# wooden barn star?



## moskrin (Nov 30, 2009)

I know someone must have made wooden barn stars. I've never seen one, but want to put one on the front gable of my garage, and I don't really want to pay what places are asking for a 5-6 foot metal star… besides, anything I made myself is cooler, of course.

Anyway, figuring out 72 degrees between points is easy, and I tried to draw it up in sketchup and measure the necessary angles to get all the points to connect at the right angle, but when I cut a couple of test pieces, they didn't mate up like they were supposed to, so I must have something wrong.

As I'm sitting at work rather than in my shop, but still thinking about it, I thought I'd ask here if anyone's done this and already figured out the angles I'm looking for, or if I'm just going to have to start making ballparked test cuts until I get it right. Anyone? Thanks!


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

I'd draw it out full size on paper and then, when it looked good enough, I would measure the angles from the drawing and transfer that to my wood. Drawing it out in Sketchup should work also.


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## moskrin (Nov 30, 2009)

I did draw it out in sketchup, it being a 3D object, and it looked great in the software, but for some reason when I cut some test pieces they didn't lay flat… so I may have done something wrong in the model. I ended up picking up a small metal star for a few bucks and I'm going to measure all the angles to make another go at it, but thus far life has gotten in the way.


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

If it is not laying flat could it be that your saw is not cutting true?


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## moskrin (Nov 30, 2009)

If it were up 1/8" I'd consider that… but with one of the two points I cut lying flat, the other was sticking up at probably a 30 degree angle.


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

Yeah, that is a bit much. Hope you can figure it out when you get some time to work on it.


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## moskrin (Nov 30, 2009)

When I do, you can bet I'll post here what I figure out. A thing that's not on the internet… we can't very well have that, now, can we?


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

Go for it Scott
I have never heart of this before 
but we can´t have its ain´t represented anywhere
looking forward to see your blog about the building of the star

best thoughts

Dennis


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

Should you be cutting your stars at 36 degrees?


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