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The Celtic knot...

Midnight_Turner

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I’ve been turning pens for 2 plus years now but I still can’t get this right....any help advice???

74f768a0503c961ccadfdd4bc0cc453e.jpg



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silver

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Miles.

It looks as though the cuts are not being kept in the right position when you cut the angles prior to glueing.

A few questions to help us help you.

What type of saw are you using to make the cuts?

Are you using a jig to hold the blank in place?

A couple of pictures of how you are doing the cuts and gluing would be good..
 

Midnight_Turner

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Miles.

It looks as though the cuts are not being kept in the right position when you cut the angles prior to glueing.

A few questions to help us help you.

What type of saw are you using to make the cuts?

Are you using a jig to hold the blank in place?

A couple of pictures of how you are doing the cuts and gluing would be good..

Yeah I don’t think I’ve got the method quite right.... I use this to cut the blanks:

7907a3aa59d1ec1df4d90df8c6c3591e.jpg


And then what I do is cut, then glue, cut then glue, cut then glue and cut then glue. I just use super glue and hold it together in my hands.

I think the difficulty I find is that the thickness of the material you use is relevant to the width of the saw blade, as I can measure it all up fine, but then I cut down the very lines I’ve made and it all goes Pete tong


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silver

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[MENTION=1431]Midnight_Turner[/MENTION]

That's saw should do the job easily, but your method needs refining tho.

Firstly you need to get the blank square, equal on all sides ideally.

You will need a wooden jig to place on the bed of the saw so you can position the blank in exactly the same position each time you make a new cut.

What I do is don't cut all the way through the blank so that a small piece of wood is still holding it in position then glue the knot wood in position. It doesn't matter what glue you use as that's personal preference and how quick you want it done. Many use CA.

I always use a couple of clamps to hold the joint together so that it can't move while it drying.

Don't forget the blank only needs to be off by 1mm to make the Celtic cross look offset and won't look right.

The other thing is the drilling of the blank also needs to be dead centre as that will make the cross look bigger on one side than the other as you turn the blank down.

If you search the forum there has been a topic on this before and I posted pics of my jig.

See if I can get a pic later and post it for you.
 

Midnight_Turner

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Miles
[MENTION=1431]Midnight_Turner[/MENTION]

That's saw should do the job easily, but your method needs refining tho.

Firstly you need to get the blank square, equal on all sides ideally.

You will need a wooden jig to place on the bed of the saw so you can position the blank in exactly the same position each time you make a new cut.

What I do is don't cut all the way through the blank so that a small piece of wood is still holding it in position then glue the knot wood in position. It doesn't matter what glue you use as that's personal preference and how quick you want it done. Many use CA.

I always use a couple of clamps to hold the joint together so that it can't move while it drying.

Don't forget the blank only needs to be off by 1mm to make the Celtic cross look offset and won't look right.

The other thing is the drilling of the blank also needs to be dead centre as that will make the cross look bigger on one side than the other as you turn the blank down.

If you search the forum there has been a topic on this before and I posted pics of my jig.

See if I can get a pic later and post it for you.

Ahhh yes thank you!! I’ll have another go this evening after the kids have gone to bed, but that pic would be useful thanks again for your help


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silver

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silver

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bigbob

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Good links and advice from Eamonn. I have a jig with a stop on it for my big bandsaw and also have a Proxxon small table saw which I use the mitre guide on which also has an adjustable stop on. One thing never mentioned with cutting out slots for celtic knots is the size of the veneer you intend to put in the slots in my case it is usually too big (cut on the bandsaw) so my solution is to measure the kerf of the saw subtract this sum from the width of the veneer and then use shims the same width as the sum left these shims is placed against the stop and a second cut is made which should give you a accurate fit.
 

Dalboy

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As Eamonn has pointed out accuracy is the key and jigs are a must to get repeatability. Reading Eamonn first post here it sounds it is how I do mine when I have made them so will not repeat what has been said already.
 

Terry Q

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One more important fact. The width of material glued in for the knot and the width of the saw kerf MUST be equal.

When cutting with a band saw your pretty much limited to veneer for the knot. This is my band saw jig. I built a lot of adjustability into it so I could experiment to get what I considered the best looking knot.
 

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