to flute, or to bead, that is my question

Re: to flute, or to bead, that is my question

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>Tom -

Style and historical accuracy aside, the beads will be much easier to form with hand tools. If you have tearout on flute edges it will be tedious to sand out and resulting low spots on the flute edges will spoil the overall vertical effect. With beads, there is less likelihood of tearout and if there is tearout the repair won't spoil the vertical lines.

Either way, beads or flutes, to form them I'd use a scratch stock while the column is still mounted in the lathe. Build a table that allows the scratch stock to be moved along the column centerline. Scratch one bead or flute at a time, rotate the column (an index head is almost essential here) and do the next one and so on.

I once did beaded legs by scratching grooves and then forming the bead between the grooves with carving chisels. It was fun but slow going and the results were mediocre. I wouldn't do it again that way.

Ed

I'd go with LOYL DUUUUHHHHH!

Ron in Kokomo

>

My .02 worth

jim reed @ tallahassee

>Great idea. Here is what I would like to add to that. Since these columns are quarter round, glue up your stock lightly and use newspaper between the four pieces. They will be easy to split when you are done. As for the bead, I agree that it would be easier to do in the lathe. Build some sort of indexing head with stops. Use your scratch stock to form the quirt of each bead. Then you can use a rounding plane to round over the wood between the quirts. Pretty ambitious project. Good luck.

I read somewhere once

Bill Houghton, retired fun in Sebastopol, CA

>that quarter-columns should be ever-so-slightly more than 1/4 of a circle, to ensure tight joints at the edges.

Way far from doing anything this competent yet, though I fantasize about it from time to time

thanks folks

Tom Sontag - St. Louis

>I did not mention that I had already rounded my cherry, duly glued up in quarters with brown paper between them. And Bill, since each quarter is only 90 degrees and no more, I thought I might take a shaving or two off the back flats to snug up the edges against the carcass, if needed.

Ron, you are hilarious. To be honest, she only spoke up while I was typing the post. "Whatchya typin' to WC?" "Oh, just a question about whether flutes or beads are more correct for the cabinet" "Well, you're going to use beads either way, right?" "Uh, sure hon." So I went ahead and asked anyhow.

I tried two beads before coming in tonight. The first one is terrible. The second is not done but might pass. If it does and the valley between them is okay, I am in business. Two big ifs.

Plane

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>That is an excellent point. Seems that it would be a good idea to separate each piece and then plane some relief into the sides and back. Then the front will fit well and swelling wood is prevented from blowing out the column.