Thread: Any suggestions for a home made spoke pointer?

Hi Franklin

If shaping a leg on the lathe first, or even when doing so with a drawknife, there is really little need for a spoke pointer since all this does is turn down the ends to fit a tenon cutter.

I have made a tenon cutter ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

HI Derek,
I already have a Stearns adjustable tenon cutter. I was thinking of using a dowel pointer to get things started rather than whittling a stick to a suitable start size by hand. I'm thinking of making something like your 3/4" tenon cutter with the blade in a pencil sharpener arrangement to do the job. For the limited number of times I'm likely to have a use for it I don't think it would have to be very heavy duty.

Cheers,

Hi Fuzzie,
I've attached a couple of photos of an old rounder or "moot" similar to Dereks design. I've not tried to use it as a spoke pointer but the blade could be skewed to do that job.
You are correct to prefer a spoke pointer to whittling as it's my experience that the more symmetrical the point the easier it is to stay aligned when using your tenon cutter.
Cheers,
Geoff.

A friend of mine sent me some photos of a home made spoke pointer from a box of wheelwrights tools he purchased some time ago. The cone appears to be fairly light gauge steel with a reinforced leading edge and blade holder. The crucial part will be to get the blade at the correct angle.
I hope they are of some help.
Cheers,
Geoff.

So I was doing something else and I wanted to start another dowel for the tenon cutter and I didn't have a spoke pointer yet. So I stopped and hacked out an attempt. I got the blade angles wrong but managed to pack it out so that it works.

For the limited amount of work it is likely to get this will probably be fine.

dowel pointer1.jpg dowelPointer2.jpg

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

...For the limited amount of work it is likely to get this will probably be fine.

What works, works!

You obviously put a bit of effort into it, it's a few steps up from "rough & ready". It will probably hang around in your kit for 20 years or more, & you'll tell yourself whenever you use it that you will re-make it 'properly' one day. But if this one does the job even reasonably well, I'll wager you'll not be in a big hurry to do that..... (DAMHIK! )

Cheers,

It really was pretty quick and dirty. I scored a chunk of oak from the offcuts bin at the men's shed, threw it in the lathe to turn the handle form, then used the Forstner bit set to bore out a sloping hole that I could ream out to a more or less smooth sided funnel. I then eyeballed the blade placement with a couple of cuts with a back saw and took off the sharp edges all round with a spokeshave. The blade was cut from the end of a cheap and nasty blade that I think must have come from a German Jack sort of plane. Cutting the blade was the hardest part, my drills wouldn't drill it and I ended up free hand cutting it and the slot with an angle grinder.

I'll probably replace the plastic packer with a slip of timber.