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Coring system

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Big question, does anybody on here have or have used the Wood Coring system made in New Zealand? Also has anyone purchased from Packard Wood Works in Tyron NC (USA)

Thanks
 
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Are you asking about the McNaughton system which I think is manufactured in New Zealand. I have it but I don't really recommend it. Some swear by it as the only way to go. You will need a lathe that has about 2 hp motor and I have to say it requires a long learning period. This system has been discussed on this forum pretty extensively a few months ago. Try search.
 
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No it is called Woodcut Bowl saver. Made by Woodcut company out of NZ. I have the original style of Mc Naughton and do not like it at all.
 
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Packard is 1st rate. I have the Woodcut Bowl Saver Max3 on order and i'm waiting for a shipment of them to come in. My wife ordered one for me last August for my birthday, but manufacturing issues by one of Woodcut's suppliers seriously set back production. I'm told that a shipment is due in February;) A friend of mine let me try his to core a 15" cherry burl and it is very easy to use. I hate wasting good wood and the coring system will help me stop creating massive piles of shavings and chips.
 
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Brad Packard is a good person to deal with. Two of the coring systems, the Oneway Canada) and the Woodcut (NZ) are on pivoting centers. This makes them simple to use, almost idiot proof. The McNaughton (Australia) is a free hand system. Any one who has used it swears at it. Any one who knows how to use it swears by it. There is a learning curve, and it really helps to have some one walk you through a few times with it. I can remove a core from a 14 inch bowl with the McNaughton in the time it takes me to set up the Oneway. The advantage of the Oneway over the Woodcut is more blades, and it is rock solid all the way out to the full reach of the biggest blade. I haven't used the big blade on the Woodcut. It isn't as heavy duty as the Oneway, but takes less set up time. With the Oneway, you have to remove the cutter tip from the blade to sharpen it, which I consider a pain. You sharpen the top surface, which I don't like because the coring systems are scrapers, and in most cases you want a burr, not a polished or honed surface. With the McNaughton and Woodcut, you replace the blades when the cutting tips are sharpened off.

robo hippy
 
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No it is called Woodcut Bowl saver. Made by Woodcut company out of NZ. I have the original style of Mc Naughton and do not like it at all.
Bill I have and have used the woodcut bowl saver for years, not the newest larger size version that costs $500.+. The wood cut is an easy to use low learning curve type bowl coring device. It will give you a consistent sized core. The largest core I would get was a 13" diameter x 3" provided you snap about a 1-1/2 tenon that is left. straight grain wood no problem. The depth of the largest core would limit the price I could get from it. I only cored from the smaller blade a few times but they worked well. I have since gone to the one way easy core system because I can get more money bowls. If you are not worried about deeper cores it is a great system. I prefer Packard to most companies they are a class act to me. Their shipping may cost a little more than some but your order comes quicker by far than others.
 

Bill Boehme

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The McNaughton (Australia) is a free hand system. Any one who has used it swears at it.....

Don't blame Australia ... the blame goes to New Zealand. :D

I'm still in the swearing at it stage of learning, but ain't no horse can't be rode; ain't no cowboy can't be throwed. So far, it's been mostly the latter. But, I've got all twenty claws dug in.
 
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I have all 3 systems and ease of use for me is 1) Woodcut Bowl Saver 2) followed very closely by the Oneway system and 3) the McNaughton. The McNaughton has long been offered as being the most capable of multiple corings but the hardest to learn. A turner who's work I admire is putting something out that will show that the Oneway is a very versatile system too. I borrowed the new Woodcut (I own the one with two cutters) with three cutters and without knowing it used a piece of Ash that had to be 50% concrete. It was scary but the Woodcut got through it and I would flat guarantee that the McNaughton would have at the very least bent the cutting bar. The Oneway is the one I use the most.
 
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I have the WoodCut Bowl Saver Max 3 and purchased it from Packard Woodworks. They are great to deal with and Allen, then owner is a coring expert. He was very helpful to me, and everything I've ever ordered from Packard has had excellent customer service.

With the Woodcut Max 3 you can core up to 18" diameter, and go down to about 4" I think. I participated in a demo with a couple other turners back in October, where we demonstrated the McNaughton, the Oneway and the WoodCut.

Of the three, my observation is the same as Bill's above.....the Woodcut is easiest, and you get similar results with the Oneway. It has a support arm that goes into the kerf of the cut underneath the blade and as the cut progresses, one has to move the support arm, so adjustment on bigger bowls is almost a must. The oneway has a second post support that has to be mounted on the ways of the bed, and tightened down with a couple of bolts.

The woodcut Max 3 has a platform with a morse taper to fit into the tailstock for support, and fits into the banjo post for stability. The McNaughton relies on the gate for the blade and the turner seems to have to exert more energy with pushing down against the force of the rotation to keep the cutter in plane with the center..........for me, if I had to use the McNaughton on a regular basis, I probably wouldn't core....my shoulders ached after the times I have tried it.
 
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Roger, your comments about getting sore show that you haven't learned one of the secrets to using the McNaughton. You do not push down on the handle at all. The blade rests, under cutting pressure (which is down) up against the top of the gate or the older T bracket, that does all the work of keeping the cutter at proper height. If there was no top support from the bracket, even I would not use this system. Mike Mahoney cuts his handles in half. There are a number of demonstrators who show finger tip control. Our natural turning instinct wants us to hold the handle down. I think another problem that a lot of turners have with it is setting it too low. Just lifting the handle, with the largest blade to get your tip to center cutting height does not account for the load you get when the tip is cutting wood.

