bowl saver

[ebrannon]

A quick question before the symposium.

Still new to turning, but very addicted to this hobby after 1 year.

I am considering buying a tool, or a bowl saver set up, for use on bowls 10-16" in diameter. Anyone have any recommendations? A few members of my club said they do not bother with them because it takes more time than it is worth, but I hate to spend so much time just turning the insides into trash can full of shavings.

Also interested in know what is the best tool for roughing the outside of larger irregular shaped hunks of wood. I do not have a large band saw, and use my chain saw to rough shape the piece before I mount it for turning. Sometimes I do not get it very round, and it takes some work to knock it into shape. I have both and EZ rougher and 1/2" bowl gouges, but both take a beating.

 

[robo hippy]

Woodcut Bowl saver, largest core it can take is about 11 inches. Rather small.

Oneway coring system, the most expensive. Very easy to use. Very stable, especially for the larger bowls.

McNaughton, most diverse, fastest to set up and use, but it has a learning curve. There was a long discussion about it on Woodcentral a week or so ago. Unlike the other systems, you free hand it rather than it being on a pivoting center. I prefer it to the others.

If you turn a lot of bowls, like 50 to 100 per year and sell them, a coring system will pay for itself with about 2 to 3 sets of bowls. Most of the time, they sell individually for me, rather than in sets, but I do mostly utility bowls. The main time savings is in turning the core. You already have the bottom shaped. It is faster than turning out the inside of the bowl. I do turn green to final thickness, so I finish turn them. If you search this and other forums, I have commented on them a lot over the years.

robo hippy

 

[Joe Greiner]

For trimming irregular shapes that are still unbalanced, or still too irregular, I use a Lancelot cutter in a right-angle grinder. I don't have a spindle lock, and even if I did, I wouldn't want to subject it to such punishment. So I lock the piece on the lathe with two opposing wedges against the bed. Release and test for drift until balanced. On occasion, I've followed that step with the same tool, but with the piece turned by an auxiliary rotisserie drive on the lathe - about 5 rpm.

Lancelot: http://www.katools.com/

Also available from Grizzly ( http://www.grizzlyindustrial.com/ ); search for [lancelot].

 

[David Wilkins]

Robo Hippy has a video out on the mcnaughton, I wrote an article for woodturnng design, it is in last falls issue on the three available systems. Before I made a recommendation, what kind of lathe do you have? I assume your working with wet blanks, not kiln dried material?

From what information you have provided a bandsaw might be a better purchase, but if your like me, you will end up with both.

 

[john lucas]

Most of my wood is free so I don't worry about it. I can hollow a bowl faster than I can take out a core. The expensive wood I buy is usually too small to core.
coring systems aren't cheap. I bought one this fall for a special order deal for a customer so it paid for itself. I started making my own cutters but have not had the time to spend getting past the learning curve on the McNaughton system. I will spend some time after the symposium but I really don't see using it a lot. Mostly because I don't turn a lot of bowls. The ones I do turn that sell well are 12" or smaller, the wood is usually free and it's simply not worth the hassel of pulling the tool out.

 

[Chris Stolicky]

With a little searching you can find quite a bit of info and opinions on coring systems.

As was said above:
Oneway - very easy, stable, most expensive, more limiting shape
McNaughton - middle priced, large learning curve, most versatile
Bowl saver - less expensive, smaller capability, easy to use, optional laser guide (I think), limiting shape

Personally I decided to start buying into the Oneway system. I bought most of what I have on sale over time. I have a 16" swing and have the two smaller knives. I have, so far, been able to core four bowls from a piece of wood, and that is utilizing the 10% thickness rule for wet wood. I haven't tried near final thickness corning.

I work full time and have other distractions in life, so for the time I get to turn, and some of the more nicer wood I have gotten, it was worth it to me. I also do not have a lot of room for storage of lots of raw wood. If I had a lot of time I may have considered the McNaughton, simply because it is more versatile, and cost less. However, I have heard and read that you need to get video floating around out there about the system and be very patient in learning.

Oh, I do like how the Oneway system allows for the use of the tail stock for support. I have not seen it used for support with the other systems. Think safety.

 

[ebrannon]

This is helpful, and here is some more information:

I have a NOVA DVR XP bench mounted and bolted to the wall. I bought it used , built my own bench, and been adding to my tool arsenal every since. (first lathe, which I still have is a Jet Mini).

I mostly use green wood that I collect, and mostly work on bowls or other bowl like objects.

Small pieces are not a problem, but a big hunk of chainsaw rough shaped wood can be a challenge to bring into balance on the DVR. I probably need to learn some tricks.

To summarize, I would want to think about coring out larger (10-16" max) bowls.

Looking ahead to the future, I see a big lathe in my dreams. Not sure what one, and would need to convince my wife that this actually "an investment" not an expense since she looks at my shop as equal to a 2 week trip to Italy.

Ed

 

[robo hippy]

As to using the tailstock, I never use it. You do have to use it with the Woodcut system (they do have a laser pointer), you can use it on the McNaughton with some of the blades, and I don't remember with the Oneway, but it seemed that the handle would be in the way.

If you have a lathe with a pivoting headstock, the McNaughton is the only one that can be used if the headstock is pivoted.

robo hippy

 

[John Jordan]

Maybe a small hijack here, but I have a practically unused old style McNaughton System that I threw in the van to take to the symposium. I'm having a little yard sale at my booth. I also have two Glaser hollowing tools (rare) and the shielded cutter system from NZ that Harry Memelink made-the name escapes me.

Come see me if you are there.

John

 

[David Wilkins]

I have a dvr xp also. I would comfortably suggest the mcnaughton, for a couple of reasons. It will still be fully functional with another larger lathe, it will do a decent range of shapes and sizes (the standard set fits your described range) If John has an old version I wouldn't hesitate and I would be interested to see if it is like my old one. There are two comprehensive videos for instructional use, robo hippy's and one by Mike Mahoney, get one.

 

[robo hippy]

I don't know which of the 'Old' system John has. If it has the spear point blades, where the cutter is centered on the blade, get it. If it is the old 'Old' system with the cutter on one side of the blade, I wouldn't bother. It does work, but the spear point is far better, and easier to use.

robo hippy

 

[nicktodd]

another two cents

If you can get by the learning curve, my suggestion would be for the McNaughton system and start out with the small & medium knives.

I usually don't start with a shape or object in mind when I mount chuck of wood on the lathe. I typically true the piece as large possoble and then deternine on what I am going to turn. With the smaller knives sets, I'll core tea lights or bases out bowl blanks saving alot of time, would and clean up. I'll also use the straight knives between centers(making sure there is plenty of clearance).