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Woodchuck Lathe Tool

If you are interested in buying one of these tools they can be purchased at Woodchuck Lathe Tools

I finally got a chance to test drive my new tool and I’m really pleased with it. 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.

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 completely just using it. 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’m still working at mastering the bowl gouge 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.

Woodchuck Carbide Scraper

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Make a Donut Chuck

I needed to make a donut chuck so that I could mount a 12″ bowl on my lathe and finish off the bottom of the bowl. I have a set of cole jaws for my jaw chuck, but they will only expand 10″.

Donut Chuck

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Center Finder

I have a project coming up where I need to be able to mount a face plate accurately to a work piece. So I made a center finder for my face plate. You can buy really nice ones made out of aluminum but it took me about ten minutes to make this one.

I

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Spray Booth for small Items

I finish my pens and most other small turnings with spray lacquer. I built this spray booth to try and control the over spray, make it easier to handle the items while spraying and give them a dust free environment to dry in.

Spray Booth for Small Items

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