how to cut small pieces

Square pieces the size of a quarter or round ones? Square I think would be possible with a jig, round I’m not so sure.

-- Jimmy, Oklahoma "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear!"

they would be roundish. I’m trying to do some guitar picks. I made a few quick ones out of walnut and cherry to see if they’d break or not. they seem to be holding up so-so. The problem is I’d rough a few out on the bandsaw and then try to sand them into shape with a belt sander clamped upside down. they came out ok, but they don’t look very consistent from piece to piece. I’d like them all to be the same size and shape.

I would take a square or round rod, whatever length would be easeist for you to work with, and shape it into the shape of the guitar pick and then slice it into the thickness you need.

Thanks. I’ve thought of that too. There is only one problem. the material I’ve got is already pretty thin sheets (about what I need them to be when done. Also, most blanks that are sold in the approximate size I’d need would end up as endgrain. There may not be an answer to this one. I may just need to make them one by one and practice.

The only other thing I could think of would be to stick them all together, shape them all at once, and then split them back apart.
You could use double sided tape.

Being that thin 1/16th to 1/8th…...I would make a jig for the bandsaw….Maybe a “V” groove holding jig with a stop at 1/8th past the blade…just slide your stock into the groove and feed it over to the stop, push it through, remove cut off and repeat….this way every piece will be the same thickness every time. Since your picks are so thin to begin with, your saw blade on you table saw or miter saw is going to eat up allot of wood.

You could make a small tabletop sled with the same principle…small “V” jig to slide back and forth across the saw with a stop a 1/8th past the blade for consistency…make a small “Catch top” to be over the cut off to avoid the 1/8th” cut off from flying off into space.

-- Don S.E. OK

Never mind…just saw your last post…your working with sheet goods…I thought you were working with hard wood round stock…sorry.

-- Don S.E. OK

How about a router jig/template sort of like what you would use to cut an inlay?

How about a punch? Something similar to this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=3838

You could make one out of a piece of pipe, sharpen it,hit it like it stole something from you with a real hammer. It could work. I have a set of these by Mac Tools, it’s actually for making gaskets, but I’ve cut some stout leather and sheet goods. I have never tried it on wood, so I’m not 100% certain.

-- I'm a lumberjock and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day!

i have to admit, I’m intrigued by the punch idea. I actually went to Michael’s Crafts today to look at their scissor punches. Apparently they are used by people that do scrap booking. I was hoping to find a large raindrop shape. no luck though. I’m still investigating.

Router and template.

-- Gene

A simple way is to make strips that are a hair over the final length of the pick, have a strip that would do 20 or so pics, alternating them in the triangle shape. Trace (or you can have a real nice stencil made by a craft store that would have 50 or more tracing openings on it to do a large sheet…maybe you could spray something on to mark them to save time.) your picks on, then cut one side off then cut out a pick, trim the next side, cut out a pick…

-- Finding satisfaction in creation

You should be able to file out your own punch and base out of steel. Indexing them to hit straight might be a little tricky, but a V groove on a different plane than the punch should do it.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

I think the punch Idea is good. I think one could be made that would fit a drill press or mortiser(not running) just for the downward pressure. I think a welding shop or school could make one for a reasonable amount.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?t=59345

-- My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist....medic20447@gmail.com

This might be an idea. Dremel sells a router table that uses a dremel rotary tool. I bought one for a job where I needed an 1/8” roundover on the edges of smaller parts. It didn’t work too badly, but the limiting factor is the quality of the bits available and the lack of a bearing. While the bits are cheap at under $7, they aren’t that sharp and dull (burn). My use was hard maple which may have been part of the problem.

Some of the router bits have a round protruding end to follow the edge or possibly a pattern.

You could make a pattern from 1/4” and double stick tape to the piece you wanted to cut. The problem is the better stick from the tape is the most repeatable parts and the harder to remove from the finished part.

Biggest value to this approach is that I have been able to work very small parts and not knick my fingers. That is not a small accomplishment for me.

Or something like this:

http://grizzly.com/products/Sculpture-Chisel-5-Sweep-1-1-2-Straight-Gouge/H0539

A carving gouge. You might get 1 at a yard sale or flea market for $1 or $2. It would take at least 2 hits to do it, but you could cut any shape you want.

-- I'm a lumberjock and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day!

I think a punch is going to crush the fibers of your material. I would suggest cutting a bunch of squares, stack them all together with either tape or some kind of temporary adhesive as bentlyj suggested, and then cut them out on the scroll saw or band saw. Then sand them on the oscillating sander while still together. I’ve used a small dab of CA glue to hold pieces together for shaping with great success. The glue is brittle enough that it simply chips apart without damage to the other half. Then you can scrape the glue off. Good luck

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Here is an idea. I think it would be easy enough to try.

