[mtnmanJim]

Hi,

I'm Jim from Arizona. I enjoy numerous aspects of woodworking. I found you when searching for a jig to cut spirals in some spindles I'm turning for an old house my son is restoring. Browsing here has helped me build a jig that will do what I need to do for this project.

Now that I have a jig, I'd like to find a router bit that will come closer to cutting the profile I want. The first 2 pictures show the original along with some grooves I carved (4-5 hrs /spindle) and the third shows the router cut I just did on a test piece with the jig I built. The cut looks a bit rough, but it cleans up quickly with some sanding.

Suggestions are most welcome. I'll get some pics of my contraption and post them in the jigs area.

 

[dick in ia]

First, an easy question----Do you have the same number of starts on the spiral?
Second easy question-----When you cut the spiral are you cutting downward-- or on the side of the spindel?

 

[mtnmanJim]

First, an easy question----Do you have the same number of starts on the spiral?
Second easy question-----When you cut the spiral are you cutting downward-- or on the side of the spindel?

Dick, There are 8 spiral grooves.

Yes, I'm cutting downward.

My contraption is not nearly of the quality of the one I've seen of yours here. Love your spiral cutter!!

 

[jw2170]

Welcome to the router forum.

Thank you for joining us, Jim.

 

[mtnmanJim]

G'day, James -- Good name -- especially since we share it. Thanks for the warm greeting.

 

[wm460]

G'Day Jim,
Welcome from the centre of Aust.

 

[ggom20]

Hello!
Nice works!

What sort of wood is that?

About selecting a cutter, i cannot see profile of
the spirals, so got no idea..
Except that you could get less sanding with a very sharp cutter.
Some soft woods really needs a razor-sharp cutter bit for not lifting fibers.
I'll suggest a hight quality micro grain carbide-tipped cutter.
Some would say they will rather use hss steel cutters for ease of re-sharpening.

Could you post a side view of spiral profile?

 

[bobj3]

Hi Jim

Very nice job but did you know you can do the same job with the cheap Craftsman router lathe.
see my uploads for many more shots/pictures.

bits
http://magnate.net/index.cfm?event=showProductGroup&theID=240
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Hi,

I'm Jim from Arizona. I enjoy numerous aspects of woodworking. I found you when searching for a jig to cut spirals in some spindles I'm turning for an old house my son is restoring. Browsing here has helped me build a jig that will do what I need to do for this project.

Now that I have a jig, I'd like to find a router bit that will come closer to cutting the profile I want. The first 2 pictures show the original along with some grooves I carved (4-5 hrs /spindle) and the third shows the router cut I just did on a test piece with the jig I built. The cut looks a bit rough, but it cleans up quickly with some sanding.

Suggestions are most welcome. I'll get some pics of my contraption and post them in the jigs area.

 

[mtnmanJim]

Mark -- Thanks for the welcome!

Gerard -- The wood I'm using is alder. I've attached a couple of pics trying to get the profile. First is a blurry close-up of the original and the second is a profile gauge. I'm leaning toward trying a point cutting round over bit.

BJ -- The craftsman router lathe was something I considered, but each spiral is half a revolution, so I need 1/2 a revolution with 69mm of router travel. By making my own, I was able to turn a gear with a diameter of 43.9mm or a 138mm circumference. to get the travel I needed for this project. The grooves in the original appear to be hand carved, so the bottom of the groove is not quite the roundness of a barley twist bit -- but it is close. Maybe I should try one.

 

[bobj3]

Hi Jim

The Craftsman has a index head setup for the 24 and the blue router lathe in the picture is setup on 36 for the indexing head..makes it easy to setup up what you need to do but I will say the bit is the key..the normal plunge bit will do it most of the time.

Grizzly.com

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Mark -- Thanks for the welcome!

Gerard -- The wood I'm using is alder. I've attached a couple of pics trying to get the profile. First is a blurry close-up of the original and the second is a profile gauge. I'm leaning toward trying a point cutting round over bit.

BJ -- The craftsman router lathe was something I considered, but each spiral is half a revolution, so I need 1/2 a revolution with 69mm of router travel. By making my own, I was able to turn a gear with a diameter of 43.9mm or a 138mm circumference. to get the travel I needed for this project. The grooves in the original appear to be hand carved, so the bottom of the groove is not quite the roundness of a barley twist bit -- but it is close. Maybe I should try one.

 

[ggom20]

Hello!
Nice wood !
This alder is also good for guitars.
It's a soft wood so I woul d suggest use a real sharp cutter.
About the shape , difficult to say, I think would draw full a scale of the selected cutterrs from catalogs, cut the shape with cissors and compare to the real spiral.

Regards

 

[mtnmanJim]

BJ -- The Craftsman crafter has sufficient indexing, however, I can't see that there is any way to change the gearing so I can have the router travel the distance it needs to travel for my application. What is the blue one in your pic? Does it have variable gearing?

 

[bobj3]

HI Jim

No gears, it's all done with a simple cable and the indexing head once it pined in the head, it will move the router in the pattern you have selected to use, with the lock collars or simple hose clamp on the rods it will stop the router in the right place every time.

The blue one is just a better design one than the Craftsman,live center ,you can lift the router up so it take on the big stock ( 6" + in diam) and still get a center cut on the stock,see base plate with the slots,etc.

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BJ -- The Craftsman crafter has sufficient indexing, however, I can't see that there is any way to change the gearing so I can have the router travel the distance it needs to travel for my application. What is the blue one in your pic? Does it have variable gearing?