Study group did the same Christmas Breakup party theme thing again this year as last; recycled / home made / fair trade etc... so I decided to try my hand at some hand shaped wooden rings for the semi-secret-but-not-really-Santa.
I ripped down some strips of timber of contrasting colors that I'd saved from a previous year's tear-down of pallet timber. I want to throw some aluminium into the mix for some shiny-bling.
Can only rip down to ~3mm on the table saw, so I'm sanding down to ~1.5mm with the sander as I don't own a thickness planer.
x2 boards = 3.4mm thick...that'll do.
Cut a manageable piece.
Proposed ring profile laminations. You can see here I've got x4 layers put aside in case the aluminium doesn't work out, and I have to revert back to pure timber assembly.
Some tools required to continue.
Araldite straight onto aluminium without roughing it up or anything. I have experience with this, so actually performing this step in this fashion is completely beyond my comprehension...it was a hot day...
Keep adding laminate layers. I'm running all the grain in the same direction for the aluminium version.
Clamp it up!!
Some tools required for the next step.
I don't have the drill bit sizes I need for the inner or outer diameters, so I'm gonna hog it out with a perimeter cut using a smaller drill bit.
Rough cut out with the band saw.
Really happy with the way it's coming out at this stage.
And not so happy at this stage. Every punch-out of the aluminium pryed it apart a little more.
Abort mission and try one of the little rings. The grinder bit was worthless against soft aluminium or wood.
So I wrapped some sandpaper around a 7mm drill bit. That was useless also.
...and then it all went even more pear-shaped. This laminate isn't going to work. I actually tried three times with the aluminium and various re-glue attempts. It continuously separated.
So I moved over to the backup laminate I'd prepared. Each layer has the grain running 90 degrees to the last. No aluminium core.
Rough cuts. The center holes are hogged out with an aggressive engraving bit. Worked really well, made smooth cuts. You almost can't tell they weren't cut with a correct drill bit.
I borrowed Wes's mini strip sander.
Rough sand vs. square cut.
More sanding to go. Right hand set are spares in case of crumble during final sanding.
So I finished sanding. Oiled them, and wax/polished them. I made a tiny black acrylic stand to set them into, and gave them away.
/tears.
