Making an Oland tool

[Bill Wilcox]

HI, I am in the process of making an Oland tool. I was at a hardware store and picked up some 1/2" and 5/8" mild steel.
I was wondering if this type of steel would be OK for making and Oland tool.
I plan on using a 3/16" and 1/4 inch tool. I alos have some 3/4 1095 high carbon steel but would like to use that for machining a few bowl gouges.
Any help would be great.
Thanks,
Bill

[Jeff Nicol]

Bill, I make them out of cold rolled steel on my website, but have made them from just about every shape of shaft from round, square,hexagon and a piece octagon steel I had laying around. So have fun building your own tools.

Jeff

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Bill that should work just fine, the size you need to use depends on how far you would like to reach over the toolrest, mild steel would be better than high carbon, as it will like to vibrate more than mild steel.

I assume you have this site to look at how to make some tools, ??

http://aroundthewoods.com/oland.shtml

[Sid Matheny]

Bill I have made a couple of Oland tools and used cold roll steel so what you have will be fine. I used 5/8" for the 1/4" tool and 3/4" for the 5/16.

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Sid

[Jake Helmboldt]

Sid and others, do you bore a round hole for the square section HSS cutter, or do you round over the edges of the cutter?

JH

[Sid Matheny]

Drill a round hole.

Sid

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Round hole will do just fine

[Wayne Bower]

Bill, I have made several Oland stile tools and use them all the time. I have made a couple of gouges and have used oil hardened drill rod from Fasenal (sp). The tricky part is tempering the steel so that it will hold and edge. There is a lot of info on the web about this.

[Allen Neighbors]

That website that Leo posted is the cat's meow!! I've made numerous Oland tools, one of them is over 4 feet long, and weighs a ton. I use it for long reaches across the rest.
The suggestions made by Darrell Feltmate (aroundthewoods) that a longer reach requires a smaller cutter is correct. For my long-reach tool, the cutter is 1/8".
Good luck, and happy turning!! :)

[Bill Wilcox]

Thanks Guy's for all the information.
Yes I have seen the site Leo put up and found it a wealth of information.
i am going to work on them today and will post pic's when I'm done.
The onlu question I really have now is: "What length to make the tool? I know I want around 3" to go into the handle. I surmise that the length
of the tool would be the length I need to bore or hollow out. I don't think when I start hollow forms that I will go over 12" total.
Great job fella's my hats of to you.
Bill

[Gordon Seto]

This is the source for already hardened round M2 HSS tool bits and extremely cheap as well.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44756

Use a cut off tool to cut them in half. The shank end for Oland tool bit. And the drill end as what Jeff Nicol does for his home made ball end mill type hollowing tool.
Without cutting in half, the whole thing can be made into pyramid point tool.

[Porter Bassett]

a longer reach requires a smaller cutter is correct. For my long-reach tool, the cutter is 1/8".
Why is this?

[John Keeton]

Why is this?Leverage and force multiplier. A catch on a larger cutter transfers considerably more mechanical advantage to the handle when overhanging the rest. Think seesaw with a heavier guy jumping on the other end.

[Porter Bassett]

So, for the long reach models, you've got a long, beefy rod with a teeny tiny cutter on the end?

[Joe Kaufman]

I have been using the Harbor Freight Pry Bars for making tool bars. There is sufficient carbon and heat treat so they will flex much less than plain low carbon steel. The corners are already rounded and the plastic handles are useable. Don't try to drill or tap the bar with carbon steel tools. Use Ground HHS taps as carbon steel taps will most likely break off in the bar. As others have stated, metal lathe M2 HHS bits work great for the cutting portion of the tool.

Joe

[Jeff Bower]

I've made several Oland tools as well. Here is what I use for the bits...a couple different sized and shapes.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40641

Make sure to post pics of what you come up with. :D

[Allen Neighbors]

So, for the long reach models, you've got a long, beefy rod with a teeny tiny cutter on the end?
Yep! Works well, too!:D

[Brad Vaughn]

This is the source for already hardened round M2 HSS tool bits and extremely cheap as well.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44756

Use a cut off tool to cut them in half. The shank end for Oland tool bit. And the drill end as what Jeff Nicol does for his home made ball end mill type hollowing tool.
Without cutting in half, the whole thing can be made into pyramid point tool.

Thanks for this tip went and bought two packs today.

[Porter Bassett]

Here's the one I made this week. I happened to have the 1/2" stock on hand (from a chicken plucker I made), the ferrule was a brass nut from a faucet that was being thrown away, and the handle is from a piece of ash (I think) that was part of a pallet I disassembled. It means that the widest part of the handle isn't round, and you can still see nail holes in it, but for a shop tool, that's not a problem.

Less than $4 for the HSS insert at HF, some scraps I had laying around, and more time than it should have taken later:

http://portersworkshop.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/oland3_470.jpg

http://portersworkshop.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/oland2_470.jpg

http://portersworkshop.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/oland1_470.jpg

[Allen Neighbors]

So, for the long reach models, you've got a long, beefy rod with a teeny tiny cutter on the end?
Yep. That is correct.