. My test arm worked, the joint was surprising strong, supporting my 240 lb weight. I was not crazy thought about the glue line.
Reflecting back on some Stickely methods I chose to resaw a wedge off the bottom of the arm and glue the wedge back under the arm, perfect grain match and an invisible glue line were some of the benefits, and of course the continuous grain on the top of the arm.
This design became my focus, but how do I cut this? I thought my way through a sliding jig on the table saw, but it would require an inversion of the part after the initial cut, the arms are 5” wide. It did not sound simple enough.
I then thought about the band saw, lay out a line and cut…..okay, perhaps….but what else, I wanted perfect angle control of the cut…..maybe the chop saw?
Okay, so I thought, how do I support the type of cut I was after on a chop saw, and came up with this jig. I have a 12” Delta with a WWI Forrest blade
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For what it is worth, it took me 30 minutes to make, a squared piece of ¾” plywood and some scraps of oak.
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I used a simple arch in the jig fence to support the blade guard as the saw is descended; it rides out on the curve and controls the guard.
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I liked the design it worked well on thin stock, but as I found out with a test piece, only worked up to 4 ½” wide stock, the guard on the fence stopped the blade descending completely through the cut. I could either remove the blade guard or cut the groove deeper into the fence. I tried a few cuts with the guard removed, but I put it back on, I need to work some details out and maintain the guard.
While making sample cuts, I supported the work with a hand clamp against the outboard edge of the fence, and used another clamp to support the face of the jig against the chop saw fence as well as the hold down.
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I liked the idea of the jig, but in the end passed on it for my wider stock. I set up this piece to show how I intended it to work.
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I cut the arms tonight on the band saw and glued the re-sawn wedges under the arms to create the bent look.
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In the end, I have carefully worked my bent arm design and techniques through a series of processes. I built a jig for one of those processes that despite not being used in the end, will support other work in the future.
Thanks for viewing,
Take care,
Jim
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Good Idea!
Saftey Concern, IMPORTANT
Originally Posted by Bob Lasley
