If you seek to improve your mind during these trying times, Ed Sutton at FirstLightWorks has an excellent diversion for you: a free downloadable sector and instruction sheet.
(You might know FirstLightWorks as the manufacturers of the Bevel Monkey, Big Protractor and the Laser-cut Templates for our armchair.)
To get started, click here to visit the page at FirstLightWorks where you can download the plan for the sector and the instructions. Then you just have to print it out, cut it out, assemble it and take it for a spin.
— Christopher Schwarz
That’s a great idea! Thanks!
I am on it. this will be fun
Great, thank you!, I will make one this week.
Merci !
I would love to build a version like Brendan’s, but I don’t know how to locate and cut the lines and letters nicely without a laser or CNC. Has anyone published a “dummies” version of how to construct the line of polygons, or the line of chords and line of tangents?
The instruction sheet I provided on the download gives an explanation of the underlying geometry, which should get you most of the way to understanding how to set out the various lines. Jim Tolpin & George Walker also have some good material online that might help.
In short, no. Jim and George describe the underlying principles, but they aren’t exactly “how to’s” on making your own sector in any scale. I keep meaning to put all my notes down in writing, but alas, baskets, chairs, the Krenov biography and a worldwide pandemic have conspired against my doing so. It’s worth noting, we mark and etch them by hand in the class, and it’s quite accurate, and when I made them, I did the same, though I used a template (but it was just very carefully drilled, accurate to a few thou or so). A CNC or a laser are not prerequisites.
I was lucky enough to be able to buy a hard-copy (as it were) FirstLightWorks sector from their stand at the London IWF last fall, and had been planning to start practicing its use with the help of the copy of “By Hound & Eye” that I received last week … so this was a nice, further nudge in that direction!
Has anyone printed this on letter? Does it work well? I will print it tonight if nobody chimes in first…
I wish I had some heavy cardstock for this, or a laser cutter!
I ended up printing it on letter sized paper and using a brass paper fastener (1″) from staples — it works really well! I kind of goofed the circle you need to cut though — not sure if there’s a better way than to just stab it with an awl…
But it’s great — I can’t wait to turn this into a wooden version! 😀
I’m part way through By Hand & Eye and will definitely be laser cutting one of these in clear 3mm acrylic with colour infill. By coincidence, in the past couple of weeks I’ve been laser cutting a few other types of woodturners’ specialty measuring gauges so this will be a great compliment to my collection. Thanks so much for this!