RE: wooden drive pulleys [TANKS]

["Steve Tyng" <STyng-at-ACPTrust.com>]

Rick wrote:

> Thanks for the tip. I have a tenoning jig that I have
> built, it rides in the slot on my Beisenmeyer clone
> saw fence. 

A Beisenmeyer fence clone.  It's good to see another avid WOODWORKER on
the list!  ;-)


> Are you turning the blanks on your circular saw also?

Yes I am.  I just cut and assembled the roadwheels for my Cromwell
yesterday.  There's basically two ways to cut disks on a table saw.
Method one involves incrementally raising the blade into the blank while
slowly turning the blank.  I've started using a new method which I think
is safer and produces less saw dust.  This method requires mounting a
square blank onto a simple jig which it rotates on.  The jig is nothing
more than a board with an axle sticking out of it that slides against
the fence and holds the blank the correct distance from the blade.
While holding the blank firmly, "just" cut a corner off the blank and
back it off of the blade.  Rotate and cut the remaining three corners
off.  Now you have eight corners that are cut off.  Now that you have a
rough circle.  The blank (still mounted on your jig) is fed into the
blade until it just engages.  You now rotate the blank 360 degrees.
Advance the blank a little bit and repeat.  Repeat the sequence until
you have a perfect circle.  I like this method because the blade is
always stationary and a blade guard could be used if your into that sort
of thing.

You can use a variation of method two to cut disks on a power mitersaw.
The blank is mounted on a jig which it rotates on.  The jig can be a
board with a nail sticking out of it that the blank rotates on.  Now
just make a series of cuts with the mitersaw, rotating the blank a
little bit between each cut.  This makes nice circles but not as
perfectly round as on a table saw.  The cutting capacity of the mitersaw
will limit the size if disk you can cut out.

I took a sequence of pictures while cutting a roadwheel and will be
writing a little how-to article on cutting wheels on a tablesaw and
mitersaw shortly.


   Steve "Still Have All My Fingers" Tyng



Disclaimer:  The methods described above are considered advanced for
tablesaw work.  PLEASE, if you don't feel comfortable with your tablesaw
and don't want to take the time to build the proper jigs, do not try
these methods.  They require close proximity of your fingers to the
rotating blade.