Saw a coring demo last night.........and.............

[Roger Chandler]

I went to the monthly meeting of one of the clubs I belong to..........the demo was on coring.........the demonstrator, Kirk McCauley, used a Oneway coring system.......pretty slick! Also pretty expensive from what I have heard.

He mentioned some use the McNaughton System............a bit less $$$$$ if I understand correctly. I have tossed around the possibility of getting a coring rig..........my lathe has 2 hp, so I guess that is enough power to do it, but I wonder if for me it is worth the expense, because I don't sell bowls, and to date I seem to have more wood than I can get to as far as time is concerned.

Any thoughts on the two systems mentioned and the positives/negatives of each? Also, is it worth it to a hobbyist turner who is not trying to sell? [Not to say when I retire in a few years, I might not like to sell some]

[Tim Rinehart]

Probably not worth it...however...couple things about having the coring system, if this matters.
- Do you want to create nested bowl sets cuz you like nested bowl sets and want to give to family/friends?
- Do you have a need to somewhat regularly create large bowls (say over 10" ) and hate the volume of chips and time generated/wasted?

If either of those questions gets a yes...you may want to consider a coring setup IMO. I don't use mine nearly as much as I thought I would, but I also don't want to part with it. If nothing else...that one big straight tool in the McN system can take out a big chunk of wood both above the brim, and inside the hat when making hats if that's something you're into.

[Dan Hintz]

I'll add to Tim's list a third check:
- Do you have an expensive chunk of wood that you'd like to get as much out of as possible?

A burl that's several hundred $s had better make itself worth it when you're done, so getting more than one bowl out of the same piece helps that along.

[Tim Rinehart]

Good point Dan...I forgot that one, and very relevant. I recently did a walnut burl bowl and used my coring jig to pull a small core from it that I can use later for a lid perhaps. Even small saves of prize woods can mean alot when it comes to having special stuff for a project that's basically free (saved from chip pile).

[Gary Max]

Sold my coring system---------- I have plenty of wood.

[Scott Hackler]

Roger, I bought a used (first series I think) and have cored a few sets but haven't finished any of them! I like the idea of saving the center out of a really nice block of wood instead of it ending up on the floor in a pile of shavings and folks tend to like a nested set of utilitarian bowls. The McNaughton (which I have) isn't nearly as idiot proof as that Oneway, but a whole lot cheaper.

I don't and won't use it much, but when I need to save the center out of a giant block of curly redwood or claro walnut or BLM burl....well it will pay for itself.

[Hayes Rutherford]

Roger, there are quite a few posts out there on pro's and cons of each(I have both) I strongly believe in creating multiple vessels when you already have a chunk of wood ready to go on the late. The best argument for occasional use is saving highly figured or expensive wood and not just turning it into shavings. If a chunk of curly maple for a 12" bowl cost 50.00 and for an 8" costs 30.00 why turn the 8" bowl into shavings?

[Baxter Smith]

Roger, I first thought it would be nice to have a coring system when I made some 12" apple bowls and all that pretty heartwood just disappeared into chips. I also thought one could get a hollowform blank out of the center part of a large bowl that you had cored. Ended up with a Oneway system because it was basically a freebie that came with a used 3520A. I wouldn't have gone out and bought a new one at the retail price. (Then again, I wouldn't have bought my lathe either):eek:
I have cored about fifteen sets with it. Some thin and some that need to be returned. I have finished four and a quarter of those sets. Two sets we use(apple and madrone), and have given two as gifts. In all 4 cases, the wood had a special significance to the people that have them. In that aspect, the coring system has almost paid for itself. The Oneway is pretty foolproof if you only use it occasionaly. At times I have wished I had the versatility of the McNaughton(multiple platters and more varied shapes) but can't justify the expense when I can get by with what I have.
Having to pay for wood doesn't fit into the equation for me since I don't. Its more a matter of not wasting wood that is special or unique(at least to me).

[Jack Mincey]

I have a Oneway system and love it. You don't just have to make nested sets of bowl to use one. I core the middle out of a large blank so that the middle portion may be turned into a HF which I enjoy turning more than open bowls and sell for more $$$ as well. I payed for my system with the first nested set I sold. Here is a picture showing a open bowl rough out and HF rough out that came from the same blank using my tecknique.
Jack
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v727/flyrod444/DSC00264.jpg

[Joshua Dinerstein]

I have the cheaper-est option for coring. I have the WoodCut Tools BowlSaver. It is from what I can see more like the OneWay than the McNaughton. In that it has a fixed base and a mounted cutter instead of a hand-held tool. It only has 2 blades and so limits what can be cored out with it. But with these limits comes a much easier setup process.

