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EWT parting tool

J

Jim Byrne

Joined
Feb 28, 2019
Messages
34
Likes
8
Location
Kingman, AZ
I am considering buying a EWT carbide parting tool.
Some of the reviews on Amazon claim the tips pop out easily & won't stay in,
others love it.
Could it be that they are pushing it into the work to hard & fast?
Do any of you have experience with this tool?
Are any other carbide parting tools better?

Thanks
 
I agree with John- I keep the grinder two steps from the lathe. I now have cut grinding time a bit by hitting the tool with a few strokes of a DMT diamond file. Sharpen at the lathe and save shoe soles.
 
I own one because it was the easiest way for me to turn various width flat bottom grooves in my bowls for decorative clay inlays. To answer your question, I've never had a tip pop out. I can't imagine how much stress is needed or what the tool was being used for to make that happen. I actually have no other parting tools right now since I don't really have much use for the tool besides cutting the grooves on my bowls.

As for sharpening, I have had some success just running a diamond hone over the lower outer edge and occasionally on the top side of the cutting edge.

While I won't argue at all with those who use exclusively HSS, I have found that, since I started out with all carbide and have added a number of HSS gouges and scrapers, I continue to use a combination of HSS and carbide tools depending what works best for me at the time.
 
Maybe that's why woodturners have a rack full of tools. Many tools, specific uses. My wife would disagree with my first sentence.
 
We all end up collecting lots of tools. And it’s nice to have them for special jobs.

But with a side ground bowl gouge, spindle gouge, and parting tool we turn any outside shape and hollow most bowls and boxes.
 
I got rid of mine because I mostly use a parting tool to get down to a specific diameter as set with calipers for duplicating. The carbide EW tip is way narrower than any standard calipers.
 
I have one, the tip used to pop out from time to time and I would use the tool it came with it to jam it back in. Eventually it stopped popping out on its own.
 
Thanks to all who replied.
EWT just emailed me in answer to my question to them "have you addressed the popping out problem".
They have modified the parting tool and are using a better steel to retain the tip.
 
Jim Byrne said:
I am considering buying a EWT carbide parting tool.
Some of the reviews on Amazon claim the tips pop out easily & won't stay in,
others love it.
Could it be that they are pushing it into the work to hard & fast?
Do any of you have experience with this tool?
Are any other carbide parting tools better?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I've never used the EWT parting tool, but I found this useful information on the EWT web site: EWT Parting Tool Instructions
There are some Do's and Dont's that looks like very important information that shouldn't be ignored. I can see how ignoring some of these could cause the cutter to pop out.
 
Tom Albrecht said:
I got rid of mine because I mostly use a parting tool to get down to a specific diameter as set with calipers for duplicating. The carbide EW tip is way narrower than any standard calipers.
Click to expand...
Tom - I've had the same problem, but found a bedan makes very quick work of sizing spindles.
I've never used a carbide parting tool, but the D-Way ultra-thin parting tool seems to do the job and sounds like it's like its similarly sized. Cutting sizing flats on spindles happens very quickly with a bevel up 3/8" bedan. Also works great for tenons.
 
Whether the EW tool is useful for you depends on what you use it for or mostly do. For me, on small bowls with inlaid polymer clay bands, it works great for cutting narrow grooves of 1/8" to 1/4" wide. I have also used to cut recesses in bowl bottoms finishing them off with a dovetail shaped tool to match my jaws. Very fast useful to me for these tasks.
 
Looks like a gadget tool to me. Never seen a professional turner use one. But that’s my two cents. Also in the do’s and donts from easy wood tools , there is to many limitations for such an expensive tool that a cheap parting tool can do more!
 
Maybe not a "universal tool" that works well for everything, but it works better that my other tools for some things that I do a lot of. I always figure that, when a tool works well for you, why not use it? That's the basis for most of my tools. They work for me and give me good results.
 
I remember when they tried to convince us that computers were going to save us so much time that we would be working 24 hours a week and enjoying 4-day weekends. Turns out we now spend 16 hours per week on hold talking to IT support trying to resolve the latest bugs in the latest update on your network or computer operating system on a regular basis. A lathe tool that requires a quick sharpening to bring it back to peek performance will always work when you need it, compared to a tool with special bits, clamps, set screws and wrenches which can easily come apart and be lost. Keep it simple. Now you know why many wood turners end up with a wall full of tools that hardly ever get used.
 
Not really sure what computers have to do with lathes and turning unless you're into CNC, which I'm not. I'm only convinced about tools when they work for me. Since this on works for me with just a small amount of time with a diamond hone once in awhile, it's not only easy but functional; for me. Whether it works for others or not, is not of any interest to me. I believe in trying new technology and tools when they appear to be something that works for me. No reason not to.

Also, computers aren't the answer to all our problems but, for some, they are; just like carbide insert tools - for some things they actually work well; not for others.
 
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