Cutting Circle Segments

[Asquared]

I'm making a decorative top for a table and I want to have a radiating pattern like the sun. I have a round center piece from which I want to have radiating segments. Based on the width of my timber and the size of the work I have decided to cut ten segments per quarter circle. It is also a nice round number if you'll pardon the pun. That means each piece will be 9 degrees of arc. Now, being a particularly smart bloke who remembers his sixth form trigonometry I've determine the tangent of 9 degrees to be 0.1584. So I was able to mark out the angle off a straight side of my timber by coming in 158 mm over a 1 metre length. BUT it all seemed rather difficult and I was wondering if there isn't some very clever way to set out various angles (and cut them) without all the fancy math. I figured I could cut a template from cardboard (or similar) but then I need to set that out first. Another reason I'd like an alternative approach is that I thought it would be athesically pleasing to have the grain run parallel with the center line of the segments as opposed to parallel to one side of the segments. This turns out to be more wasteful of the timber though so I probably will sacrifice athesics for economics.

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Andrew Armstrong

[AlexS]

You can make a template (preferrably from Ply or thin MDF rather than cardboard) and cut it so that it is an isosceles triangle rather than right angled. The long sides of the triangle are equal. As you say, this will use more timber, but if you're going to do it, it should look pretty good. You'll need to be pretty accurate with your template, as any inaccuracy will be multiplied.
I'd suggest that you don't take the sectors right to a point, but have a circular insert at the centre of the table. This helps avoid gaps due to slight inaccuracies. Also, you may have problems due to uneven shrinkage.
There used to be a table similar to yours at the Sydney Building Information Centre, I think on the forestry stand. Might be worth checking out.

Good luck,

Alex