I would make a router jig similar to a dovetail jig. Then I would put in long strips of the sheets good and cut several picks out in one pass. There would be a small tab at the back that connected each pick to a long strip where they do not get completely cut out on the router. Then you would have a bunch of picks on a stick sort of. Like when you have to break plastic pieces apart when you build a model car or something. Then I would use the band saw to cut the tabs and release them from the little waste stick that they were stuck to.

-- Wipe the blood stains from your blade before coming in.

oh or even better. Make a jig similar to this. style of jig. Then cut out a bunch of picks and make one final pass on the band saw cutting of the tabs.

-- Wipe the blood stains from your blade before coming in.

ok, these last 4-5 suggestions are really good.

Just to keep you up to date, I made a few invdividually this weekend. I think it took me about an 1.5 hrs to make 3 of them so I definitiely would like to be able to produce these a bit quicker. My goal is to make 3 sets of 12 (each one a different wood) as christmas gifts for my family. doing them one by one just sounds like way more time than should be required.

I think I’m going to try to start with bently’s idea because it should require the smallest capital investment and after I make these, there will probably not be a lot of demand for additional ones. Thanks everyone. I’ll be blogging my progress on these and will keep you posted on how the ideas work.

Now you gotta find a buddy with a laser engraver.

-- Wipe the blood stains from your blade before coming in.

just be careful with bentlyj’s idea since looking at the sketch is seems like the bit is completely exposed, and your hands will be excerting downward pressure (even if it’s a slight pressure) to keep the jig from controling the pick material – in which case there is the possibility of something slipping/tipping/breaking/bouncing, that might cause you to lose grip, and sends your hands straight down to the spinning bit….

I would device a good protection system for this before attempting to run that setup as seen in the above pic.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Thanks Purp, As always, I expect someone to use my ideas for conceptual purposes only and use their common sense to make it safe for them.
Everybody has a different skill level.

no wrries. if i put the idea into place, there will be two handles that will be set off to the side. Bently’s idea will be off to the side. the should allow me to stay away.

I’ll be honest, the reason I thought of moving my hands away had nothing to do with saftery, but I just thought I’d have troublekeeping the jig vertically. Thanks so much again for the help everyone. I promise to post my progress as I go.

great gift idea – if it works well, you might look at selling sets to recoup cost…

Schroeder Industries in California is a Die Cutting maker for the printing and other industries. They make dies for wood, paper, leather, copper etc. I’m thinking you are in production mode and you might be looking at cutting more than one at a time. You can inquire and have made a steel rule die (as what their called) and then build a press using a hydraulic jack rated at 3 to 5 tons. I would recommend a small die in this case. This method gives consistent cuts as opposed to the old hammer and punch. I’ve used this method professionally in printing where a 3 ton specialty press is used. You may visit a local LetterPress shop in your area (?) and they may also be of help. Take a look at their website: http://www.schroederinc.com/materials/

I wish you the best and good luck!!
Regards Kerflesss

Realizing that this is probably too late I’m still going to answer the question in hopes that it may help someone else. This, at least is a topic with which I have unparalleled experience. I have been cutting out blanks for my carving students, and others, for 14 years. I have cut out many hundreds of them. Although most are 3/8” I have cut out untold numbers of butterfly and dragonfly wings that are 1/8” thick, and now my full-sized hummingbirds take 12 tailfeathers each, and they are cut from 1/16” basswood. I have also cut them from hard woods.
I gang a bunch of the proper thicknesses and finish sanded boards together with double sided turners’ tape- but- and this is important- only for about the middle third of the pattern. So, for your guitar picks I’d use about a 1/4-3/8” strip of tape aligned so that it cuts across the middle of the pattern.
Line the patterns up across the ends of the prepared stack of boards. I would settle for a stack about 1” high to make them all uniform. Maximize the wood by alternating the direction of the patterns. Then cut with the band saw but leave the pattern line. If you leave some extra wood for a handle you will keep your fingers out of danger while cutting.
After they are cut apart leave them taped together and sand the edges to 1/2-way through the pattern line- a belt sander with 220 grit would do this with precision. Then twist the pieces of wood apart and hand sand the sharp edges.
That is all I got- hope it helps- Donna

-- "So much wood. . .so little time!" www.woodworks-by-donna.com

You could get a steel rule die made ( cookie cutter) and pound them out with a leather mallet.
Or you could buy the complete set from me including a 20 ton roller die cutter. <g>

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Donna,
Believe it or not, you are still in time. I’ve been wrestling with the best way to proceed for a while. thanks so much for the input. I think I’m going to try and incorporate aspects of this into my solution.

