Woodworking Tips from Pop…

Hello World

Do cutting arches intimidate you? Maybe this post can help out.

The ability to cut a true circle or segment arch is a huge part of building custom interiors. Just about every other bar or built-in that we build will have some type of arch of one form or another.
Cutting arches used to be a very intimidating procedure for us until a few years ago when we discovered the right way and the easy way to cut an arch. I’ll be honest with you (We Cheat). I use a construction calculator to find the radius and then it’s all about just learning to make the jig to cut it out. The construction calculator is the ticket, we used to full around with string lines and I would talk to these math gurus about finding the radius and they would lose me in about the first 5 seconds of the conversation. Then one day Pop showed up with an $80 calculator that change my life. I’ll admit it takes a few minutes (120) to figure out how it works, but once I did its second nature now.

Figuring out how to cut an arch goes like this, you have three variables to deal with. The run, the rise, and the radius. The run is the horizontal measurement, the rise is the vertical measurement and the radius is the point from the center to the outside of the arch.

Here’s a simple example: A 24″ circle has a 12″ radius. The radius is always half of the circle. The tough part is we rarely have an arch that is this simple. Most of the time, we’re dealing with a segmental arch which can be a lot more confusing. The segment arch is only one part of the true circle and the circle can be broken into countless parts. This is where the construction calculator comes in handy. First you would need to find the run measurement, then the rise and then punch those measurements into the calculator and watch as it coverts your input to the radius. It’s awesome! Finding the radius has never been so simple.

These are just two of the various types of arches we are accustomed to working with. There is also the elliptical arch, Tudor arch, Gothic arch and several more that we have yet to experience. I am by no means an arch expert; these are just techniques that have work for us in the past. In my next post about arches I’ll discuss how we use a router to cut arches.

 Here are a few photos of jobs we have done with arches