First coring

[Alan Zenreich]

This coming weekend, I'm fortunate to be taking a bowl turning class with Keith Tompkins at the Brookfield Craft Center in CT.

I've only done a handful of bowls, and thought it would be a good idea to get in some practice time this week, before the class. I'm working with three different blanks, and this is the first time I've turned these kinds of wood.

I roughed out an 8"x4" sycamore and an 8"x3" walnut bowl. I haven't done that much with wet wood, and these blanks were waxed about a year ago. The sycamore was considerably harder than the walnut. Of course, now there are lots of curlies all over my (and also covering Lauren's) lathe and the surrounds.

Next step was to soak the roughed out blanks for 24 hours in Turners Choice. They're drying now and should be ready in 3 days to return to the lathe.

The last blank is 8"x4" pecan. I looked at the blank. I looked at the mess on the floor, and thought "Hmmmm, I wonder if this is a good candidate for coring?". I bought a WoodCut coring rig from Steve Kubien a few months back, and finally got to use it today.

So, here are a couple of photos of my first coring session, using the smaller of the two knives. I'm pleased to report that it was successful, and painless. The (now two) pecan roughed out blanks are soaking, hopefully they will make a nice set of matching bowls.

Keith graciously said that I should bring some examples of bowls I've made for review and discussion. If I have time, I'll also finish at least one of these four bowls before this weekend's class.

[Alan Zenreich]

I know... "no picture, didn't happen"... so I figured I'd best show photos of the other two blanks. I just pulled the pecan bowls out of the Turner's choice for the pictures, so that's why they appear wet.

I left a thicker section near the rim of each of these roughed out blanks, thinking that I'm going to do some sort of a feature ring... maybe some beading.

[Bill Bolen]

Looking good Alan! I remember when you got the coring system. Any thoughts after using it? I'm thinking about a woodcut system myself...Bill...

[Alan Zenreich]

Bill,

I started my cut, then determined that it would be a good idea to sharpen the small knife before continuing. Once the blade was sharp, and everything locked down tight, the cutting went very smoothly. I used some WD40 in the kerf as lubricant, and did the cutting at about 1,500 rpm. Lots of chips emerged from the kerf, and I backed out the blade periodically to make sure nothing was binding. As I neared the end of the cut, I had to keep clearing chips that accumulated between the knife mount and a stop block on the platform, so the knife could penetrate all the way.

I learned in a coring workshop with Bill Grumbine to turn a tenon in the face of the blank. This way when you remove the smaller piece, you can chuck it, shape the outside of the smaller bowl, and turn a tenon for the foot. In my case it wasn't really that necessary because I already had a hole in the blank from the woodworm screw from my Talon chuck, but it was good practice, and proved out the technique, when it might be applied to a future larger blank mounted via a facelate. Having a tenon on the face of the smallest blank gives you a lot of mounting flexibility if you're coring from largest to smallest.

I hope this is an indication of future coring sessions. It was a straightforward, low stress process.

[Baxter Smith]

Congrats on the first of many. Very nice looking wood too!

[Rich Aldrich]

Thanks for the information on the Woodcut system. My next purchase is going to be a coring system and have wondered about the Woodcut system. I have see a lot of information on the McNaughton system.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looks like it went well for you Alan. Congrats on the first of many.

[Steve Kubien]

I was wondering if you had gotten around to using the WoodCut. Looking good from where I am sitting!

For those who are thinking about getting a coring rig, I would like to offer my experiences as I have owned and used the 3 readily available models...
My first rig was a McNaughton. I bought because it was inexpensive and I could buy it locally (I am in Canada and I do not know anyone here who stocks the WoodCut) and shippingnover the border plus duty meant the McNaughton made more financial sense). I probably cored 10 or so bowls with it and I hated the experience. I found it very stressful and at times down right scary. I also managed to break off a few tenons which was maddening as hell. I returned it to Lee Valley and went without form a while.

I bought the WoodCut from someone here on the Creek (sorry I can't remember who). The price was right. I really liked this system a lot. Coring became rather stress free. This rig is dead easy to set up and use. I ran my lathe at everything from 360 up to 1500 rpm and it was smooth sailing. As Alan mentioned, cleaning the shavings near the end of the core is a bit of a pain but I kept a denture brush handy for that. My only complaint was being limited to the 10" large knife. I mostly sell salad bowls and the cores I created were too small for that. I still managed to sell them but I really wanted to get my hands on a Oneway rig with its larger capacity. Enter Greg Haugen...

