Pen Desk Stand

This is a pen desk stand I make.

The cube is a four piece puzzle - very difficult to reassemble.

The bottom plaque and the cube are no problem.

It is the turned cube support piece -----??? How to make it easier. Any suggestions?

Now I make it from the inside out then turn it down.

I glue up 3 small pieces of wood all 90 degrees to each other. That gives me the form to sit the corner of the cube into. I then keep glueing pieces to the outside untill I have enough to trim and turn.

I cut the bottom off at 90 degrees to how I want the cube to sit. Cut the top to match and turn the rest down to size. Each one of those moves are difficult and easy to mess up.

Any ideas how to make a stand that positions the cube as shown in an easier manner?

You just described about half . . .

of my work day ! While I do keep looking for ways to stream-line I've found that there is never an easy way to get " That Look " that we're after. Tedious work for small reward. THATS why they pay us the big bucks !

So True

True - One of my goals is to get the customer to wonder "How did he do that?"

To bad sometimes I have the same thought!

A Different Approach

Hi Pete,

You could make the cube stand using 4 rectangles, each with a corner knocked off, glued together. Then turn to the desired shape. To knock off the corner you could either make the compound (bevel and miter) cut using a CMS, or with just a miter saw if you support the blocks "on edge" with a "V" block.

Hopefully the picture makes the explanation clearer. Note, this is similar to the inside-out ornaments that have been discussed by the turners.

Good luck,
Scott

3 or 4

Scott:

I like your idea but is it correct?

One thought and look tells me it is correct and another look and thought says it is wrong.

The depression I use to sit the cube into has 3 sides. Looking at a cube where are the 4 sides to place into your design.

Maybe starting out with 3 complex cut pieces like you show will work.

I have studied mine and am hard pressed to even tell you what the angles on each cut are.

Correction

Hi Pete,

You are right, this doesn't work for a cube (but you could switch to an 8-sided puzzle and it would work).

For the cube you can do it with 3 pieces. There are a couple of ways to do it. I sketched the version that I thought would be easier to create. I think this will work, but I haven't tried it so I'm not sure.

Scott