I have considered making my own blades. Primary reason is that the curves of the blade are fine except for the last 1 to 1 1/2 inch, which is the hardest part to bend. The tips tend to go straight rather than follow the perfect curve/arc of a circle. This makes the blade drift to the outside of the cut and kerf. Not much of a problem with small cores, but a considerable problem with deeper cores. Most of the time you have to widen the kerf to account for drift.

robo hippy
 
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how well do these various systems work for coring natural edge bowls? I've always thought I would end up with the McNaughton... mostly because I have always liked the work of Mike Mahoney and he seems to be a proponent of this system. That said, the Oneway system sure seems easy to use. Just curious about experiences with the various coring systems and natural edge bowls.
 

Bill Boehme

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Roger, I think that you need to watch the Dale Bonertz video on using the McNaughton Bowl Saver. You shouldn't be pushing down -- just the opposite, lift up on the handle so that it remains in contact with the trap. Make sure that the cutter is at or slightly above center and check the cutter to see if it is sharp and has a good bur. Make sure that the kerf is clear so that the shavings are being ejected and not jamming up.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mS2yIb0HAU4
 

Bill Boehme

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how well do these various systems work for coring natural edge bowls? I've always thought I would end up with the McNaughton... mostly because I have always liked the work of Mike Mahoney and he seems to be a proponent of this system. That said, the Oneway system sure seems easy to use. Just curious about experiences with the various coring systems and natural edge bowls.

Mike Mahoney has cored a few thousand bowls. I can count the number that I have done so far on two fingers. My complaint about the newer blades is the lack of quality control. I had to do a lot of work with a file and sandpaper to clean up the rough edges.
 
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We have a New Zeeland member on the Canadian woodworkers forum, who has and uses the smaller Woodcut bowl saver and after some modifications is happy with the set that he was given by someone that was Not so happy with it ;), I got at picture of the improvements he needed to do in order to use it.

The other thing with the complaining of having to remove the cutting tip on the Oneway bars, how do you sharpen the others where you can not remove the tip, holding the long bars agains the grinder ??, one should be able to hone the Oneway’s cutter ?? no ?.

And yes you don’t need to buy another Oneway bar if the tip is worn away, as what you need to do with the other systems, really keep things equal if criticizing the systems.

There is also no Video needed to teach one on how to use the Oneway system, where there are several to try teaching the McNaughton system, and then have numerous turners with unused systems stuck in the corner of their shop because they are unable to use them.

All curved bars make a curved slot cutting the wood, names do not change this.

Also Oneway now has Carbide tips for their easy core system, should stay sharp longer I assume :)

woodcut coring.jpg Oneway cutting tip Oneway cutting tip.jpg
 
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An interesting point on the Oneway tips, out of curiosity, I had them send me a hardened tip where the breaker point hadn't been ground onto it, so it was long and square on the end. I ground the sides down a bit, tapering them towards the back so they fit in the kerf better. That tip cuts far better than their pointed tip, and you don't have to take it off to grind it. I will have it in Portland for the Symposium so they can try it out. I talked to them last year in KC, and they said it makes the cutter drift to the outside of the cut/kerf where the point keeps it centered. I don't agree with that at all....

robo hippy
 
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Bill, I misspoke on the earlier post........I meant lift, as that is what that gate does as it allows the pressure to be against the top of the gate. Reed mentioned it. My personal use of the McNaughton was at a friends house, and though it was at the coring demo, I did not operate it, so it had been several months since my test drive on the McNaughton.

Even at that, I still prefer the Oneway Easy Core or the Woodcut......that lifting does bother my shoulders, and that is the part I remembered, [the shoulder pain, not the direction of the pressure put on the knife ] but it may be that once I got used to using it, the particular shoulder muscles involved might get into shape to use it. I didn't mean to mislead anyone with my statement before, so I am correcting it. Sorry I misspoke :(
 

Bill Boehme

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Bill, I misspoke on the earlier post........I meant lift, as that is what that gate does as it allows the pressure to be against the top of the gate. Reed mentioned it. My personal use of the McNaughton was at a friends house, and though it was at the coring demo, I did not operate it, so it had been several months since my test drive on the McNaughton.

Even at that, I still prefer the Oneway Easy Core or the Woodcut......that lifting does bother my shoulders, and that is the part I remembered, [the shoulder pain, not the direction of the pressure put on the knife ] but it may be that once I got used to using it, the particular shoulder muscles involved might get into shape to use it. I didn't mean to mislead anyone with my statement before, so I am correcting it. Sorry I misspoke :(

I can relate to shoulder problems. Something happened and suddenly one day I coulldn't raise my right arm. It was probably the cumulative result of abusing my right shoulder by lifting heavy things like large logs that I shouldn't have lifted. The first surgery didn't solve the problem so I had to go through the whole process again. Fortunately, things went fine the second time around. All this put me out of turning for well over a year. I won't mention the back surgery that I also had during all this. A friend has both the Oneway and the McNaughton coring systems. I could tell that the Oneway was built like a tank and is very easy to use. But, I'm a glutton for punishment. :D And stubborn. :)
 
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