Making a graduated slot in maple

[sickasapike]

Happy new year all, I switched over from roll-ups to a pipe over the New Year; so apart from becoming 30% more debonair and reallocating a lot of air tight jars from foodstuffs to tobacco, I'm also wanting to make some pipe furniture like a stand or three to store them on and a few coffee table things to rest them on between puffs.

I've a load of small maple bits cutoff from kitchen doors I repurposed. The photo below is one, it already has an inset that's bang on-sizewise from where a hinge was supposed to go, I want to round that out at the bottom and remove a slightly graduated slot going from the circular inset to the opposite corner (inside the inner pencil lines) to rest the stem of the pipe on, so the stem points up slightly, and remove the wood outside the outer pencil lines.

My question is, what might be the best way to make a slot that's the depth of the circular inset at one end and say 5mm or so shallower at the other ? - I can drill it out with reducing depths, then chisel/file/saw/sand it into a gradient but thought it could get rather fiddly.

I could try to mount the piece slightly at an angle, maybe on a pair of shallow wedges with hot glue, and use a rounded off router bit to take out the bulk (maybe predrill in steps to ease the process), I have one that's about the right size and could make a sliding router track/jig thing to keep the router straight.. and it all goes really well playing the video in my head but reality is often different I find - I wondered if anyone had any clever ideas about making that happen, or a better way to do the slot.

I like the routrer idea better but means makign a jig of sorts, maybe just drill and make good would be fine, I've not done much of this sort of thing before.

I was thinking I could use a bandsaw on it, with the piece glued to a cunky sloped piece, if I didn't mind chopping out the slot at the top too. That wouldn't be a disaster, these aren't for sale or anything but I want to try not to do that so came up with the router idea.

Actually, I'll do it along the grain, was a bit tipsy when I drew it last night, no idea why I went for the diagonal !

 

[toonarmy1987]

My advice would be to use the router. A jig would be as simple as you want. The way I would do it is to keep the piece flat and create a jig that has an incline on it. This will smoothly raise the router bit out of the material as you move it alone the jig.

In my head it is similar to the jigs you see for routers that joint a large slab except your is much smaller and instead of being flat, it actually changes its height to suit your design.

You could hand carve this yourself although the finish will not be uniform. This is then a case of the style you want.

 

[sickasapike]

My advice would be to use the router. A jig would be as simple as you want. The way I would do it is to keep the piece flat and create a jig that has an incline on it. This will smoothly raise the router bit out of the material as you move it alone the jig.

D'oh yes of course, make the jig sloped, that sounds better then it can all be solid on the bench without uneven glue / possibility of slipping, thanks.

You could hand carve this yourself although the finish will not be uniform. This is then a case of the style you want.

I'm reluctant to get all Huck Finn on it, there's no need for it to be perfect but I've never hand carved anything since a few rough catapults as a kid so could be fun, painful or both especially with the maple.

It's the first hardwood non-pallet timber I've worked with, I made a couple of wall units with it before Christmas and find it cuts beautifully and is wonderfully hard, love the knife edged corners but reckon I'd take as much out of my palm and wrist as the piece, and the blood spattered look is so last year I'm told

 

[custard]

If I had a load to do I'd get jigged up and use a router. For one or two I'd chop it out with chisel, the final shaping is done bevel down. It would only take a minute.

Good luck!

 

[sickasapike]

Confession time, I got lazy and just took out a slot with the table saw and forstnered a smaller hole at the bottom of the big one, no slope, no sanding, bit of tung oil and it's fine... just fine.. doesn't bother me, I could use them like that forever and it'd not bug me.. not at all... aaagh !!!!

 

[sickasapike]

Confession time, I got lazy and just took out a slot with the table saw and forstnered a smaller hole at the bottom of the big one, no slope, no sanding, bit of tung oil and it's fine... just fine.. doesn't bother me, I could use them like that forever and it'd not bug me.. not at all... aaagh !!!!

Tried to add a photo twice but it disappeared... tried to edit the message to say so but can't find the edit button, the 'report this message' button is right where edit should be, suffice to say they look fine, just fine...