# Making accurate segments for segmented bowls



## Ken Johnson (Nov 8, 2007)

In several books I have seen how people have made all kinds of jigs to use on their disc sanders to make all their bowl segments the same by "tweaking" them. I have had really good luck just making my angled segments on my table saw. I have a very good blade that leaves a glue joint quality finish and an Incra miter gauge that is super accurate and repeatable. I just set the angle and set an end stop on the niter gauge fence and all my parts come our beautifully and accurately. Does anyone have any other techniques that they use?


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## adienner (Jul 22, 2007)

a lot of guys will say you have to sand your joints before glue, but i do exactly as you do. Straight off the saw and i get excellent results.


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## Gerold Griffin (Mar 10, 2008)

Ken, I am attempting my first segmented turning and seriosly thought about getting an Incra Miter gauge but hated to spend the money. Instead I took 2 pieces of MDF and glued them to form an "L". Each leg is about 5 or 6 inches wide and 20 some inches long. Next I mounted a toggle clamp to a piece of scrap plywood. The toggle clamp holds the segment being cut off and the plywood acts as a stop. I just clamp the plywood with the clamp to the MDF. The whole thing is screwed to the cheap miter gauge that came with the saw, set at 90 degree to the blade. Next I adjust the blade with a digital angle gauge and make my cut. I cut 4 segments 1/4 inch to long and use them on each end of a half circle them cut off that 1/4 inch to get my perfect half circle. The reason I do this is my gauge only reads 1 decimal point, say 22.5, but in reality I may be 22.51 or 22.59 Multiply that differance my the number of segments and you can have a noticable differance. When I need to change angles I just unscrew the MDF and slide it down and set up again. Not the best system but it does work for me. 
Question for you if you don't mind. How well does your Incra work? Do you use it on a sled? and do you have a way of clamping the segment being cut so the saw blade does not nick it? This was my greatest concern about getting a good miter gauge for this yet.


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## Ken Johnson (Nov 8, 2007)

Gerold,

The Incra jig is one of the best tools I ever bought. It is super accurate and repeatable. I only use my hands to hold my workpieces (no clamps) to my miter gauge. When you have a gauge that has no slop you don't get the nics in your cut. Having a really good blade helps too. I bought the Incra 1000SE miter gauge and it it great. Normally $150 i think, but Woodcraft has it on sake from time to time. I think I paid $120.


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

I had trouble cutting segments on the table saw for years. I don't have the best saw and finally did purchase a decent blade although I'm saving for a Forest blade to improve the accuracy and cut quality.
For rings with a large number of segments I glued them up by hand using a rub joint and would check the glued segments at 45, 90 and 180 degrees and fine tune these angles as I glued up. When My cutting got more accurate I started glueing up the rings with a hose clamp but left glue out of 2 joints so I could true up the 180 degree joints. This worked great as long as I had a very small amount of cleaning up to do. If I had a lot the rings would be oval and if alinging the lines in several rings was needed they would be off in the final product.
What helped me the most building a cut off miter table that fits in both slots of the table saw. With only one slot there is still a very small amount of movement at the blade. I also used plexiglass for the runners so I could make them fit perfectly without worrying about wood movement on the runners.
One of the main reasons for using the disc sander is to be able to cut the segments on the bandsaw so the grain and figure in the wood runs the direction you want. You can rough cut them on the bandsaw and then true them up on the disc sander.


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