Lathe Question

Hi All,

Got a new lathe from Griz, new HSS tools, and a recommended book on lathes, and one on sharpening. Also have a slow speed grinder. So now, I have the tools sharp.

Two questions: What is the difference between spindle gouges, and bowl gouges??? And 2nd, does the bevel of the gouge ride tangent to the work? Book seemed to imply this.

So, in a given set-up, is the tool rest at the centerline, then place the tool bevel so it touches the wood, and then rotation of the wood will have the tool cutting at the correct angle? I realize coves and beads will require some hand gymnastics over a simple cylinder.

Thanks for any suggestions.....

Reply to
rich
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The thickness of the tool and shaft

Actually, it depends... sorry, but there are variables there

1) rec.crafts.woodturning 2) Keith Rowley's Woodturning: A Foundation Course (New Edition) Woodturning: A Foundation Course (New Edition) is IMO, the best book there is on turning 3) Join the AAW and find your local chapter
Reply to
Ralph E Lindberg

You are asking a lot of questions that have some times, and may be answers. LOL

I am not an expert but can tell you to gently let the bevel on the tool touch the spinning wood and then gently raise the tool handle so that the cutting edge just starts to cut. Doing that in reverse order will often result in big hunks being torn out of the wood. I typically use a spindle gouge to rough in the work, "get it round", and to shape the spindle. IIRC the bowl bouge is strictly for more intricate less agressive cuts.

Reply to
Leon

Try this link when Google starts working again.

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be something of interest in the 350,000 hits. Also check out the posts in rec.crafts.woodturning. Lot of good stuff (including help) there for turners.

Darrell Feltmate hangs out there, and has a terrific, helpful site. Bookmark this and get ready to spend a lot of time here. Very helpful, nice guy.

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Reply to
Roy

=A0Bookmark this and get ready to

Just a guess, but I think routine back biting and topped off with the political screaming wasn't to his taste. He has always seemed to be a very mellow, peaceful type to me.

But he IS a great guy and his website is just full of goodies, especially how to turn on the cheap. He does wonderful work with mostly homemade tools. His site is a must view for turners.

That could be the best advice yet. Particularly #3. You can have someone show you something in a minute that takes a year to figure out. When the clubs work right, they are a gold mine of knowledge and experience and can be a lot of fun.

For example, at a workshop we had many years ago, I showed folks how to free hand sharpen smaller (1/4, 3/8 and 1/2") gouges as my part of my club duty teaching aspect. I can do it quickly and easily, and don't think much about it. We had a lot of laughs, and I straightened out a lot of gouges and advised folks to go to Darrell's website to build his sharpening jig.

So when my session was over, I went over to face my personal nemesis, the skew, with a friend of mine who laughs his butt off when he sees how tense I get using it. I can do OK while he is there, lifting my elbow, changing the angle, etc., and can do it myself for a couple of days after a session with him.

But then, once the skew sees that he isn't around anymore, it's up to its old tricks. (In other words, I need more coaching and a lot more practice).

He is practically Richard Raffan with his skew. I might as well be using a screwdriver.

The point is that someone can help you learn correctly before you learn improperly on your own. One of the big guys in turning said that it is a lot like golf, all about muscle memory. Once those muscles learn how to hold and use a tool, it has been my experience that it is very hard to undo.

Good luck!

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

 Bookmark this and get ready to

I agree. I went back to his site this evening and spent about an hour looking at the tool making section. I've been telling myself for a long time I need to make one of his hook tools. I'll get to that just as soon as I get caught up with my projects already in progress. Yeah. Right.

Reply to
Roy

Spindle gouges are made for (gasp) spindles.. They're for roughing a square piece to round and basic SPINDLE type work..

Used carefully and with the rest setup as close to the work as possible, as they have a tang like a chisel and it can break under stress.. You DO NOT want to be in the area when one breaks..

