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63K views 116 replies 33 participants last post by  degoose 
#1 ·
How to make the "Spiral Lazy Larry"

You will need 12 pieces of timber roughly 5'' by 12'' whatever thickness you want. [ I milled mine to 5/8"]
The first one I made was PH and SA-6 of each.
Place timber in the jig and cut the first arc.

Move the piece into the fence, clamp and make the second arc cut.


Repeat 12 times.

Glue it up and cut it into a circle.
Put on a little tung oil finish

Thats about It.
 
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#3 ·
If you come up with a good idea let me know, I am still working out how to do that..I wrapped a piece of ply with cling film.. GladWrap here and I just put glue on the joints and spread some cling film on top and stacked some weights.. large bits of timber .. on top and waited till the glue dried..I worked..so go figure..
I am toying with the idea of using small wooden cleats screwed on to a ply board.. up against the ends.
This does not need much clamping pressure.
Thanks for the question ..
Larry
 
#4 ·
Wow…very nice. To get tight joints like that right off your bandsaw is amazing, especially since it sounds like you couldn't really apply clamping pressure to pull it together. No matter how much I fuss with adjusting mine, the cut would never be good enough to make a tight fit. Also, since each piece represents a 30 degree wedge, I would be interested to know how you set up the jig to do this so accurately.

When this goes spinning about, it will be really cool to just watch. Thanks for posting, and I enjoy your blogs.
 
#6 ·
degoose,

This clamping method would require you to cut the circle shape twice but If you were to cut the pieces to a rough cut circle before gluing the following idea just might fly.

Am guessing that if you take 4 scrape pieces and make only the first arc cut (leave the other side straight) then lay them out at 90 degrees around the circle, it should give you some discent straight edged clamping surfaces. Before clamping the outer circle I might suggest clamping the piece flat at the center to prevent everything from popping up as you apply pressure from the outside. Once the glue dries, it's time to re-cut the circle to the finished diameter.

See, now you have justification to relax in your 'thinking chair' next to your buddy in turquoise and engineer a simple jig to accomplish the pre-glue circle cutting task.

and love your projects, great inspiration from all of your persperation.

Now back to another ice cold 'brains in a can'...............................
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the idea. If it's working now with very little but weight on top, seems that only a little pressure from outside would insure it stayed together. If you start boards all the same length, a firm wrap should be equal pressure.
 
#14 ·
Wow, I think this is all beyond me. Especially the mathe geometry part. Why oh why didn't I pay attention in school! I do have a clamping suggestion though, but you might have to modify it a bit to suit. Firstly I want to tell you that I love that spiral and want to make one, but have grave doubts about my chances for success.

Anyway, here's how you make the clamps:

1. cut a stick about 1/2" square and a mile long.

2.Then cut another stick about 3/4" wide and 1/8" thick the same length as the other piece. Hot Glue the last piece onto the top of the first piece lengthwise.

3. Cut the long 'T' shaped profile into cleats with lengths of about 2" or whatever length you want.

4. Hot glue the cleats along and parallel to your glue seams in pairs each opposing one another on each side of each seam. You can probably do this on one side only of the lazy Larry and then weigh it down clamp it after gluing to keep it all flat.

5. Wrap rubber bands around the glued on cleats (you need a cheap bag of these). You don't need extra strong rubber bands, the office kind will do. You will see that the 'T' shape on the cleat is designed to keep the rubber bands in place so they can't slip upwards under pressure. Presto,your in business! You will be amazed at how much pressure is applied.

I've used this method for some very complicated compound angle bowl stave glue-ups and it really worked well. I hope my description is clear and helpful and not 'over the top'.
 
#19 ·
We have a 6 inch wide stretch wrap that could be used like your Gladwrap! The more you wrap it around the edge the tighter it gets! I use it wrap long moldings to bring them home from the lumber yard or for smaller pieces to just store in the shop!
Stretch Wrap
 
#25 ·
THE Jig and how you too can make one.

I know that I disappointed a few with part one of the blog series.not showing how to make the jig. hey that is life.,. no just kidding.,
You now know how to use this nice little jig.
Now to the nitty gritty and how to make one of you own..

As much as I would love to tell you all that while sitting in my inspirational chair.. near the inspitational Altar
It came to me in a blinding flash of light.,.
Well what really happened was..
One afternoon while chatting to the staff at my local hardware store an elderly gentleman[ His name is Alan Adlem and he lives near me..about 10 miles away.].[older than me anyway] asked if they had any white wood…I struck up a conversation and asked what he wanted it for..
It turns out he is a wood turner and wanted it for a segmented bowl.. knowing the hardware only had two types of timber, soft and hard…I invited him to visit me and my little workshop.
He ended going home with a few pieces of silver ash, purple heart and some cherry [European wild cherry]
Before he left however he commented on my work and in particular the "Lazy Larrys". He informed me that he was a retired engineer, turned wood worker and that he had a jig that he had made that would cut spiral wedges to form a circle. [I had been thinking along these lines and thought the new beasty would be ideal for making the peices using the template router facility.] He further claimed that the cut on the bandsaw needed no sanding and fit could be adjusted if need be. I said I would love to see that…
He rang me a few days later wanting to bring his jig over for my inspection. I unfortunately was busy going to the Maleny wood show..
This happened once more, on the day I went to Brisbane for the working with wood show..
I rang him a few days ago..Friday to be precise. He came over the next morning with the jig and a sample of the spiral circle,,


I took some pics and told him I could make it out of wood cause I don't work in metal,
He left me the template that is the key to this whole jig.
 
#36 ·
Making the individual parts.

The base is just 1/4 inch ply. any size is ok..I have a cirlce cutting jig [ a jig makes it easier]..see circle cutting blog Drill a hole in the ply to use as pivot point


The distance from the centre of the pivot to the blade is 9.5 inches Set this distance and cut an arc across the end of the ply.

The fence is made by making one cut at the same 9.5" distance and then drilling another hole back an inch or so.[don't move the jig!]. not really exact but enough to be able to drill some holes in the fence…and making a second cut.

Using the very important template set the fence and mark the front this will be your guide to fine tuning if needed.(I didn't need to fine tune , cut exact first go… lucky.)


I made the Bridge Clamps by gluing up some purpleheart..for strength.
I sanded the clamps and oiled them to make them pretty and attached a small piece of cork to the foot that in in contact with the timber..
 
#37 ·
Ok, I'm beginning to see the light. I am still finding it hard to believe the possibility of getting a perfect glue line straight off the bandsaw, but I have faith in you Larry, and so will try it out. The problem is that now I want to drop my ongoing projects to do this exciting and wonderful thing. Have you no pity? Check your blog no. 1 on this project for my clamping suggestion.
 
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