Shopsmith Forums

That it's beautiful work. I hope I can do as well some day.

Chris,
Have you made a segmented vase without the wedgie sled? Segmented turning has been on my to do list and your project has provided the inspiration, but I hate the thought of making another sled if the existing miter setup is sufficient.

I have, and it was more work. I had to glue half rings and refine them to fit without gaps. PITA. The wedgie sled is perfect every time. If you only plan on doing one or two smaller projects though, you can get away without it.

That is very cool very impressive - 481 pieces and I don't see a gapped joint anywhere!

ecom1 wrote:That is very cool very impressive - 481 pieces and I don't see a gapped joint anywhere!

Thank you! I know where the gaps are hiding, and they are between two rings, not in them. The wedgie sled all but guarantees perfect rings. Getting them dead flat is more difficult. A lot of sanding on a piece of glass to insure a truly flat surface. I have a Jet drum sander, and even that is not quite good enough.

ChrisNeilan wrote:

ecom1 wrote:That is very cool very impressive - 481 pieces and I don't see a gapped joint anywhere!

Thank you! I know where the gaps are hiding, and they are between two rings, not in them. The wedgie sled all but guarantees perfect rings. Getting them dead flat is more difficult. A lot of sanding on a piece of glass to insure a truly flat surface. I have a Jet drum sander, and even that is not quite good enough.

Very interesting! Not a problem I would have forseen.

I have ambitions of doing some segmented turnings myself someday, and so I immediately started wondering what tools I have that might address the flatness problem. My first thought was a router sled, as used for flattening workbench tops. But I don't have one, and the rings are much smaller than a benchtop in any case.

My next thought was to use my standalone OPR in conjunction with a sled. After I added angle-iron braces to the table, the top is flat to about 0.002". So I could hot-glue the rough glued-up ring to a piece of MDF, or maybe Corian (with masking tape between the glue and ring/sled), and slide the sled around on the table top whilst taking a skim cut with a router bit. Then flip the ring over, and do the other side sledless, for a consistent thickness. Then maybe a bit of sanding on glass if the surface finish needed improvement.

If I didn't have the OPR, my 520 in drill-press mode, with a rotary planer tool mounted, could be used in much the same way. But my 520 table isn't as flat as my OPR table, so I'd probably clamp a piece of MDF to it first. And install the extension legs to minimize table flexing.

Do you think that general approach might work?