4 Points from 1 Block

scdiveteam · 2012-02-22T17:29:08+00:00

Hi, On a recent thread Dick mentioned he got 4 points from 1 piece of 3/4" point stock. As fate had it my first task in the shop this morning was to cut points for "The Civil War Art Cue". I just finished the job and documented it with my camera to share this cost saving method with my fellow CMs. This is the trick that the point stock sellers and veneer vendors don't want you to know, LOL. When you figure how much money you save it is a no brainer. I build 5 point cues for 90% of what comes out of my shop and using this method I usually make 3 blocks with 4 veneers and I get 2 cues and 2 extra points or 4 blocks and get 3 cues with 1 extra point. The Civil War Art Cues I am building this week only has 4 points but you will see 2 blocks in the pics. As a point of clarification as not to confuse, the reason there is 2 points shown is because one has yellow-gray-yellow and on has yellow-blue-yellow which depicts the colors of the uniforms of the north and south. I am building two "Civil War Cues" and each will have 2 points for the north and 2 points for the south. So the veneered points shown here are to make 2 cues. Here is a step by step description with pics. Because you are using all four corners, you should use a jointer to hold the right angles perfect for the best results. If anyone has any questions, give me a call @ 847 641-0276 from 10 am to late at night CST. Good Cue Making, Rick The only jigs you need are very simple to make. 45 degree V groove and glue some 220 sand paper in the grooves so it holds the piece nice while band sawing. Notice that you must cut one shorter on the left side to clear the saw when finishing the cut. ( This will be seen in other detailed pics. ) The cut line is 5/8" on one side and 3/16" on the point side. Mount the stock in the V Jigs and cut the line with the band saw. This line will not be straight with the table as you must hold a slight angle to accommodate a straight line that you penciled in on the stock. Once you have cut about 4" of line, turn off the saw and move one v block on the backside of the blade for stability. Keep the cut off V Jig on the business side of the saw so you can carefully make that end of the cut accurate and stable as the blade cuts through. Now spin the piece 180 on the A axis and cut another point with the fat side on the same end. This will leave you with a wedge shaped object with 2 flat sides. Shown here is to 2 pieces cut off and the remaining stock. Notice how the piece lays flat on the table with a flat side also facing up. Now just lay it on the bandsaw bed without any v jig and cut the line that is just outside the last veneer. Flip it over and do the other side. Wa La. The total time to lay this out and make 4 cuts was about 10 minutes and I save about $ 30.00 per cue doing it this way in veneers and points. Since this was only 3 veneers I save about 24.00. Not to mention a little time saving in labor. In the long run, it all adds up. Here is the end product. 4 nice points ready to be glued into the forearm. After cutting the points off, notice how much stock is still there. Nice colored door stops! :clapping: The end product, ready for glue up.