Greg offered his Oneway rig with the 16" base for sale at a fair price and I jumped all over it. He only had the 9-1/2" blade but explained to me that he had successfully made 11" diameter cores in ash with it and that was good enough for me. A minor nightmare with UPS ensued and finally I had it in house and ready to test drive. Love at first core! This is a well-built piece of kit. The cutters need to be sharpened more frequently than the other two systems but this is a minor thing as far as I am concerned. I have since borrowed larger blades from a friend and I continue to love this thing.

The verdict, I really like both the Oneway and WoodCut systems. Both do a great job and are well worth the money. I am not sure but I think I actually cored faster with the WoodCut. So, in my opinion, you cannot go wrong with either system. If, like me, you want to produce cores larger than 10", get the Oneway. Otherwise, save your dough and get the WoodCut. It is a grossly under-rated tool in my opinion. The magazines all slag it because it is the least versatile of the bunch. Bullstuff. It is a coring rig. It creates hemispherical cores. Next issue please.

[Steve Kubien]

Sorry, I should have noted that I currently turn on a Nova 1624 and it has a 1-1/2 hp motor. Once my DVR XP gets picked up on July 16th, I will report back on how that goes. :)

[Reed Gray]

You all know I prefer the McNaughton. If you had the older points that were dog eared off to one side, and not the newer spear points where the cutter is centered on the blade, that was a big part of the problem.

I talked to Woodcut a few weeks ago, and they are working on a larger blade for their system. They had some bugs to work out and expected a finished product soon. It is a nice little system, but did tend to chatter a bit, especially on harder woods.

Oneway is expensive. I would guess its strong point is that it is rock solid when coring the biggest bowls, which I think is about 8 inch radius.

Nova does have a DVR 20 inch lathe now.

robo hippy

[Steve Kubien]

I thought about the 20" DVR but really didn't want to wait until November/December for it to be available. It is not often that I desire going over 16" on a bowl. For when I do, I intend to build an outboard end similar to the 24" extension on a Oneway 1640. Besides, I got the lathe at last years price (going up $400-$500 very soon), the cast iron legs and a new SN2 chuck, both at half price.

[Joshua Dinerstein]

Hey Robo Hippy,


I talked to Woodcut a few weeks ago, and they are working on a larger blade for their system. They had some bugs to work out and expected a finished product soon. It is a nice little system, but did tend to chatter a bit, especially on harder woods.
This is good news to me. I own this coring system and have really enjoyed using it. I would happily buy a working "even larger" blade to get more out of some my corings. I know it was only about a month ago when you posted that you had talked to them... But I was wondering if you had any more information about this new addition? Did they have any solid feel for when it might be available?

Thanks,
Joshua

[Reed Gray]

I haven't heard back from them yet. They commented that it was making more "noise" than they thought it should. Though I don't know, I would think that would refer to chatter. The current system, as is does tend to chatter, especially on harder woods. I doubt that it will be a retro fit for the old system. My feelings on the system, that with the mounting plate and post set up would not be able to handle the extended length without beefing it up considerably.

I do need to get back to them.

robo hippy

[Tom Winship]

Do you hold the wood on most/all of the coring systems with a tenon in a chuck? I'm just getting started on bowls and don't have a chuck yet, but that seems like a lot of force. Had no idea a chuck could hold that.

[Harry Robinette]

I use the McNaughton system and love it.You have to do your homework to use it Reed Gray's DVD showed me everything I needed once I tried to do it by the instructions.I really like my McNaughton system

[David E Keller]

Do you hold the wood on most/all of the coring systems with a tenon in a chuck? I'm just getting started on bowls and don't have a chuck yet, but that seems like a lot of force. Had no idea a chuck could hold that.

I don't have any first hand experience coring, Tom, but all of the demonstrations I've seen used a chuck for holding the blank.

[Reed Gray]

I use a recess to hold mine, and it does fine. I learned to do it that way before I learned that most used a tenon. A recess is better for my turned green to final thickness, dry and let it warp style bowls. Biggest trick either way is to have proper size/diameter, and angles to match jaw angles for a secure hold.

robo hippy