I was contacted by two friends who had landed the job of
replacing a rather grand entrance to a handful of homes.
Their problem was that while they could manage most of the
joinery they could not replicate the finials atop the 8
pillars.
General description
The original posts were made of oak and so I used the
good parts of the existing posts to make the finials.
The timber was cut to size and the bottom routed. Two
jigs were designed and made to be mounted on the cross slide
of the lathe.
A fly cutter set between centres was used to cut the
bottom section of the finials (8 finials x 4 = 32 faces).
The second jig was installed, the radius of the fly
cutter extended and the upper part of the
finials were machined.
Click each photo for a larger image
Photo 1 above left: Machining the finials on the
lathe!
Photo 2 above center: Completed finial in position prior to painting. The
variations in colour are due to the oak formerly being a
gatepost and some 80- years old
Photo 3 above right: Completed and painted
finial.
