I've got my frames turned and the glass cut. Now I've moved on (or tried) to interior board. I want to mount the quarters on a  small piece of maple slightly larger than the quarter and countersunk to hold the coin. I also want this to be face grain for the coins. To keep with the turning part of this I wanted those pieces to be about 1/4"-3/8" thick, and about 1 1/2" wide. My first approach to this hasn't worked so well. I glued some maple squares together to make a stack, thinking I would turn the stack round, and then slice wafers off on my table saw. The turning part has me stumped at the moment. The pick shows one of the glued stacks I started with. Then you see a (sortof) rounded on with huge chip outs in it. Getting it to this point of being round was pretty tough. I tried a 3/8" bowl gouge and was having a lot of catches and just being very hard to turn. I switched to a carbide roghing tool and fared better, at least in getting the corners knocked off. The I went back to the bowl gouge and got to the point it is now, but with those huge chip outs. Is there another way of doing this? Do I need a different gouge? Maybe I should figure on using square mount blocks for the coins.

I would make a jig (of course I would ). A block of wood that has a 45 degree V cut from it. Lay the glued pieces into the groove. The corners should extend past the jig, Run the jig/glued blocks thru the bandsaw or table saw to knock off the corners along the length.

I'll find a video

https://www.instructables.com/Easiest-way-to-make-octagons-for-wood-turning-NO-/

 

This works too but I don't like tilting my saw blade.

 

Something like this

 

This creates an octagon and will have less catches.

Fancy one I made for pepper grinders and salt cellars

 

So you think my problem is more with the corners not being knocked off? I had considered that, but figured on a 1 1/2" piece it wouldn't be a problem.

8 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

So you think my problem is more with the corners not being knocked off? I had considered that, but figured on a 1 1/2" piece it wouldn't be a problem.

Yes, I think the sharp corners are doing it. With the pieces oriented so that the "end grain" is on the "sides" the chance of chipping/tearing is enhanced during the spindle turning orientation. Knocking off the larger corners should reduce the amount of end grain surface for catches.

 

Also, instead of the roughing gouge, maybe a spindle gouge would be less aggressive. or the carbide finisher

I was never using a roughing gouge, having been told that's bad juju on this grain orientation. But I'll knock the corners off my next blank, and try the carbide finisher and a spindle gouge.

3 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I was never using a roughing gouge

Sorry. I mis-read the original post. My bad 

I did just try the next blank I had and knocking the corners off made a really big difference. I'm still having some tear out, but nothing like it was before. Thanks!

What rpms are you turning at?

A little over 1100 RPM.

That should be OK. You might try a little faster to see if that works any better. But, do what ever you feel safe at.

Lew is giving good advice.  Taking small bites while knocking off the corners is a good idea too.

Number one you have a glue up of apparent soft woods. This means when you turn it is like turning a bowl.......cut end grain......cut long grain....  and repeat. These cuts are hard enough to do ordinarily a little at a time . When these cuts are made on a bowl you are approaching from an angle on the side. In order for this to work you have to take small cuts. Might be easier to do with hard wood. Now for a question Is there a reason you are using a glue up instead of spindle stock?

Gerald, that billet is hard maple....very hard maple. The reason I did it that way is to have the face grain for the wafers I'm trying to cut instead of end grain. I like the look of the face grain better, plus I think it's less likely to split over time. I need 40 of these wafers, and that glued up billet gets me 12 or so. Turns out that cutting it up into wafers is a little tricky as well. I could do this with a hole saw and then clean it up, but I'm trying to keep working on the lathe. Using a hole saw would leave that big hole in the middle, but that would be covered with the quarter once it's mounted. Here's a mock up of what I hope to put together. You can see one quarter laying on a wafer at the top.

Edited May 23, 20251 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

Lew, I went up to 1500 RPM and that seemed to help some more, so now I'm gluing up the remaining billets I need. I also tried cutting them on the band saw. The table saw left a very smooth cut but got the wafer spinning so fast it ran off the outfeed; I couldn't even find some of them, they went in all directions. On the bandsaw the surface is much rougher but they didn't run away.

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

1500 RPM and that seemed to help some more

 

Sometimes faster is better- if you feel safe doing it.

7 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

On the bandsaw the surface is much rougher but they didn't run away.

 

My jig is for bandsaw as well.  More control, I do use a 3/4 blade though.  

OK Lew, I glued up some more billets and was just now able to turn one. Knocking the corners off and using 1500 rpm with a bowl gouge I got one turned with absolutely no tear out and a very nice finish. I have a couple of more to do, I'm making those wafers slightly larger after seeing how the first batch looked. Thanks for the help!