Producing heart-shaped cross section in length of timber.

[John Brown]

My wife's daughter is planning to marry in the mountains of North Carolina(Deliverance country, plink plink plink). My wife has this crazy idea to make rustic-looking heart shaped place name things out of wood.

I have a similarly crazy idea that the only way to do this efficiently would be to try and produce a long length(or three or four shorter lengths) of timber/tree with a heart-shaped cross section, and then slice it up.

I have a bandsaw and a router table and a plane(and a table saw of sorts, but not sure how much use that would be), so just wondered if anyone had tried anything simiilar before(without a RouterLathe).

What does anyone think? Do I need to be locked up, or is this a remotely possiible endeavour?

 

[marcros]

you may find it easier to find a piece with half heart shaped figuring in and book match it. Or cut a heart shape from a board and make it look rustic somehow.

I cannot picture quite what you are trying to achieve but if you do it as described, you are going to have splitting issues with the endgrain being on top. if you do it looking for heart shapes in the grain, you will be your whole life looking fo

 

[John Brown]

"you may find it easier to find a piece with half heart shaped figuring in and book match it. Or cut a heart shape from a board and make it look rustic somehow."
Thing is, I need around 100 of these.

"but if you do it as described, you are going to have splitting issues with the endgrain being on top"
Not too bothered about splits or shakes, these are purely decorative, and "rustic"!

 

[marcros]

100!!!!!

For 100, i think that i would cut from boards and scorch, sandblast, stain, whitewash or other to make them look rustic. At least you could get a production line going.

however you do it, they are going to be heavy and expensive to get over to the USA aren't they?

 

[AndyT]

So what you want is a piece of wood, planed to a fancy section, a bit like a handrail. The length would be 100 x the thickness, so if each one is about an inch including waste for sawing, that's just over an eight foot piece. Too small to be worth setting up a spindle moulder, but ideal for planing by hand, and not too much work.

You don't need a heart-section moulding plane! Depending on size, you could probably do it with just flat bench planes for the convex curves and one round plane for the concave curves. A rebate plane might help but is not essential. Just draw your heart shape on each end and plane away, connecting one end to the other.

Single rounds are easy to find on ebay or at the usual other used tool sources and should cost you a fiver or less. You can smooth off any imperfections with sandpaper wrapped around a curved block or offcut of waste pipe, though from what you say, a few rough bits won't matter.

 

[marcros]

how big are they as place mats?

 

[John Brown]

how big are they as place mats?

I'd say more like large coaster size.

 

[RobinBHM]

At coaster size I would make a template for the router and route them out with a guide bush.

If you made one template you could then use a straight router bearing to make more templates in one larger piece of 9mm mdf or plywood.

Clamp it to your timber board and route out say 4 or 5 at a time.

Since you would be working on the other side of the cutter would need to be careful to keep the bush against the template and go slow at break through. Dont forget template needs to be larger all round by: (guide bush dia-bit dia/2) + bit dia

 

[rafezetter]

So what you want is a piece of wood, planed to a fancy section, a bit like a handrail. The length would be 100 x the thickness, so if each one is about an inch including waste for sawing, that's just over an eight foot piece. Too small to be worth setting up a spindle moulder, but ideal for planing by hand, and not too much work.

You don't need a heart-section moulding plane! Depending on size, you could probably do it with just flat bench planes for the convex curves and one round plane for the concave curves. A rebate plane might help but is not essential. Just draw your heart shape on each end and plane away, connecting one end to the other.

Single rounds are easy to find on ebay or at the usual other used tool sources and should cost you a fiver or less. You can smooth off any imperfections with sandpaper wrapped around a curved block or offcut of waste pipe, though from what you say, a few rough bits won't matter.

for the final cleft at the top of the heart you might be able to make a scratchstock from an old handsaw blade, just make sure you put a two handed handle on it.

 

[John Brown]

At coaster size I would make a template for the router and route them out with a guide bush.

If you made one template you could then use a straight router bearing to make more templates in one larger piece of 9mm mdf or plywood.

Clamp it to your timber board and route out say 4 or 5 at a time.

Since you would be working on the other side of the cutter would need to be careful to keep the bush against the template and go slow at break through. Dont forget template needs to be larger all round by: (guide bush dia-bit dia/2) + bit dia

Thanks for the suggestion, but if I ended up making these out of flat stock I think I'd be inclined to use a template on the bandsaw, rather than the router table.

 

[Brentingby]

You could make the shape of half the heart with hand planes on two pieces and glue them together before cross cutting.

 

[John Brown]

You could make the shape of half the heart with hand planes on two pieces and glue them together before cross cutting.

Thanks, I'd had thought about that, but then went off on a crazy thought tangent involving making the whole thing up like a giant stick of seaside rock with initials running through it. Then I had to lie down for a while...

It's a good idea, and would probably save work(and wood). Useful, also, to be able to snap them down the glue line in the unhappy event of a break-up

 

[Steve Maskery]

Send to China for them!

Personally I wouldn't go down the end-grain route. I'd make a template and a notched fence for the BS. Stick the template to the blank with DS tape, bandsaw round the template (the notch will leave, say 1-2mm extra), then over to the RT with a flush-trim bit. If you really need that cleft to be sharp, it's two shoves with a chisel.

100 sounds a lot, but once you got going it would be pretty quick. An afternoon's work, perhaps?

If you don't want the DS tape, screw the template in place, then, when done, drill out the screw holes and fit a loop of ribbon for hanging on the Christmas tree (although DS tape will be plenty secure enough).

 

[AndyT]

Thanks to Brentingby's clear diagram I realise that a conventional heart shape doesn't have any concave curves so won't even need a round plane - an ordinary jack is all you need if you make it in two parts.

No special tools, no special materials - have you finished them yet? :lol:

 

[bugbear]

Thanks to Brentingby's clear diagram I realise that a conventional heart shape doesn't have any concave curves so won't even need a round plane - an ordinary jack is all you need if you make it in two parts.

No special tools, no special materials - have you finished them yet? :lol:

You could make it in one piece if you use a rebate plane, as long as the "notch"
is 90 degrees or more.

BugBear

 

[MusicMan]

Avon Plywood will CNC them out of ply if you want the easy route.

Keith

 

[swb58]

At coaster size I would make a template for the router and route them out with a guide bush.

If you made one template you could then use a straight router bearing to make more templates in one larger piece of 9mm mdf or plywood.

Clamp it to your timber board and route out say 4 or 5 at a time.

Since you would be working on the other side of the cutter would need to be careful to keep the bush against the template and go slow at break through. Dont forget template needs to be larger all round by: (guide bush dia-bit dia/2) + bit dia

Thanks for the suggestion, but if I ended up making these out of flat stock I think I'd be inclined to use a template on the bandsaw, rather than the router table.

This would be my idea of doing it too. Maybe use contrasting woods for the halves as a symbolic nod to the Union of marriage.(hells teeth, did I just write that!)

 

[bugbear]

Avon Plywood will CNC them out of ply if you want the easy route.

Keith

Like this;

http://giftwaredirect.com.au/home/338-w ... agnet.html

BugBear

 

[John Brown]

$2,800, just for a place names...
Maybe Murdoch and Hall can afford that sort of thing...

 

[marcros]

well $280, but...