VW Logo Blank #7: Fitting the Outer Ring Blanks

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This is part 7 in a 8 part series: VW Logo Blank

  1. Design and Material Prep
...
  1. Outer Ring Blanks
  2. Fitting the Outer Ring Blanks
  3. Final Turning

 I had put steps on each side of the outer ring blanks. These steps were to be used to have a reference surface parallel to the trough axis. But after I had to sand the trough to a constant radius I was no longer sure that the trough radius was parallel to my steps. 
 
I used my tall fence and the core to cut a new edge parallel to the cylinder.

 
Referring to the picture below, the goal for fitting these pieces is to have a feather edge on the left and the top surface match the top of the feather edge.

 
I do this by running the pieces through the thickness sander to a trial thickness and then trimming the left side to a feather edge. I ended up removing too much material and had to add back a shim. You can see that in the detail below.

 
After I removed too much material I was much more cautious. I finally got a good fit – on one end.

 
This is when I found out that after all my effort to create a constant cylinder I still was off. You can see the gap on the other end.

 
So I had to SLOWLY trim a taper to each piece. I used layers of tape to sneak up on the correct taper. When I got close I started to check my fit after increasing the taper on each piece.

 
If I remember right, it took me 12 test fits to get to a match.

Then I could move on to the glue up. The clamp up was a challenge. I had to clamp across the faces on each end of each blank as well as clamping the blank to the core.

 
In all, I think I used 39 clamps.



 
Now I can move on to the final turning. 
Apologies to the early readers of this part. I found out that several of the pictures did not load. I had to try 3 times before they all uploaded.
WOW..I think you have more clamps than Ducky!!!

Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day

I doubt that! I did use all of my 6, 12, 18, and 24 inch clamps as well as some of the 30 inch ones. The clamp rack looked pretty bare.