VisExp
Member
A couple of weeks I contacted Ken (Bitshird) about the possibility of making a larger Woodchuck for me. I already had the steel bar 1/2" x 1/2" x 18" and the carbide cutters, 4" radius. I had been trying to make the tool myself but was having difficulty filing the groove and locating the hole for the screw.
He kindly agreed to do it for me so I sent the parts off. He took care of it very quickly and then USPS sent them on a scenic tour back to Florida as they were misrouted.
I had told him not to bother rounding the handle end of the tool as I was able to make the handles using my router table and lathe. Anyway, I got some handles made up and got a chance to play with them today. If you interested in how I made the handles you can read it here.
Ken did a great job on the tools. The carbide cutters fit snugly in the slot he milled for them. When I set the tools in the handles I decided to cut 2" off. I recessed them 4" in the handles leaving around 12" of tool length on a 15" handle.
Using the tool was very intuitive. I just set the tool rest so the cutter was at dead center and held the tool horizontal. The cutter has three cutting surfaces exposed and I used all three. There was never a hint of a catch and the main thing I had to watch for was not to get too aggressive with the cuts. I tried to only hog off about 1/4" at a time. If I got to aggressive my lathe, a Jet 1642 started to bog down.
I also found that the cutting was easier as I was able to increase the lathes speed. My goal for the tool was to be able to use it to rough out bowls. As I worked with it though I was surprised at the quality of the cuts and decided to finish the bowl completly. The bowl is made from Hickory. It is 6 1/2" diameter. There was some slight tear out on the end grain, but the face grain was very smooth. I don't believe I spent much more time sanding than normal. In the hands of someone skilled with a bowl gouge I'm sure you can get a cleaner cut than with this tool. I don't consider myself that skilled and while I think I could have got a cleaner cut with a bowl gouge, it certainly would have been with more effort and time.
Here are some pictures showing truing the blank, outside and inside of the bowl, end grain etc. All these pictures are before any sanding.
Here is the finished bowl. No finish, just sanded and buffed.
I had so much fun a turned another bowl :biggrin: This one was cherry, 9" diameter. No finish, just sanded and buffed.
I don't think I'll be selling my bowl gouge but I'm really pleased with how this tool performs. Easy to control and a cut that exceeded my expectations. It was also pretty cool too turn two bowls from rough log to complete without turning my grinder on at all :biggrin:
Although the inserts are four sided you'd be mistaken thinking you can rotate it four times before changing it. I would guess you can rotate it once as you are using the front cutting edge and the front half of each side cutting edge. I've yet to find out how long each edge lasts. The tool was still cutting well after two bowls. Neither log was green. Although not totally dry as they have been sitting in my shop for 9 to 12 months.
If anyone has any questions about something I might have forgotten to mention let me know.
Thanks again Ken!
He kindly agreed to do it for me so I sent the parts off. He took care of it very quickly and then USPS sent them on a scenic tour back to Florida as they were misrouted.
I had told him not to bother rounding the handle end of the tool as I was able to make the handles using my router table and lathe. Anyway, I got some handles made up and got a chance to play with them today. If you interested in how I made the handles you can read it here.
Ken did a great job on the tools. The carbide cutters fit snugly in the slot he milled for them. When I set the tools in the handles I decided to cut 2" off. I recessed them 4" in the handles leaving around 12" of tool length on a 15" handle.
Using the tool was very intuitive. I just set the tool rest so the cutter was at dead center and held the tool horizontal. The cutter has three cutting surfaces exposed and I used all three. There was never a hint of a catch and the main thing I had to watch for was not to get too aggressive with the cuts. I tried to only hog off about 1/4" at a time. If I got to aggressive my lathe, a Jet 1642 started to bog down.
I also found that the cutting was easier as I was able to increase the lathes speed. My goal for the tool was to be able to use it to rough out bowls. As I worked with it though I was surprised at the quality of the cuts and decided to finish the bowl completly. The bowl is made from Hickory. It is 6 1/2" diameter. There was some slight tear out on the end grain, but the face grain was very smooth. I don't believe I spent much more time sanding than normal. In the hands of someone skilled with a bowl gouge I'm sure you can get a cleaner cut than with this tool. I don't consider myself that skilled and while I think I could have got a cleaner cut with a bowl gouge, it certainly would have been with more effort and time.
Here are some pictures showing truing the blank, outside and inside of the bowl, end grain etc. All these pictures are before any sanding.
Here is the finished bowl. No finish, just sanded and buffed.
I had so much fun a turned another bowl :biggrin: This one was cherry, 9" diameter. No finish, just sanded and buffed.
I don't think I'll be selling my bowl gouge but I'm really pleased with how this tool performs. Easy to control and a cut that exceeded my expectations. It was also pretty cool too turn two bowls from rough log to complete without turning my grinder on at all :biggrin:
Although the inserts are four sided you'd be mistaken thinking you can rotate it four times before changing it. I would guess you can rotate it once as you are using the front cutting edge and the front half of each side cutting edge. I've yet to find out how long each edge lasts. The tool was still cutting well after two bowls. Neither log was green. Although not totally dry as they have been sitting in my shop for 9 to 12 months.
If anyone has any questions about something I might have forgotten to mention let me know.
Thanks again Ken!
