What is the minimum thickness of a blank for successful coring with the McNaughton unit?
-
July 2025 Turning Challenge: Turn a Multi-axis Weed Pot! (click here for details) -
Congratulations to James Seyfried for "NE Red Oak II" being selected as Turning of the Week for July 21, 2025 (click here for details) -
Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.
Size Matters
- Thread starter cwearing
- Start date
john lucas
AAW Forum Expert
Depends on the shape you want. If you use the straight tool and go in at a shallow V cut in theory you could probably core a 1" piece. All the cutters except the straight one are parts of a circle so you should be able to simply draw arcs and see. If you want say a cereal bowl shape then the arc created by that cutter + the thickness of the cutter and how accurate you can set the tool up will determine the thickness (or thinness) of the blank.
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2004
- Messages
- 9,240
- Likes
- 5,899
- Location
- Lakeland, Florida
- Website
- www.hockenberywoodturning.com
It is a function of skill, diameter, and usefulness of the core.
With the straight tool you can cut off a 1/4-1/8" thick piece, have a 1/4" kerf, leave a 1/4-1/8" piece on the chuck.
A 3/4" piece could be cut in half with the straight tool.
Easy way to figure what you could get is draw a picture.
If you can cut the line that is your answer.
Just be a little generous on the kerf unless you are close to mike mahoney's skill
Have fun,
Al
For utility bowls, I won't take a core less than 8 inch diameter and 3 inch deep. Too much work, and not enough return, plus I end up with a lot of very small bowls that sit around. For the Mahoney type stacked sets, he goes down to tiny 2 inch diameter pieces some times, but these are high priced burl pieces and you want to use every scrap. So, I guess the answer is 'it depends'. You can turn a cylinder and part off plate blanks, or shallow platter blanks, but I find it easier, or maybe more efficient to cut the pieces out from stock. Having a bandsaw that cuts 16 inches high really helps that part.
robo hippy
robo hippy
If you have a stunning or really pricy piece of wood take chances. But ere on the high side of the bottom. In Koa I take as many cones as I can. A very shallow solid curl piece and I try my best to take a cone. That shallow platter will more than pay for the main blank. I am not near as good as Mike Mahoney or Andy Cole but have been coning for 25 plus years. Started with the stewart slicer.