Making splines with SCMS

[Carry Pine]

Recently I promised to post some pictures on how i cut some mitres and splines on a slide combination mitre saw. The 2 boxes shown were made for practice- hence no lids and have no idea what they will be used for. One was made from a piece of Queensland maple? left by a builder on a site and the other is river red gum from my son's wood heap.
Picture 1 shows the set up for cutting the 45 degree mitres. Picture 2 shows set up for cutting the spline grooves. Picture 3 shows 4 sides of the red gum box after cutting. The groove for the base could also be cut with the scms but I used a router.
For finished pictures see next post.

Carry Pine

[Carry Pine]

There are 2 pictures of the Qld maple box and 2 of the river red gum box. The river red gum is very unforgiving and wants to chip off- as those who work with it will tell you but the figure in the timber makes up for it. The RRG has splines made of Vic ash and has a Vic ash ply base. The Qld maple also has a plywood base and the question I pose for all viewers is "What common object are the splines made of here?"
Hope the post is of benefit to someone- it was a real learning experience for me. I can't believe the accuracy here....and it's me doing it!
Glued with PVA and has 2 coats of Danish Oil but not polished yet.

Carry Pine

[Glenn_M]

"What common object are the splines made of here?"
Carry Pine

Icy Pole sticks?

BTW Nice work there. Must give it a go sometime. You make it look so simple.

[Billylad]

Icy Pole sticks?

BTW Nice work there. Must give it a go sometime. You make it look so simple.
and you are only mucking around,when are you going to get serious:D

[Carry Pine]

[quote=Glenn_M;369395]Icy Pole sticks?


Correct!! I call them paddle pop sticks but they work better than thinly sliced timber.

Carry Pine

[Carry Pine]

And what did my son say when I showed him the red gum box made out of a log from his firewood heap? Where's the lid Dad?

[zenwood]

Icy Pole sticks?


Correct!! I call them paddle pop sticks but they work better than thinly sliced timber.

Carry Pine
Looks like a nice way of cutting spline grooves. I'm not sure about using ice-block sticks for the splines, though: the grain runs the wrong way, and would do little to reinforce the joint. The grain should run parallel to the short dimension of the spline, rather than parallel to the long dimension: that way, when it's glued in, the grain runs all the way around the corners of the box, and there are no issues with differential wood expansion.

I like the way you continued the grain around the outside of the box, though: a nice touch. And the raw edged box looks good too: good enough for one of those arty-farty galleries! Well done.

[Carry Pine]

[QUOTE=zenwood;371941] The grain should run parallel to the short dimension of the spline, rather than parallel to the long dimension: that way, when it's glued in, the grain runs all the way around the corners of the box, and there are no issues with differential wood expansion.


Thanks Zenwood. That makes sense. Probably explains why the home made Tassy Oak splines kept splitting.
Carry Pine

[jow104]

Come to this thread via the link you posted sept 07.
I notice that you have put a false fence on the table of your SCMS saw but it does not extend right across the table to the far side.
I have found when cutting to a fence such as this, small offcuts can be projected through that space and they can be quite nasty.

[Carry Pine]

Come to this thread via the link you posted sept 07.
I notice that you have put a false fence on the table of your SCMS saw but it does not extend right across the table to the far side.
I have found when cutting to a fence such as this, small offcuts can be projected through that space and they can be quite nasty.


Good observation. The reason that the fence does not extend right across the table is because............it was sawn in half when I made the cut!
I agree with you- I would use less than half a fence, but not slightly more than half because of projectiles.

Carry Pine

[Burnsy]

Nice work there, great use of the saw and it is fantastic to see the accuracy produced by a saw that I have seen on special for half the price of the Kapex, now to just save up the $ to buy one to replace my Chinese wobbler.