Project advice (from wood workers) please

#1

hello all,

i am new - and not very knowledgable about woodwork.

i have used various wood working power tools but mainly for DIY

what i want to make is hexagonal wooden game pieces

like these:

which i want to make more accessible (to visually impaired using clearer markings and texture)

so my (first) question is:

what is the best way to cut these out and get them all exactly the same size

wood is from half a pear trunk that i have roughly hand-sawn into slices (roughly the right thickness)

thanks in advance

~ben

#2

All of the above, I would consider using the laser cutter :slight_smile:

you can probably plane the pear using the cheap planer, and then cut (and engrave) using the laser. You’ll need to consider how to dry out your timber first though.

#3

hi peter

wood is old (and dry)

i thought (was told) that pear wood would be too hard for the laser - especially at this thickness - or am i getting machines mixed up?

#4

how thick are we talking here? Would be worth a few test cuts just to see. Slow and repeated cuts, followed by some careful sanding would probably do :slight_smile:

#5

Hi @benh ,

I used to live with a visually impaired group and I love that idea!

Peter,
The small ones in the travel kit are 9mm tick, with a side of the hex at 15mm, and there’s 26 of them. For visually impaired markings they may be on the teensy side. But the standard game pieces are significantly chunkier. I had no idea that the laser could cut that.

With a CNC router, I would have suggested to make a nice hex stick and then slicing it. But there might be a clever way to make an equally sided hex stick with our means?

#6

it depends which way you want to cut your stock

fastest would be end-grain up on the face (butcher’s block style)

You use a hand plane, or ask a woodtech to use the planer thicknesser to plane faces 120° to each other to make a hexagon ‘stick’. This will give also give you a perfect finish on the edges right from the start. Then you’d use something like the chop saw to cut it into pieces.

The example you have has very smooth corners so you’d need to sand those. I think the best would be a sanding wheel for this.

For the shape you can find a way to make a die and press the shape either cold or hot, or use the laser cutter to engrave.

if you want keep the end grain on the sides then you’d need to make a jig for the chopsaw and make loads of 120° cuts to get the shape.

#7

Thanks for all the comments :slight_smile:

Wood is already cut into slices (across the grain).

They will hopefully be about 24mm thick and 52mm diameter.

Have some ideas about making markings of pieces clearer and how to add texture - will share once i have a clearer explanation.

So guess need to just very accurately cut angles - width (once plained to same thickness).

Is there an fail-safe way to do this? Any tips much appreciated!

#8

Ah yes, that would be way too thick to laser.

Cut, glue, hexagonise, cut and then laser would be my approach :slight_smile:

#9

what am i gluing?

#10

If you want consistent hexagons that tessilate, It makes sense to make a ‘tube’; turn that into a hexagon and then cut to the correct width :slight_smile: so in this case, slice to slice.

Equally, very careful marking and a steady hand n at the bandsaw might do what you want too; but consistency would be less

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#11

Bit of a random idea, but I wonder if you could come up with a jig like this to cut multiple slices in one go on the table saw.

image.png1152×648 8.87 KB

(left is a top view, right is viewed from the front. excuse the poor ms paint diagrams here)

The idea would be to stackup slices as close to a cylinder as possible, hold them together with a clamp and then make a series of 60 degrees cuts. First cut would use some wood blocks to provide a flat surface. Subsequent cuts would use the surface from the previous cut on the table saw.

The 60 degree angle on the blade would have to be pretty spot on or you’d accumulate quite a bit of error after 6 cuts.

EDIT: Actually, a better option would be for the clamp to be at te top and the blue blocks to slide on the table and fence of the saw.

2 Likes
#12

The planer might be better suited for this, and give better surface finish.
We have a digital gauge for the angle setup.

Or

Use the guillotine on the individual pieces. The surface finish on the cut is superb, glassy smooth, no tearout. You can set the angle with the digital gauge or reference it off a pre-built angle if you have one

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#13

pucker factor at defcon 1…

Please don’t bring anything metal this close to spinning blades. Your pieces will be prone to spinning and detaching anyway since you’ll only be able to get one clamp on. And you won’t be able to rotate it around the stack without pieces shifting. Unless I’m massively misjudging their size. Much better to glue them in a stack and recut.

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#14

you could always CUT the reference angle using the laser. I did this last week with good results frustratiedly tryimg to get a clean 45 out of the guilotine.

#15

Keeping anything metal away is definitely the right thing to do. Glueing/recutting is not that much more work and would help get equal size pieces

#16

This sounds the most suitable option (considering what I have already done ;-))

Just need to do my induction(s)…

And thanks again for all your comments - really great to have so many people happy to offer advice.