Question for Vaughn

Butch, I don't know if you got the e-mail I sent you the other day (when you sent the note from my website), but it looks like it didn't make it to you. Here's the bulk of what it said, plus a bit more:

I've not gotten around to making another batch of quilt boards, but when I do I plan to photograph it along the way to make a tutorial. It's really pretty simple, but the tablesaw setup is critical so you get the dimensions of each piece exact. I use good ol' trial and error to get the saw set up. If you study the pattern, you'll see there are three different square patterns. The center square, the four corner squares, and the four at the points of the compass (North, South, East, and West). I made those squares as "logs" about 4" or 5" long, then glued the individual logs together to form the inner nine squares. Once the inner nine logs were glued together, I added the "frame" around them one layer at a time and sliced the whole assembly on the bandsaw into individual cutting boards. Here's a couple pictures I have of cutting two boards apart on the bandsaw:

Cutting 3 600.jpg Cutting 4 600.jpg

Like I said, pretty simple, but exacting. I've had the materials stocked up for a while to do another (bigger) run, but haven't made the time to actually start making some. Since I buy my wood at (Rockler) retail prices, the thick stock to make a set of 10 or 12 quilt boards costs me an arm and a leg, so I'm always a little hesitant to start out of fear of wasting some by messing up a cut. :eek: (I figure if I'm going to the trouble of making more, I might as well make a bunch.) Of course at the prices I charge for them, I'll make the money back when I sell them. ;)

I should also mention that the first quilt board I made, I did things a little differently than described above and it failed miserably for a couple of reasons -- too thin, and I mixed end grain and face grain. The two didn't play well together, and it cracked mightily. I also glued nine slices of the smaller logs together to create the main pattern, instead of gluing all the logs together and slicing the resulting big log. That actually made the assembly more difficult. After the failed attempt, I had enough leftover material to make two thicker boards, and it was with those two that I refined the procedure a bit. It's easier to make three or four than it is to make just one.

Butch, if you haven't already, you should check out Al Ladd's work. He does some awesome stuff, using the same principal of gluing up a "log", then taking end grain slices from it. His site is at www.alladd.com. Well worth looking around, IMHO.
 
Thanks for the reply. I figured you hadn't had time to get the message from the website. It's early here, I'm going to have to read that a few more times :rofl: . But I get the gist of it. I haven't seen that website I'll go now and check it out.

Thanks
 
Thanks for the reply. I figured you hadn't had time to get the message from the website. ...
As it turns out, I answered it a little more than an hour after you sent it. ;) I find the easiest way to deal with e-mail is answer back ASAP so they don't get backlogged. :p :type: Now if I could just be as timely with everything else in my life, it'd be peachy. :rofl:

BTW, I'm going to move this thread over to the General Woodworking forum, since it's way more flat than round. :D
 
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