Bob,
I recommend that no one try to sell me their tools. My lack of funds will inevitably lead to a lowball offer and the hurt feelings that go with it. haha. I’ve got to admit, the die’s that people have mentioned are a tempting solution if I were going to try and make money at this, but I’m just looking to make a few as gifts.

Shoot, I thought we were on to something here:
Wooden picks and celluloid guitars!

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Super! I think you will like this process. It isn’t the fastest most production oriented, but you should be looking for a hand crafted look anyhow. You can also easily change the shape of the pick design if you want to. Good luck- Donna

-- "So much wood. . .so little time!" www.woodworks-by-donna.com

If you had a scroll saw you could cut them in stacks with a pattern on top. A stack could be up to a couple of inches thick, so you could quite a few at the same time this way, and easily get the shape you want.

If I were doing this, I would printout paper patterns from my computer, place a pattern on top of the stacked wood sheets, wrap the stack in clear packing tape and cut using a fairly fine blade. This way you wouldn’t have to sand.

Of course, with this method you do need that scroll saw. Got one?

-- Mike, American in Norway

Mike, I think you would have to lightly taper the perimeters in any case, by light sanding.
I use the computer print-outs patterns for things like the Celtic Knots, but for simpler outlines I make a reusable pattern out of light plastic or file folder light cardboard. In any case I like to arrange the patterns to take maximum advantage of the wood- and to get the best grain/color. I have a good photo from the first article I did for Carving Magazine back in ‘03, but I don’t see how to attach it here unless I upload it somewhere else.

-- "So much wood. . .so little time!" www.woodworks-by-donna.com

Cut you two templates out of 1/8” thick steel in the shape of the pick. Then squeeze the roughly bandsaw cut pick between the two steel pieces and spend about 8 seconds at the edge sander shaping it till you touch steel.

-- miles125, Alabama.."Architecture is frozen music""

I can’t think of a worse material from which to make a guitar pick. It’s brittle, subject to wear, inconsistent in flexibility, and absorbent. Is this just a novelty item?

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

Donna your solution seems sensible and based on a lot of actual experience.

-- Mike, American in Norway

mics_54
I’ve actually given away the ones I made by hand (about 8 of them from walnut and cherry originally) and the recipients have been begging for more. Apparently they have some type of better tonal quality. They wouldn’t hold up well to aggressive or loud play, but apparently are great for recording or accoustic play. I don’t play, but these people are quite talented and respected in music.

If they want some more, I’ll make them a few more. Its just very time consuming and tedious. I’d like a way to make them a bunch and give them enough that I don’t have to do it again for a while. do you play? if so, I can see about mailing you one or two to get your thoughts if i get this process worked out.

The idea of custom made guitar picks is intriguing and I can see how some personalities would be so inclined. I used to play ardently and at one time thought myself talented and respected but that was long ago in another life. I appreciate the offer.

-- Dan, Sterling Alaska, http://sullcon.homestead.com/ Before you criticise some one, walk a mile in their shoes...then you will be a mile away and you have their shoes!

Some woods hold up very well to wear, cocobolo, hornbeam, hard maple, mulberry, etc would likely all make good long lasting picks. Personally I’d use a small miter box and handsaw to cut the picks into roughly equilateral triangles and then round the corners with a rasp and/or sander and final sand them on top of a foam pad with a ROS to get a slightly rounded profile. Now I’m eyeballing a scrap of cocobolo sitting next to my guitar.

-- Ooo, er.

I agree…the material is mostly a bad choice for guitar picks…however…and ultra thin heat or chemical lamination? and one could have usable guitar picks…clear poly, wood, clear poly…most guitar picks are in the 1/64th range and mildly flexible…

-- /\/\/\ BarryW /\/\/\ Stay so busy you don't have time to die.

Just had another thought-
You could impregnate the finished pieces with thin cyanoacrylate glue and it would essentially plasticize them and give them a nice finish too. After final sanding pour some glue onto one side and then with one quick motion wipe it off with a heavy rag- like maybe denim. Then do the same with the other side, making sure to get the edges too. Wear disposable gloves. Have release agent within reach. It will be difficult to do this without sticking your fingers to the pick.
Finish with 600 grit, wax to polish and that should take care of any friable woods- like zebra or red oak.
Warning- I have not done this myself- but I think it would work- Donna

-- "So much wood. . .so little time!" www.woodworks-by-donna.com