Also I got it on a great sale from CSUSA. Came in at just under $200 for the whole setup. I have used it to core a dozen bowls are so. Most of the wood I have that I have used it on starts right around 12". So I get a nice 9-10" inner bowl, leaving room for a nice rim and warpage during drying, and then a much smaller 5-6" bowl from the very inside. I have used it to "save" some very colorful and figured wood. Recently most of what I have been turning is Box Elder. A really fairly soft wood in the maple family but that often has curly grain and vibrant red streaks. Before that it was mostly Black Walnut. I have enjoyed coring and making the sets. People have loved getting them as gifts. I basically don't turn a bowl anymore without coring it. But I am not in a rush, I make mostly gifts, and I enjoy the process.

Enough so that I have thought recently about replacing what I have with a OneWay setup. More options, more flexibility, etc... I have however kind of tapped out on what I can spend on new tools. So I will wait and see if i can't get one used from some kind soul. I just hate wasting the wood and friends and family have so loved the sets that it is just a nice benefit in my mind.

Joshua

[Mike Cruz]

Jack kinda beat me to it, but I was going to say that coring isn't necessarily just for bowls. It simply saves the wood that would otherwise have become MANY pieces of wood. That inner core could be used for HFs, pens, bottle stoppers, or anything else...

DAMP is going to tackle coring at our next meeting. Three of us have the McNaughton system. The fourth has nothing...yet. Maybe we'll let you know how it went...

[Jake Helmboldt]

Roger, most of the points have been addressed so far, so I'll speak to the other issues:

1. I have a 1642 and a McNaughton. I can certainly stall the lathe, and the McN can bind easily if you don't have it set up just right. But your Grizz has enough power to core; you just can't force it.

2. The McN is not an easy tool to learn. I've only done a few corings and managed to make a really big funnel. But there are resources out there on learning it and making it easier to use. I think I might rig up a simple laser for it cuz I hate ruining a blank.

In the end I'm glad I got it, but I haven't used it as much as I would like, and it certainly has a learning curve that can incline one to leave it on the shelf.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

220330220329220331This is a timely thread. I came in from the shop where I just finished coring a piece of wood I would have hated to turn into shavings. This is when the money spent on a coring rig, Oneway in my case, feels like a good investment. This is a piece of spalted sycamore. I sawed the blank to 18" and the largest bowl is 17 1/2". The midsize is 13" and the little one is 10". The center core is a throwaway. I might have taken a hollow form out of the middle in lieu of the two smaller bowls but this log yielded all the hollow form blanks I need for a while.
faust

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have the oneway system. I do like it and it doesn't have the learning curve of the McNaughton system. I have used the McNaughton but like the oneway better but that is just my personal opinion. I didn't buy all four knives as my Nova is only 16" so didn't feel I needed the big knife. I am running my lathe on 110V which says it is 1.5 hp and haven't stalled it or had a problem coring.

[Reed Gray]

Do you need a coring system. Well, for some of us, need has nothing to do with it, curiosity rules. If you are selling bowls, I consider it a necessity. You do save wood, and time, and money. Those medium sized (10 to 12 inches) bowls sell quite well, and it is easier to core them out than it is to cut the bowl blank. The biggest time saver is in turning the core. The outside is already shaped, and at most all you have to do is flatten the bottom for a tenon or recess, and a pass or two down the outside, and it is ready to reverse.

The Woodcut is a nice, easy to use system that is on the small side. The big curved blade is a 5 inch radius, so you can get max a 12 inch core from a bigger bowl. It mounts in the banjo, and it does need to have the tailstock attached to the back of it.

The Oneway is the most expensive, and like the Woodcut is on a pivoting center. It is the most expensive. The saving grace of it is the support finger that goes under the blade as you core. It gives extra support to the coring blade, and it is rock solid all the way to the end of the biggest core. It goes on a plate mount, that you bolt to the lathe. You have to stop a couple of times while coring to advance the support finger. The cutting tip needs to be unscrewed from the blade to be sharpened. It is a bit more time consuming than the Woodcut.

