Column Base Project

Each part begins life as a big ol’ rough-cut board.

After milling and cutting to length…

the boards are ready to be glued into “blanks.”

A stack of blanks, ready for shaping.

This is the vacuum fixture which holds the blanks during routing. The black lines are vacuum gaskets. The left side will hold the large base blanks and the right side will hold the small base blanks. Due to the size, there is 1000 lbs. or more of downforce on the large blanks from the vacuum.

A blank on the fixture, ready for shaping.

The first cuts just hog away material, roughly shaping the part.

The curved surface has been roughed out and the part is now being reduced to the proper thickness.

When roughing is complete, the alignment holes are added.

The curved surface is now being smoothed with a finishing pass.

The finishing pass has completed, smoothing the curved surface. Some light sanding will remove the small cusps that are left.

The completed part, still on the machine. The whole process generates LOTS of sawdust.

The completed part after removing the waste and sawdust.

A stack of completed parts, ready for sanding and sealing.