wood turning frame

[MMW]

I designed/built this for a custom wood worker to turn/duplicate house columns on restorations. 3" channel base and 1-1/2" x 1/8 wall square tube frame. It will fit from 78" to 104" columns. He will glue together many pcs to form a column. At that point the column will have flat spots and be straight top to bottom. The idea is to make a rail for a router to ride on the shape of the column he needs and mount it on the top of the frame. As the column rotates he can slide the router along the rails and it will give him his final shape with very lttle finishing work. It will allow him to duplicate as many as he needs as each one will be the same. We made a jig earlier using this router idea to make a dome and it worked perfect.

[MMW]

He has not decided what to drive it with yet so I will most likely need to make some sort of mounting plate for a motor. The driven end has the shaft long as to put a pully on it. The frame is adjustable and also each end can slide a few inches in the bearings. The top bar on driven end is removable to help with loading if needed. Probably did not even need this support but added it anyway. To set up you bolt the flanges, shafts and bearings to the column and then set it in the frame and bolt the bearings down. The rails will need to be bolted on also. Kind of a work in progress at this point.

[tarry99]

Interesting fixture you have there.......I once had a need to build a pair of custom fluted & tapered columns for my fireplace project. Drove me crazy for a while trying to come up with a method to build a pair......fortunately I ran into a custom woodworker from So Cal who was doing portions of a restoration on a historical Victorian in Nor Cal...this fellow specialized in doing custom carved turning and wooden barber poles of all things and said he had a fixture of sorts that could do just what I wanted , but I never had a chance to see it although he told me it wasn't pretty........the results speak for themselves in solid Cherry......although these are hollow inside via gluing together several 1x's cut at angles......Love to see your fixture in action...

[aametalmaster]

I can make columns up to 12' x 20" in dia..Bob