Chuck,
I have found the easiest thing to do is eliminate the need for flattening as a first step. I need to make a video tutorial that shows how to do this but don’t have the time right now so I’ll just give you the steps and please ask questions about what needs more definition.
I’m not sure what design you’re making but I will assume that it is a relatively short ring of compound segments. To design the ring in Woodturner PRO, use ‘Compound’ instead of stave and here’s the reason. When you use the Compound type, you can specify the Slope which I choose 40, 45 or 50 degrees. Why? I have made a couple wedges that match these angles. To make a wedge, I start with an 18” x 3 x 3 block of any species and with my bandsaw blade tilted at 45 degrees, I rip the blank which gives me two identical wedges with a 45 degree angle (you only need one of these wedges but set the other aside). I then double-side tape this wedge to the fence of my miter saw (you could also do this to the fence of your table saw sled.
then set the angle of the miter saw blade to the appropriate angle for the number of segments (lets assume 12 segments or 15 degrees) you want and without tilting the blade, cut through the wedge so that the blade barely cuts through the front of the wedge but not so that it cuts the wedge in two pieces.
Now you can take the board you want to cut into segments and lay it on the wedge so that it is 45 degrees from the table. Cut off one end of the board and then flip the board over as normal, move it against a stop and make your next cut and you have completed one of 12 segments without having to tilt the blade and using one of the pre-set angle stops of the saw. Easy. Peasy.
But you still have to flatten the top and bottom of the ring. But, this simple step lets you eliminate this difficult and dangerous process.
Take the board(s) you want to use to the bandsaw and tilt the table to 90 - the number of degrees you’re going to use (90 - 45 = 45). Now move the fence so that you can rip the board, cutting off one long edge leaving a sharp point at the edge. After the first cut, flip the board over and repeat the cut. You should now have a board that if you look at the end, you will see a parallelogram.
Now take that board and lay it on the wedge so that wood is flat against the wedge and with a short surface flat against the table and now, when you make your segments, they will glue together with a flat bottom and a flat top. Peasy. Easy.
Try this with a piece of MDF to make sure you get the process correct.
How to do the 40 and 50 degree wedge? Take the other wedge you made in the first process and using a jointer, change the angle from 90, 45, 45 to 90, 40, 50. Now, double side tape the wedge to the sled with the desired angle to the table and cut your segments.
Obviously, you will likely need to make this ring in halves, but you will be able to do it in a fraction of the time it would take to tilt the blade and use a non-standard angle. Whatever angle you need just cut a new wedge and if you cut it to do a 36 degree angle, that wedge will give you a complimentary angle of 54 degrees at no charge.
This process is exactly what you might use to cut crown molding by tilting the molding against the fence using the surfaces provided by the molding to make sure it gets applied at the correct angle. Once you try this once for cutting segments, you’ll never cut compound segments the traditional way.
I hope that helps.
Lloyd
BTW, if you let me know where you found that broken link, I’ll fix it.
Thanks.