The McNaughton my favorite. It is the fastest to set up and use, and with the flat curved blade, and parting blade you can core anything from plates to deep vessels. It is free hand aimed, and not on a pivoting center, so there is a learning curve. Main problem is that the blade tends to drift off towards the outside as you core, and you need to learn how to correct for that. The drifting is the major reason it boggs down the lathe, as the blade can bind up in the cut. McNaughton sells a laser pointer set up for it. I had mine welded to the handle as I did not like the way it is supposed to set up on the tool. Randy Privett of Monster tools makes another laser set up that adapts to the McNaughton. Both lasers can also be used for hollowing. Mike Mahoney and I both have DVDs out on how to use this tool. I do recommend seeing both as we use slightly different styles.

robo hippy

[kevin nee]

I have the McNaughton and find that coring burl seems to be easier to
work than the lower quality wood that I practiced on. There is a learning
curve, but it does work.220357220358

[John King]

Everyone likes what they have - Oneway, McNaughton, Woodcut, etc. That's why they bought it. They thought it was the best bowl coring system for their needs. I have a Oneway. I like it. Essentially no learning curve. Easy setup and use. Meets all my needs.

I suggest you find some folks in your local club(s) that have the various coring systems. Have them get in touch with you next time they are going to do some coring. Visit their garage/shop/studio and check out the system they use.

So, figure out what you want to do with coring and buy the system that meets your needs. They all work as advertised. They all allow you to core multiple bowl blanks from a large piece of wood. It's pretty simple. - John

PS - Here's link to a thread on Sawmill Creek on same subject. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?174208-_-Bowl-quot-coring-quot-tools-system

[Steve Kubien]

Enough so that I have thought recently about replacing what I have with a OneWay setup. More options, more flexibility, etc... I have however kind of tapped out on what I can spend on new tools. So I will wait and see if i can't get one used from some kind soul. I just hate wasting the wood and friends and family have so loved the sets that it is just a nice benefit in my mind.

Joshua. Joshua, humble opinion here but I would be reluctant to change to the Oneway from the Woodcut. I have kicked myself quite a few times for selling mine to Alan Zenerich in order to pick up a used Oneway.

Yes, the Oneway is built like a tank and gives you more options for sizes but...I personally do not like the cutter. It boggles my mind that we can have great tool steel like that produced by Thompson and Glaser that seem to last forever, but I need to sharpen the Oneway cutter after every core. What a complete pain in the ***. The folks at Woodcut are developing and testing a new Bowlsaver which will aloplow larger cores to be taken but I don't know of their timeline or whether it will be a retro-fit to the existing system (I don't see how this can be done but I'm no engineer). Having said all of that, I just bought a new knife for my Oneway to give me some more versatility. My plan is to not take the cutter itself to the grinder but to hone it instead. We'll see how that works out.

As for the McNaughton rig, I hate it. I bought it years ago, managed to make a few successful cores with it but kept snapping tenons off and was scared everything I used it. I returned it to where I bought it. A couple of months ago I got a new one, because of the new gate. I figured it would be safer and easier. Plus, I figured with a few years more experience and I would be better able to make use of it. I have owned and viewed multiple times the two popular instructional dvd's on the McNaughton and while both excellent, offered me no solutions to my troubles. A series of emails back and forth with a well-respected instructor and VERY experienced McN user left me just as frustrated. I returned it and doubt I will ever touch one again.

[Peter Blair]

Hi Faust. Nice pictures. I have the Oneway as well but when I core I about always, at least on the smaller bowls can't use the tail stock as your photo's show cause it gets in the way of my cutter handle. Do you suppose you could explain how you set yours up? I just made several plywood spacers much like in the Oneway video. Do you do anything different? I am never sure exactly where to position the post(s) in relation to the ways.

Pete

220330220329220331This is a timely thread. I came in from the shop where I just finished coring a piece of wood I would have hated to turn into shavings. This is when the money spent on a coring rig, Oneway in my case, feels like a good investment. This is a piece of spalted sycamore. I sawed the blank to 18" and the largest bowl is 17 1/2". The midsize is 13" and the little one is 10". The center core is a throwaway. I might have taken a hollow form out of the middle in lieu of the two smaller bowls but this log yielded all the hollow form blanks I need for a while.
faust

[Baxter Smith]

Pete, I can't speak for Faust, but I can't use the tailstock to start either when using the smaller knife. Have to start gently, get the knife into the wood less than an inch or so, then can bring up the tailstock. A far as positioning the center post in or out from the ways, I think it depends on where you want to start your core on the surface of the bowl. Sometimes the cutting handle is not guite perpendicular to the ways and sometimes it ends beyond it when the core breaks free.

