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Segment jig

lylewh

PRO Member
I'm interested in building a segment cutting jig for my table saw and would like to get some design ideas from someone that has built one.

Thanks,

Lyle
 
Hi Lyle,

Kevin Neelley has been gracious enough to provide free plans for many jigs that have been built by many, many segmenters. This jig is pretty easy to build and although it isn't necessarily fancy, it works really well. It provides zero clearance for the blade and has a fixed fence that extends to both sides of the blade.

CLICK HERE for a link to his page.

I use fixed sleds for cutting most of my segments. When I have a need for something where my fixed sleds aren't appropriate, I use a Dubby sled from In-Line Industries. HERE is their link:

Lloyd
 
I've built several sleds, each for different numbers of segments per ring. Here's a pdf file I prepared that talks a little about some of the features I used that work for me. Nothing fancy...just functional and quick to use and set up.
 

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I like your sled design,Dick. I especially like the blade hideaway and the ramp ideas, and am thinking about incorporating both on the sled I'm currently using.
 
2012 presentation 005.jpgI have a sled which I built from plans I saw on Youtubebut have modified it to my needs. I use a swinging fence on my sled which I added for different angle cuts. Each time I cut a new session of segments I always check the angle of the fence with a Digital square- a Wixie. I typically have accuracy good enough to go right to glue up. However, many times I'll always touch up my segments on the disc sander just to be sure my angles are accurate enough for a solid ring. One problem with my sled is that it is set up for a maximum of a 1.75 inch wide segment. Usually anything wider and I"ll cut them on my chop/miter saw. I like this design because it used a toggle clamp to hold the cut segment. I know others prefer that the segment just drop off but by holding it ridgid, I get good straight cuts, even on some of the smallest segments I cut. I've sucessfully cut segments down to about 7/16 inch using this jig. I'm always changing the design and have plans to add an additional hold down clamp on the left side of the blade - similar to a Incra so I can recut segments for adding a radiating star pattern for the top of vessels.

2012 presentation 004.jpg
 
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Lyle,
Like Lloyd I use my dubby for a lot of odd cuts and when i cut stave's. What i realized one day was that I owned an incra sled that I was not using. I hooked it up with a digital miter guage I had , made a few modifications and wa-la, a fully adjustable sled to cut an infinite number of segments. Attached are a couple of pictures. If you have any questions, please contact me, I love to talk segmented turning.

BradIMG_0149.jpgIMG_0150.jpgIMG_0151.jpgIMG_0152.jpg
 
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This is a great design, Bob, and it accomplishes everything I would want from a sled - zero clearance, both front and back edges of the sled span the blade, adjustable, a legend that can prevent mistakes, and a stop that once set, is out of the way when the cut is made.

I have a couple suggestions - especially for cutting segments for open segment vessels. If the left fence were thicker, you would be able to cut multiple segments at a time. If I have a row that is 50% one species, and 25% of two other species, I like to take two thicknesses of the one species and one thickness of the other two and cut them as a group and this can be done safely and accurately if they are supported from the rear. When I do this, I take the four thicknesses and put a little thin CA glue at the far end, which makes the four pieces act like a single piece. Flipping them edge-for-edge then becomes simple as opposed to flipping four loose pieces.

The second, and perhaps you've already done this, is make the stop a width that if set at the edge of the kerf would cause the indicator on your fence to point at a zero so that you could use the saw's ruler for setting the width.

Thanks for posting this, Bob.

Lloyd
 
Lloyd,
Thanks for your comments, really like your suggestion to make the left pivoting fence thicker to cut multiple segments at a time I must incorporate that feature. I have tested the sled on segments for the SegEasy plates, 8 and 5.5 plus 6 sides, 12 sides and 16 side segment rings and it works very well. If I have an miter angle that is not quite true on a test piece I just up end the sled into vertical position and use a Wixey gauge on the left hand pivoting miter fence and adjust to get it right. -- It works a treat. :)

Thanks
Bob
 
Hello,

Does anyone know of a jig to align a number of rings on top of each other. I set up a series of rings and tried gluing them together but had one or two slide on me which meant that I had to cut off more to round up the turn. It turned out really thin.

Someone suggested joining them together with toothpicks. I tried this but ended up with a toothpick notch after the toothpick was turned out. SUGGESTIONS PLEASE! I also need a good press...thanks
 
Does anyone know of a jig to align a number of rings on top of each other. I set up a series of rings and tried gluing them together but had one or two slide on me which meant that I had to cut off more to round up the turn. It turned out really thin.

Others might have a successful technique for handling several slippery rings at once, but I haven't. I tried a few times with no success, so have settled on gluing one ring at a time. It might take a little more time, but I can concentrate on getting one ring perfectly aligned before going on to the next.
 
I would agree with Dick, I too glue one ring at a time and have always had luck with this method. Even one at a time you do need to insure that the new glued ring does not move on you. And after 3 or so, I do 'rough turn' the rings. This has helped me and also helps on keeping the mass from being too out of round.
Ed
 
Hello,

Does anyone know of a jig to align a number of rings on top of each other. I set up a series of rings and tried gluing them together but had one or two slide on me which meant that I had to cut off more to round up the turn. It turned out really thin.

Someone suggested joining them together with toothpicks. I tried this but ended up with a toothpick notch after the toothpick was turned out. SUGGESTIONS PLEASE! I also need a good press...thanks

First of all why would you want to glue multiple rings at once? Secondly have you been watching the Forum regarding the Stomper? I suggest you look at the threads on the Stomper design- it is a fantastic jig for gluing rings - once you use it, you'll never go back to manually gluing your rings either on the lathe or using clamps. Honestly - the stomper alignes the rings so well that you'll wonder how you ever got along without it before. The tacking of the glue is so fast, it's really easy to add one ring on top of the next - all you really need is a few minutes between set ups so there really is no need to glue multiple rings on top of one another all at once. The percision you'll get from using the stomper will way out weigh the time lost in gluing separate rings together - give it a try - I don't think you'll be sorry.
 
Thanks for your comment. You asked "Why would you glue up rings all at once?". Well because I don't know any better being a newbie. But I appreciate your advice and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from the more experienced people here. I'll have to check out the stomper.

Thanks
 
Thanks for your comment. You asked "Why would you glue up rings all at once?". Well because I don't know any better being a newbie. But I appreciate your advice and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from the more experienced people here. I'll have to check out the stomper.

Thanks
Yes please do. If you follow the stomper threads you'll find a lot of information and if you go to the front page of Woodturner Pro you'll find links to video's on making a stomper yourself.
 
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