Tablesaw Snowflakes
I was searching the web a while back, thinking about what I should make for Christmas. I ended up stumbling across an article whereby you are able to make a large number of wooden snowflakes in one shot, made using almost entirely the table saw. You make what is almost like an extruded snowflake and then using the bandsaw cut them into snowflake slices. It certainly is an efficient way of making little wooden Christmas tree decorations which appear so delicate and intricate.
Recently I have found myself using google sketchup a lot, if not to design the entire project, but to give myself an indication of how things will go together, rather than hindering my creativity, I have found I am able to experiment with designs, without even making a mark on a piece of wood. On the left you can see the difference I was able to make the snowflake by introducing a second set of score cuts. If you like the version without the second set of cuts, you can leave them out when you make them. I also had the chance to play with different colored woods.
Here is a second version I designed where I enlarged the snowflake by 50% for people with larger Christmas trees. (There is a link to PDF’s for both at the bottom of the page)
I used the cross-cut sled to make most of the cuts, I could set a stop block up and all the diamonds were then cut to the same width. You could make a jig to do all of these cuts but I don’t think it was all that necessary. All of the cuts were made across the grain , this led to a fair bit of “chip out” but for the long to be visible once the snowflakes are cut into slices, this is how they should be cut.
Here is a look at how all the parts go together, this can be a very fidley glue up so I would recommend doing it in two stages. (more mentioned in the video)
I decided to hang these snowflakes using little eyelets, I made these myself using garden wire which makes them cheap! I simply glue one into the top of the snowflake using some five minute epoxy and I’m done. To make them yourself simply twist the garden wire 6-7 times around itself using a small pencil to form the loop.