[Edward Orecchio]

The McNaughten system is equally expensive. There are several blade systems-Large,standard,mini, and micro-each blade at ~$50. You dont need all the blades,they are for different size bowel(18"or over,12-16,8-10,and under) You have to buy the post and handle and can get the standard blades with them then add later. The Mc system allows different shapes but there is no tail center support as in the Oneway and Woodcut. I have the Mc and the Woodcut. 2hp-enough-there are articles out there and even minilathes are used for smaller bowls. Having said that the Mc system is hard for me,a definite learning curve. I just bent the medium micro blade last night try to core a wet 8in bowl of maple. Mike Mahoney says it is easier to core dried wood than wet wood because the wood chips do not build up as much but I use what I have. The thought of having more than one bowl out of 1 blank especially of prime wood is very appealing but a caution-use lots of junk wood to practice before using your primo wood. Good luck

[John King]

Baxter - Pete's picture looks like he is using a Morse taper extension in the tailstock. The extension should move the tailstock back enough for you to use the "smaller knife" when coring. If you have a Oneway lathe, the #3 to #3 Morse taper extension is part no. 3449. Morse taper extensions are also available at most of the tool supply shops. Check them out at McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/#morse-taper-extensions/=fw0r7v. - John


Pete, I can't speak for Faust, but I can't use the tailstock to start either when using the smaller knife. Have to start gently, get the knife into the wood less than an inch or so, then can bring up the tailstock. A far as positioning the center post in or out from the ways, I think it depends on where you want to start your core on the surface of the bowl. Sometimes the cutting handle is not guite perpendicular to the ways and sometimes it ends beyond it when the core breaks free.

[Reed Gray]

Hmmm..... I prefer the wet wood turnings. My guess to dry vs wet would be a couple of things. The dry will tend to crumble more rather than give long strings of shavings. I also grind the spear point off my blades. It makes for a narrower shaving, which clears the kerf a lot easier than the wider spear point shaving. I haven't squared off my micro blades though.

Yes, having just the standard set of blades will work for 90% of the cores you will ever need or want to take.

The blades do bend, both from heavy use, and from catches. Having one of the plastic circle templates really helps to get them bent back into shape. Having the tip toe in just a hair also helps a lot.

robo hippy

[Baxter Smith]

Baxter - Pete's picture looks like he is using a Morse taper extension in the tailstock. The extension should move the tailstock back enough for you to use the "smaller knife" when coring. If you have a Oneway lathe, the #3 to #3 Morse taper extension is part no. 3449. Morse taper extensions are also available at most of the tool supply shops. Check them out at McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/#morse-taper-extensions/=fw0r7v. - John

Thanks for the suggestion and taking the time to find that link John. I took some quick pictures of the situation where I am not sure tailstock support is possible. I had a roughout in the shop so stuck it in the chuck. This is the number 1 knife set up to take a 8 1/2" core leaving a 1/2inch thick bottom.
220490
Anything smaller to start and you wouldn't have clearance for the livecenter in the tailstock. This is what it would like to start a 6" core.
220491
Once you are in, then you can bring up the tailstock to help secure the blank and keep the core from flying out when done.
220492

[Peter Blair]

I find the same thing with my Oneway, but with the oneway live centre it will not clear the support post under it and I can't use the tails stock with or without the addition of the extension which I have . . . .

[Baxter Smith]

I find the same thing with my Oneway, but with the oneway live centre it will not clear the support post under it and I can't use the tails stock with or without the addition of the extension which I have . . . .
Good point Peter. I tried first with my Oneway live center and the diameter was too large. Fortunately, I had a live center from my old lathe that was smaller in diameter so it is now just left in the extension and used for coring.

[Peter Blair]

I had thought about that and just never got around to it. Guess I should look for a smaller live centrer.
Thanks!

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Pete,
Sorry I missed your question. My computer was down a couple days with a failed video board. Wow, talk about missing something....... Anyway, I use a Morse taper extension. They are available on line. Ours uses #2 to #2. It will make your ram 6" longer. I should probably rephrase that............
Faust