Paper Dolls

This is going to be a short post, but I was just so happy to be done with the bandsawing that I had to celebrate!  The picture shows the final cut in my tedious efforts to turn a piece of 5 1/2" round bar into usable flat stock.  Ed thought up the ingenious pipe clamp feed system which thankfully eliminated the pushing and shoving on my part.  Just stand there and turn the crank while giving the cut a squirt of "juice" from time to time.  Piece of cake!  No more aches and pains - Yeah!

I talked to Dave and he thinks I'm nuts for doing things this way.  He is probably right, but at least I am finished.  Ed was surfacing the planks and getting them close to their finish thickness while I finished up sawing.  After  I completed my planking operations, I was then able to play with my kind of "paper dolls". 

Ed had printed the rod design on heavy paper and I cut them out to make templates or "paper dolls".  We then placed the template on the finished planks and traced the rod outline - 2 per plank.  I then started whittling away again on the bandsaw and ended up the day with the 2 main rods and 2 front rods rough cut (really rough!) to shape.  I was on the bandsaw almost the entire session.  But, next time I will finish  roughing out the remaining rods and then we will get to throw them on the CNC mill and watch that magical piece of equipment transform my novice hack job into a thing of beauty and symmetry.