Watch strap

[Keithie]

I'm slowly getting up to speed with lathe and bandsaw work and was pointed towards an interesting YT video on how to set up my bandsaw by Alex Snodgrass ..extremely helpful. I have a small scroll saw (draper) which works fine and I use a #4 wax spiral blade in it (or sometimes a vallorbe 6/0) ..but my skill level is best described as low (or worse!).

A thread in general chat here made me wonder if it's possible to make a flexible watch strap from wood. At around 31mins onwards in the YT video, Snodgrass shows how to make a flexi snake from wood ..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wGbZqWac0jU

So it made me wonder if a similar technique could be used on a scroll saw for a flexi watch strap

I guess I was wondering if anyone has done /tried this and what the likelihood of success is ..along with the likely skill level required ..possibly not a novice project ?

 

[novocaine]

totally a novice project. give it a go.

tight grained wood is a must though, maybe beech or birch as a starter but something fairly exotic could work.

 

[MattRoberts]

FYI - this is the one I linked to (close up on the strap)

It's a pretty precise piece of engineering...

 

[Keithie]

Pretty cool

Do you reckon the strap sections are held together with metal pins or are the joints likely to be wood (like mini dowel rods or something more complex) ?

 

[MattRoberts]

They're metal pins, but the links are separate pieces of wood, so the pins are somehow stopping the two side pieces from rotating independently of each other

 

[Claymore]

Great idea! I`m going to make a wrist sun dial out of some lovely Walnut I have stashed away for something special 9-)

Brian

 

[NazNomad]

Great idea! I`m going to make a wrist sun dial out of some lovely Walnut I have stashed away for something special 9-)

Next you'll be wanting one of those posh ones with a built-in abacus.

 

[AES]

Blimey, talk about "innovative"!

Let's see it when it's finished please.

AES

 

[novocaine]

the hole in the outer pin is an interference fit on the pin, the hole in the middle isn't. or in english, small hole on outer plate, big hole on inner.

you'll be wanting to make up some sanding guides. or better yet, leave the stock long and use a molding plane (which is how I think they've done it, and the reason they did it the way they did)