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BOWL SAVER

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chunkey monkey:
Anyone use one of these and what are the pros and cons ,cheers Ash

John Plater:
I have a Woodcut which I use on a Woodfast lathe and a McNaughton which I use on a VB36. If you have a lovely piece of wood or an expensive blank you are able to get more out of it by coring. Some people take it to great lengths making sets of nesting bowls. On the down side they can be a bit intimidating to use for some people. They also have a cost. They work best on green timber and timber which as far as can be judged is even in nature rather than soft and hard combined. Last time out with mine I hit embedded ironware which broke the cutter. I have in the past had a catch which bent the cutter, so huge forces were involved in that one ! I like the McNaughton best as it offers me greater flexibility.
ATB John

seventhdevil:
yes i use the woodcut bowl saver (the two blade version) and yes it was expensive but this has paid for itself 10 times over (probably more to be honest) in the the amount of extra bowls i have sold that would have otherwise been shavings.



this is a video of me coring a wet laurel bowl one handed (obviously i do not recommend you do that) as i needed to hold the camera. shows that it gets alot easier with some experience using the tool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Ocfi0OAos

Martin Lawrence:

  Ash,

  To get your money back you have to make and sell  a few bowls and before purchase is your lathe powerful enough to drive big lumps of wood taking the resistance of the cutter.

Cheers Martin.

Twisted Trees:
Another woodcut user here, I drive it with the Axminster 1628 (406 in metric!) needs plenty of torque, obviously being pivoted off a point it tends to cut part spherical blanks, but you can tweak that to other shapes with a bit more shavings allowance by cutting the outside of the first bowl to the desired shape then allowing the difference in shape into the wall thickness.

My view is the best fun bowl to cut is the >14" the easiest to sell is the <10" so you can pay for your blank on what would have been shavings, enjoy cutting the bigger bowl and have the big blank for free. I usually go for 3 bowls from an average blank, could get 4 if I let the Woodcut determine the shape.

As Steve said it will pay for itself over a fairly short time, as long as you have the torque to use it.
 

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