How to shape these

[JGrout]

Taper one side on the jointer then flip and do it again
It is not as hard as it may appear

As for the arced sides template and a flush cutting spiral bearing bit
Not cheap but worth every penny for good template cutting

Joe

[Bope]

Thanks for the many suggestions. All the routing has been done on a router table. With the 2" long bits and slight mistake in keeping it flat or the bit catching the grain leads to a significant gouge. The curves were done with a template on the bottom with a bottom bearing bit. I then flipped it over and used a top bearing bit to complete the cut. The bits I have are straight cutting. It might be worth the money to get spiral or at least shear cutting bits. I will probably stay with this method for the curve but remove more waste prior to routing. I do have a some used spoke shaves I have never used that I could tune up and try. I also have the mating pieces from the band saw that I glued sandpaper to to help smooth the curved edges without creating flat spots.

For the taper I am not sure the planer will give me what I want. I need the cutting edge to be perpendicular to the tangent of the curve during the cut. This means the piece would have to arc through the planer which would be difficult. The jointer method I don't quite get. Do you lower the piece into the cutter near the wide end of the taper and make a cut. Then start the next cut say about an inch farther down and make a cut etc.?

The hand plane I have is a No.5. I thought I had picked up a longer one when my wife's uncle died but I can't find that one. I can look harder if that would work better. Thinking more about the hand plane route I should plane the pieces disassembled then fit them together and check the progress. Take apart and plane then test again. Instead of the lazy route of trying to plane the pieces to fit while assembled.

[jteneyck]

"Perpendicular to the tangent of the curve" means perpendicular to the radiused side, correct. If so, a planer sled will work as long as it's as wide as the height of the arc of your work piece. You could do it on the jointer, too, as Joe suggested. You could shorten that process by first rough cutting the tapers on the bandsaw as you need to take half an inch off one end on each side, if I understood your first post correctly.

John

[YSU65]

After you get the parts to mate smoothly how are you going to join them? Floating tenon?

[Bope]

John,
I am just not seeing how the planer would work. In the top drawing below is how I see the curved piece being presented to the cutter head if on a sled. The bottom drawing is how I want the cutter head presented to the piece during the cut. Am I missing something?

Answer to the other question is floating tenons.

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[Bope]

I should know my hand tools better. The hand plane is a Millers Falls No 14. The spoke shaves are a Stanley No 80 and No 64.

[Paul K. Murphy]

I think a little standardized language is needed. That portion of your assembly that I see to the right, I would call the face. If I am looking directly at the face of the assembly, I would see two arcs intersecting. One larger arc continues in its sweep above that intersection. The portion of your assembly to the left, I would call the edge. If I am looking directly at the edge, I would simply see a line, straight up and down.
Now, my questions:
1- Are the arcs that I see on the face parts of a circle? Can they be precisely described by a trammel? Alternately, are they just freehand curves, chosen for their attractiveness?
2- It seems to me that you also want the parts of you assembly to diminish in thickness. You want them to taper. Is this correct? If I were to again take that edgewise view I described above, the straight line I described would diminish in a taper toward the feet. Correct?
3- Assuming the taper question is answered, "yes", you want a fidelity of that taper to the radius, right? That's what your illustration of the two potential planer knife to workpiece illustrations is about, right? Planer knives always oriented as if they were the circle's radius=good. Correct?

If the parts are parts of known circles, the curves can be cut with a router trammel. You may not be able to mill through the whole thickness, but you can get a precision start that can be used as a reference.
Again, if my assumptions are correct in the above, there is a way I can think of to taper your work.
It's simple, and I can see it in my mind's eye.
Absolutely NO WAY am I typing it out. Wild horses couldn't make me do that! It's too complicated to explain, and we all know how much I love my overly verbose prose as it is.
PM me if you care to, and we may be able to work something out.

[Bope]

Let's see if I can interpret your description. First the large arched piece is the only one that I have attempted to finish. The smaller arched piece has only been roughed out on the band saw. I think what you are calling an edge are the convex and concave surfaces. Those two surfaces are parallel to each other and were made by using a trammel to make a hardboard template. The curves on the wood were then made with a combination of a pattern bit and flush trim bit at the router table. If you look directly at these edges you would see the piece taper from top to bottom. So the surfaces you call the faces are not parallel to each other. So the answers to 2 and 3 are yes.

I think I can fix my problems making the curves by removing more waste prior to using the router and using a router bit with some shear instead of just straight. It is the tapering of the faces I am trying to figure out if there is a better way.

[JGrout]

How I would taper the faces on a jointer.

First I would lay out the tapers on the stock and remove as much stock as possible on the band saw This would be much easier if the curved sides were completely finished first so the arcs are smooth. this would facillitate the feed through the BS and prevent lots of bouncing on the BS Go slow on the feed and cut as close to the line as you are able

Once the majority of the material is removed set up the jointer to take lighter passes.(this helps with the tear out issue) Start the cuts keeping the stock tight to the outfeed table; this is going to be a hit and miss cut until you get the high spots off the stock piece. now before you complete the final cut look over the piece and if you have to spot remove any residual high spots to get as even as you can to the line. once you get this done make passes until you remove the line and you should be ready to turn the piece over to do the opposite side.

I feel that once you have one face done you will fly through the rest of the faces it really amounts to just working to a line

Joe

[jteneyck]

I guess I didn't present my ideas in a way you understood. I recommended you rough cut the arcs with your bandsaw and finish them on your router table, which you apparently did but had poor results. The solution there is to use a piloted spiral upcut bit, as Joe recommended.

The planer sled is for tapering the flat faces from 3" to 2", as an alternative to Joe's recommendation to use a jointer. With the jointer you don't have to build a sled, but requires more skill. A hand plane would be a distant third option for me.

John