A bowl gouge is very sturdy, usually the same diameter throughout the tool, and is used mainly for interior hollowing and shaping of bowls.. It can be used safely with more of the tool overhanging the rest.. Craft Supplies has a nice explanation of this in their catalog, you might request one..

Forget the tool rest being at center line, adjust the TOOL to be there.. The difference between tool rest height of a roughing gouge and a large bowl gouge could be as much and 3/4"..

Set the tool on the rest and use it as a guide for rest height.. before turning on the lathe, hold the gouge on the rest at the angle you're working with and see where it hits the wood in relation to the center line.. adjust from there..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Reply to
mac davis

Thanks for the good ideas! Couple of good web sites.

Still have a few questions. Tool Rest: Should I adjust the rest height so that the cutting point of the tool is near the centerline of the work? IOW if you use a different tool with a different bevel, you may need to change the rest height.

The tool set I got has a gouge with about a 60 degree bevel, and some smaller ones with about a 35 degree and an 25 degree bevel. The 60 degree is an inch wide, I assume that is a roughing gouge. The smaller ones... 35 degrees for face cuts, 25 degree for spindles?????

Now back to the shop for some practice.....

Reply to
rich

Not much.

Roughing gouges are different. Always have been, likely to remain so. Big U-shaped stiff things.

Spindle and bowl gouges though can be much more similar. As current fashions have it, there's more overlap between both than there is difference, and the indivual tweaks of different turners for different tasks vary more widely than the spindle / bowl distinction.

Bowl and spindle gouges these days are all (i.e. ignore anything that isn't) a cylindrical bar of HSS, with a groove ground into it. They also, almost all, arrive with an utterly useless shape to the business end. A bowl gouge needs a little work here, a spindle gouge needs a lot. Unless you spend for the "famous turner signature line", the factory product ships with an inexcusably bad shape to it. There's really no excuse for this.

Bowl gouges are usually ground more or less square across, with the corners cut back to stop them catching. Spindle gouges though use a "fingernail" grind. Any decent turning book (Rowley, Raffan) of the last decade will illustrate. I'm just reading Chapman's "Woodturning: A Fresh Approach" and he has some bowl gouges in there with similar grinds on them too, so that they can work on their sides for working the sides of a bowl (but then he uses the back-hollowing technique, so his main hollowing cut is from the centre of the gouge. Some, especially those working deep bowls or using short bowl lathes, keep the gouge handle closer to the bed axis, so want a squarer end so as to cut on the sides of the gouge when hollowing).

You should certainly pay attention to your gouge shape, and you'll likely want to re-grind both of them radically, following the guidance of your favoured text. However there's no single right shape, and it does depend on the technique you're using with it.

Everything works on either a tangent, or else a great big dig. You have to always think about leverage - where are the axes of the forces supporting the tool, and the forces from the cutting edge? if these start to separate, there's leverage on the tool and it will either chatter (bad) or twist and dig in (multo bad). As it's a bad thing to cut with the corner of a tool (unless that's intentional), pretty much the only safe contact possible with a wide tool is to be some approximation of a tangent, and for this tangent's intersection with the wood to be pretty much over the tool's contact with the rest.

Echoing what others have said, a good book is good, some hands-on with other turners is even better. Certainly don't try to learn by picking up the tools blind, that way just doesn't work.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Muchos Grassyass to all for the help. Now to find a local lathe guru. I'll start with the HS Shop teacher. I sub for him, so might get some help there. And maybe reading my Lathe Book will make more sense now.

Reply to
rich

Rich, if you're anywhere near a Woodcraft store they have turning classes all the time. I can't speak for other stores, but ours has a really good instructor. There's also a turners club that meets at the store but is not affiliated.

If you're really lucky, you live near Craft Supplies :-).

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

I recommend Bill Grumbine's bowl turning DVD to everyone.. I wish I'd bought it

20 years earlier..
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Thanks for the good ideas! Couple of good web sites.

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Reply to
mac davis

...

Good luck with the HS Shop teacher, I know more then the local one and I don't know enough to teach

Reply to
Ralph E Lindberg

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