What it does
Never really satisfied with hand cut Barley Twist style features. Tried lots of cutting tools and methods but none worked that well, so I came up with this! A Barley twist cutting machine.
It cuts using a router wood held in the wood lathe chuck as it is rotated slowly. Adding or removing an extra gear reverses the cut so you can have left and right hand barley twists.
The Gearing determines the cut pitch and the shape of the cut is controlled by the router bit shape and depth of cut.
How it works
The wood stock ideally needs to be round and of the correct size to fit the currently fitted sleigh that supports the router. The router is moved to the start position using the crank without the ‘R’ clip fitted, the ‘R’ clip engages the gears to rotate the wood stock.
Once the router is in position a provisional cut is made noting the position of the main gear behind the chuck. Inserting the ‘R’ pin and cranking the handle with the router running crates a cut along the wood. Once you have made the first cut mark the cut depth with the router depth stops and lift the router. Remove the ‘R’ clip and wind the router back to the start position stop. Disengaging the drive gear allows turning of the work piece to a position for the next cut.
Repeat the process for each run adjusting depth of the router bit.
Easy, if you didn’t follow that here is a video to confuse you more.