What to do with your McNaughton parting tool

[Thomas Bennett]

Not for the “faint of heart” , I use the McNaughton parting tool to cut a ring from a rough blank. The point is to eliminate the nasty roughing cuts on the outside of a blank, creating a round, tapered blank ready for final shaping and a tenon. It only takes a few minutes. There is not as much mess with the shavings. I begin the cut on the inside and part about 2/3 or more of the way through. I switch the toolrest around to the outside and cut until about ¼ inch of wood is left. I stop the lathe and give the ring a tap with a mallet to pop it off. I have had blow ups which is dangerous and scary. I am not advocating anyone else using this method. It works well for me, though.

[Pete Jordan]

Brilliant!

If I wouldn't have let Steve borrow my tools, I would try it. Maybe I can try it with the Oneway coring setup.

[Nathan Hawkes]

I can't believe I haven't seen this before. Great idea. I've only used the straight cutter a few times. Thanks for posting.

[Jason Clark2]

Max Krimmel does this when roughing out his alabaster turnings. I believe he has carbide brazed onto the tip of his cutters.

Jason

[Reed Gray]

McNaughton does have a left handed set of blades for coring from the same direction you are cutting from (the headstock end), and they will work the same way, except you can take a curved cut. You probably could start with the regular blades and move the tool rest more towards center, and start the core from the center rather than the edge. I don't know if you could move the Oneway system far enough off center to do that though. I cheat and use a big bandsaw.
robo hippy

[Duff Bement]

I saw something like this in one of my turning books and the guy saved the outsid ring and made a mirror frame by expanding jaws thru the big hole in the bottom.
I just got my Mcnaughton for christmas and only tried it a couple of times and the last time I made real nice walnut lamp shade :(. Now I am working on getting the laser for it. better late than never. Thanks for the idea now I have get to shop and give it a try.