Homemade turning tools

[Donny Lawson]

Here are a few tools I made, 2 of which I made yesterday.I made the parting tool a while back.It was made out of a 12" sawsall blade and works very well.Next I made a hollowing tool.No fancy handle but I needed it quick.It's made from a 1/2"square steel with a 1/4" hole drilled in the end and through the sides.It has a 7/32 threaded hole on one opposite side to hold the HSS threaded allen nut.The piece of HSS is ground at 20 degrees and can be used at straight or side angle. I needed a scraper and decided to try to make one out of something.It is made from a bracket from a Garage door opener and is ground at 20 degrees.I need to make a handle for it but it holds a sharp edge and works VERY well.It is 1" wide.I used it for a while yesterday and it produced great shavings the whole time.I'm not sure what kind of steel it's made from but it's apparently pretty good because it did not turn or change colors while grinding it down.I'm well pleased with it.
Donny

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Very good job on those tools. Looks like you've been busy. What did you use to grind the bevels on the one tool with square steel x section?

[David E Keller]

Nice work on the tools, Donny. I'm suprised the sawsall blade is stiff enough to part with, but I'm glad it works.

[Donny Lawson]

With the scraper I used an angle grinder to get the basic design and then moved to the wolverine system.It was my first time using a scraper and I was very impressed with the shavings it produced.When I read about some of the other scrapers out there for 60-80 dollar range I thought I'd at least try and make one of my own.I will make a handle for it sometime this week.It's 1/4-5/16" thick so it should last.
Donny