HELP! This Can't Be This Hard

I had one of these when I was a kid back in the 70’s. It was called a “Do Nothing” at the time.

Here are a couple links that might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trammel_of_Archimedes

http://www.woodenuknow.com/donothingmachines.html

Good luck.

smoke grinder. Got a dovetail bit? s’all you need. well, that and a saw. and some wood.

-- Dan V. in Indy

i just looked at the wiki site of this…LOL

-- GRIZZMAN ...[''''']

Looking at it, it sure doesn’t look all that hard to make, does it?. Maybe I’m wrong, but I after cutting the 90 degree grooves, the 2 pcs of sliders and the crank handle, I’d start by attaching one pc of wood centered in the cross section and on the end of the crank.
Then slide the other pc of wood about half way out one track, put temporary pin through the handle and into the 2nd pc. Then gently turn the crank and see if it would clear each other and go all the way around, If not, just adjust where the pin is located until it would! That’s my best guess, Doc. Do let me know how it turn out.

-- Paul - The sweetest sound in my shop, next to Mozart, is what a hand plane makes slicing a ribbon.

Just a funny side note to you Trammel of Archimedes, Woodsmith(vol 34/no.199) magazine used this same principal to create a arc to create a template for a Demilune table.Anyways I think you could cut all thees parts in your table saw it look like a 45 or 30 degree angle for the slot parts.

That thing is awesome!

-- I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was.

Thanks for posting this! I had one of these as a kid and would love to make one, but I didn’t even have a picture, let alone a name.

I think mine had circular routed channels and the two moving pieces were shaped like tic-tacs.

all’s I can think about is “the wheels on the bus go round-n-round, round-n-round, round-n-round” lol that is kool tho. I’ve never seen one, but, I could see where it would work maybe in some wood automation. thnx for the links, link posters

-- Roger from KY. Work/Play/Travel Safe. Kentuk55@bellsouth.net

I’ve seen those, I’ve heard called a BS grinder.

-- Bondo Gaposis

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base_images/zp/a_jig_for_drawing_or_cutting_ellipses_2.gif

-- Max the "night janitor" at www.hardwoodclocks.com

Just looking at the pictures I think you need to move your center bolt down towards the handle end. I’m guessing about 1/2 an inch.

Let us know when you get it figured out so we can all make one..

There will be an onslaught of Lumber Jock B.S.ers cranking out BS Grinders.

-- Dan - Valparaiso, Indiana, "A smart man changes his mind, a fool never does."

OK guys, I have the pine nailed together prototype working smoothly (wax helped a lot!). It looks to me that a rabbited design would work better as the dovetails bind easily if the handle is not held perfectly flat and parallel to the device. What do you guys think? The first link showed a plywood version that was not dovetailed but this lady wants “fancy wood”.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

I was making six of them when I had my Router accident…
... cutting the internal sliding dovetails…
After the accident, went to the table saw to do it… was a lot easier too!

Fun lil project…

-- Have Fun! Joe Lyddon - Alta Loma, CA USA - Home: http://www.WoodworkStuff.net ... My Small Gallery: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?ppuser=1389&cat=500"

If it works, that’s all that matters, isn’t it? Now u can duplicate it with any fancy wood! I knew u could do it, Andy!

-- Paul - The sweetest sound in my shop, next to Mozart, is what a hand plane makes slicing a ribbon.

Hey Paul, It only works because I repositioned the parts with 97 brad nails and sanded a lot of tight spots! I’m trying to avoid this ‘tweaking’ with the fancy wood. No one voted against it so tomorrow I’ll try rabbits in scrap rather than the dovetail configuration. Also it appears some of these have a ‘handle’ on the underside???

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm