In the late ‘60s, working in the boat factory, a repair job came in, the owner wanted something done. Our crew went inside and got to work. I spotted a neat little oriental table, took it into the shop and drew it off. I figured with time I ought to be able to duplicate it. It had four legs, the details of which were continued in the top rail, and the four sides were cut out in an interlocking design. I recorded all the dimensions and traced the cut out design on a piece of brown wrapping paper.
Fast forward 50 years.
I found the brown paper and realized that if I was ever going to build the table I’d better start. I had accumulated a fair stock of mahogany, so I cut out all the parts and got busy on the skirt details. I drilled through all the open spaces and did what cutting I could with a sabre saw mounted upside down in a vise. I probably put in six or eight weeks carving and sanding the skirts. In the process I stumbled upon a biscuit cutter in an auction and added that to my tool supply. Great for joining the legs to the skirts and the top itself, I couldn’t make the top from one board, too wide, so I’d have to glue it up.
The leg detail was simplicity itself. The legs were 1” square, with a bead on the outer corner, and the surface beside the bead was faired from the bottom of the bead into the side.
I puzzled on how to duplicate this without carving the whole thing, use the table saw at a slight angle and sand forever…. Was the best I had come up with.
For no good reason, one night, awaiting sleep, I was remembering projects done in the past, one, a roll top desk that needed a couple of segment, I had made a pair of router bits to form. Couldn’t I make a router bit to cut the profile for the table legs? Sure, why not.
I found a piece of ½ O1 steel, turned one end down to .250 turned ½” length on the other end to .390 and filed the profile to make the detail. The turret lathe I have doesn’t have profiling capability.
I puzzled a while on how to hold it for fluting, then came up with a pair of clamps, each with the diameter suited for its end. A short piece of ½ by 1 CRS caught my eye, I drilled two holes in it and a little hacksawing and milling (for parallel) and I had my clamps.
I’m cutting the flutes .150 deep from first touch, this will leave .200 in the center. I’ve found I have to take care to leave the cutting edge on the proper side of the cutter.
Two weeks later.
I’ve made two of the cutters, they cut OK, but aren’t deep enough. The relief between the ½ inch stock diameter and the .375 bearing, (.062) just isn’t enough to develop the profile I want. I’m going to have to find some larger diameter O1 stock.
Yesterday I finished the third iteration, used 5/8 O1, milled the flutes, hardened, drew it back and sharpened it. I made a dummy leg from a piece of scrap, tapered it and after so many years of waiting to figure out how to do the profile, I’m now ready to go.
