Thread: Advice cutting a segment of a circle to make headphone stands

Bandsaw. Not much else will cut curves through stock that thick.

Unless you want to carve it out.

Lots of tangential cuts on a table saw would work too, bringing it to final shape with a belt-sander or linisher.

It'd probably require flipping the piece over (not many home TS's have 100mm depth of cut) and a bit of tool skill, but it's do-able.

I would use a bandsaw and sand them personally, but you could also turn them. just turn the merbau into ~130mm diameter columns and cut the cheeks off as required...or you can go a bit fancier and get yourself a piece of timber 94.5 x 94.5 timber a bit longer than the length you need, say 175mm long, in any species, cheap pine is good. Then cut pieces of the merbau ~90x20x150long and screw these to the 94.5x94.5 in the center of the block. then turn that down to 130mm diameter. remove the merbau cheeks and cut to length. just remember to screw the cheeks near the edges leaving plenty of space to turn the 100mm required length.

you could turn longer lengths too if you like. it would be a very fast way of creating multiples that are nicely shaped, the right size and perfectly sanded (except for the cut ends).

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Bandsaw. Not much else will cut curves through stock that thick.

You could cut the curve you need before laminating the merbau pieces. Cut 5 seperate 20mm pieces with a jigsaw then glue them together and do a final smoothing/shaping with a belt sander. May not be the neatest result but if you take your time it should come up pretty nicely.

Originally Posted by Lplates

You could cut the curve you need before laminating the merbau pieces. Cut 5 seperate 20mm pieces with a jigsaw then glue them together and do a final smoothing/shaping with a belt sander. May not be the neatest result but if you take your time it should come up pretty nicely.

The OP said it's offcuts that are already laminated.

I saw Mark Spagnolo make up a circle cutting jig for his table saw and you should be able to do pretty much the same thing on the band saw. It produced an almost finish ready cut. Just make up an arm pinned to a board secured to the table, secure your work to the arm and set the pin 65mm from the blade then rotate your work through the band saw blade. This should give you a nice clean 65mm radius cut on your work piece.

What about a jigsaw on a compass?

Cut an appropriate length piece of waste stock and attach it to the side of the jigsaw. Then, position a nail on the piece of stock so that the radius is correct between the nail and the blade.
Then drive the nail into the stock you wish to cut and simply rotate the jigsaw around the nail. voila. circle.

Or maybe just mark the radius with a compass and jigsaw it freehand.

I should probably note that I've never done either...

Originally Posted by mctubster

I have leftover merbau 135mmx135mm laminate posts. Assuming I want the segment to have 100mm of depth, what would I use to cut this type of curve in laminated hardwood or is this even doable

I'm just going to leave this here

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

The OP said it's offcuts that are already laminated.

I know that the offcuts he has are already laminated but there is little point to buying new equipment or tools to make use of a piece of small offcut. It would be far more economical to but a small piece of wood or use some other smaller offcuts and use the technique i mentioned above, rough cut separately and then glue together and do a final shaping by sanding flush. No point in trying to do things the hard way when the piece is quite small and doesn't require much material. Not everyone will have access to big machinery like a bandsaw.

Originally Posted by Lplates

I know that the offcuts he has are already laminated but there is little point to buying new equipment or tools to make use of a piece of small offcut. It would be far more economical to but a small piece of wood or use some other smaller offcuts and use the technique i mentioned above, rough cut separately and then glue together and do a final shaping by sanding flush. No point in trying to do things the hard way when the piece is quite small and doesn't require much material. Not everyone will have access to big machinery like a bandsaw.

Find a good timber supplier with a band saw... pay them $10 to cut on a dotted line...if you offer them money they will probably do it for free just to get you back next time. Find a local men's shed, or talk to your kids high schools woodwork teacher. If you are in Canberra, reply to this post and I will let you use my bandsaw... If you are in Brisbane get over to the T&WWW this weekend and ask one of the stall attendants to demonstrate one of their bandsaws (nicely).

Thanks for all of the comments / advise.

Sounds like a bandsaw is the go. Don't have one, but may have a friend of a friend with one

Was trying to combine left over posts from my deck with my over enthusiasm for buying headphone

Cheers