Woodworking terminology question

[fivemack]

To make a dodecahedron, I would like some pieces of wood with a cross-section like the diagram below



but at the moment my pieces of wood are all of square cross-section. What's the name of the device which could cut such a profile, and does anyone know where to find one in Cambridge? You're looking at plane sides, so a plane comes to mind, but I don't know how you'd hold the wood to plane one corner off to a weird angle.

This is a long-term problem; I discovered on Wednesday night that I can't cut 45-degree mitres in square-section wood accurate to better than a quarter-inch, mostly out of a shortage of clamps and an initial failure to lock all the locking nuts on the mitre saw.

Comments

[scat0324.livejournal.com]

For mass production, I think you'd want a milling machine, as used to create wooden mouldings. In Oxford, I'd try the local timber merchants, and a quick bit of browsing finds me Ridgeons (http://www.ridgeons.com/start/timber_services_frameset/ridgeons_frameset_specmill.html) who look like they'd be able to do something for you. At a price!

I also suspect the price would be too much, so I'd be looking at a creating a jig that would allow me to do this myself - or rather, coming up with something that allowed Dad and me to do this on his router table.

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

That diagram looks suspiciously like a puzzle from The Crystal Maze.

(S)

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

If I had to do that, assuming you want pieces coming out of something bigger than 1"x1" and smaller than 4"x4", I'd do it in three passes on the tablesaw. Smaller than that, I'd build a jig on the router table. Bigger than that, find somebody who does custom millwork.

[scat0324.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, forgot the tablesaw, and in fact, Dad's bandsaw has a tilting base, so that would also be a possibility. fivemack, these are all pretty standard tools for anyone doing any woodwork, so finding someone for whom that is a hobby is probably a good choice.