LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner

Project Information

A local mexican restraunt owner asked if I could make fluted pillars. Sure I said. I he said could I, not had I ever ;-) Or the anwser would have been no. So I had to invent my own way to make them. The owner was so happy with them that he had me come back for a couple other jobs incorporating pillars. There are probably several ways to do this but this is the way I came up with and it seems to work pretty well so I thought I'd share.

Basically I shop build a mill that I could roll a hexagonal blank under a router that rides in a guide. After I rounded the blocks I pop a fluting bit in the router and attach an indexing plate on the end of the pillar and cut equally spaced flutes around the colomn.

Gallery

Comments

· Registered
Joined
·
58 Posts
I'd be happy to answer any questions.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
229 Posts
very well done
simple, and I like simple allot and very effective
I'm going to favorite this one
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,487 Posts
very cool idea, those pillars came out nice.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
125 Posts
Well thought out and executed. Great job on the jig and the pillars.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
58 Posts
Great idea. I like that you could also make them tapered by offsetting the ends.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
194 Posts
That is a great idea. Nice Job, Those look like they're store bought. (thats a compliment). A beautiful addition to his shop.

Head phones? What cha rockin out to?
I was never allowed to wear earphones in the shop. I was always told to listen to the machine….. But I'd just crank the radio anyways…lol

You did an excellent job on those columns, I will definetly favorite.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
5 Posts
Great job and great jig. How did you get the flutes even around the column? Is there also an indexing portion?
 

· Registered
Joined
·
58 Posts
I made a circle and marked eight equal lines. Then I just drove a screw through that end of the jig at each line to lock it in place.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
73 Posts
wow, these fluted pillars are great… nice work and thanks for posting the instructions…
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,833 Posts
Very Cleaver and thinking outside the box!
 

· Registered
Joined
·
6,114 Posts
Good thinking, nice job.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
49 Posts
Very nicely done - I see you can do very large columns in your jig. I had a project where I need smaller tapered columns and here is what I came up with.. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/20495 I like yours much more, seems more versatile on a larger scale…

Thanks for sharing
 

· Registered
Joined
·
19,753 Posts
great job
 

· Registered
Joined
·
58 Posts
I have a lathe but its capasity is 45" and I needed to make six foot columns.
 

· Registered
Joined
·
1,581 Posts
Excellent innovation. I had to come up with a similar solution to make fluted spindles and ended up using a rotary tool router and two long levels….it took alot of trial and error…but eventually got the job done…

Your solution looks much better…and looks like you can get reproducible results without all the trial and error that I had to suffer. Not to mention yours can achieve sizes that I did not even consider….

Great job and thanks so much for sharing it with us…I will indeed favorite and keep for future reference.
 
Top