? regarding turning bowls....

[Jim Laumann]

I am about to try some bowls (1st time trying this) - have serveral green blanks made up, and one where the wood is somewhat dry.

For trueing up the outside of the blanks - is there any reason I can't use a roughing gouge?

Thanks

Jim

[Sean Hughto]

Yes, there is a good reason NOT to: Roughing gouges are for spindle work. Most dedicated roughing gouges are not strong enough to take the forces of bowl roughing. You risk snapping your gouge and hurting yourself. Use a bowl gouge.

[Don Orr]

What Sean said x2. Use a bowl gouge, or even a heavy scraper.

[Reed Gray]

A scraper if my favorite roughing tool for bowls. I prefer 3/8 inch thick, and 1 to 1 1/4 inch wide. Any wider, and you can put more steel into the wood than the lathe can handle. A bowl gouge on its side is second. A spindle roughing gouge with a tang instead of solid bar stock is not very strong, and the shape of the tool does not make it a good tool for roughing bowls, even if your tool rest is close to the wood.

Go to You Tube and type in robo hippy. I have two short clips up, one on turning a bowl with just scrapers, and one on turning a bowl with just gouges.

robo hippy

[Jim Laumann]

I knew I'd get a answer here. Thanks

[Brent VanFossen]

I'm a new turner, trying to upgrade my starter tools. Would I be better off skipping the roughing gouge altogether and just getting a nice bowl gouge? I could use that for roughing spindles as well, right?

[Sean Hughto]

Brent, as in most things in woodworking, some tools will do a passable job performing a task usually reserved for a more specialized tool - think of a jack plane doing a jointing job of a 7 or a smoothing job of a 3; it works, but the more specialized tools tend to perform better over a broader range of demands. Roughing gouges - and an array of sizes of such gouges at that - are excellent for spindle work of all sorts. A bowl gouge is really great for bowl turing - again in a variety of sizes. Typically, a bowl gouge bevel is VERY different from the bevel you would want on a roughing gouge and vice versa. Short answer is - you migh be able to rough with a bowl gouge in a pinch, but I wouldn't want to regularly.

[Wally Dickerman]

I'm a new turner, trying to upgrade my starter tools. Would I be better off skipping the roughing gouge altogether and just getting a nice bowl gouge? I could use that for roughing spindles as well, right?

If you're on a tool budget a bowl gouge will double as a spindle roughing gouge very well. Just hold the tool at an angle, handle down and rubbing the bevel near the nose

[Sean Hughto]

Wally, I defer to you. All my bowl gouges have essentially some version of the Elsworth/Irish grind - all my roughing gouges have essentially a straight bevel on a U. As I said, I could make it work on a spindle, but it seems a dedicated tool would make life easier. One needn't spend much on a roughing gouge after all.

[John Beaver]

Here's my opinion...

When turning spindles the grain is running parallel to the bed ways and you are essentially peeling off the layers of wood.
With bowls the grain is usually running perpendicular to the ways so it takes a lot more effort because you are cutting across the grain.
Imagine a thin sheet of wood about a foot square. You can bend it and split it in half along the grain very easily, much more difficult to split it across the grain. (Very useful information if you are breaking wood with a karate kick... you better have all the grain running the same direction)

The spindle roughing gouge is a piece of bent metal and is only designed to handle the forces generated along the grain. Cutting across the grain generates too much force for the spindle roughing gouge.

You could rough spindles with a bowl gouge, but the spindle roughing gouge has a larger cutting area and makes the work go faster and easier.

I know that Reed has a lot of success with his scrapers, and there are many new carbide scrapers out there that will work on a bowl. I personally prefer the way a bowl gouge cuts the wood. Riding the bevel gives me a lot more control on the cut and the cutting action generates less force back into the tool then the scraper (easier on my body) and it leaves a cleaner surface. I have also seen much larger catches with scrapers. Because of the tool presentation angle the scraper handle tends to fly upwards during a catch while the bowl gouge forces tend to go down into the tool more.

[Jamie Donaldson]

I have turned bowls and all other turning mainly with bowl gouges for the past 25 yrs. I did finally buy a spindle roughing gouge a year or 2 ago to "complete my tool collection," and even use it on occasion now when doing some spindle turning projects, but don't consider it a "go to" tool at all.

[Jim Laumann]

When I asked my question this morning, I was considering the bowl blank to be just a big, rough spindle blank - I hadn't factored in the change in grain direction.

Many thanks for the heads up.

Jim

[Brent VanFossen]

If you're on a tool budget a bowl gouge will double as a spindle roughing gouge very well. Just hold the tool at an angle, handle down and rubbing the bevel near the nose

Thank you, and to the others for replies as well. I'm not on such a tight budget. Rather, I'm not far into this turning vortex yet, and am not sure where my interests will take me. I was hoping to buy a few good tools and expand them as I learn.

[Brent VanFossen]

When I asked my question this morning, I was considering the bowl blank to be just a big, rough spindle blank - I hadn't factored in the change in grain direction.

Many thanks for the heads up.

Jim

My thanks, too. And thanks for letting me lead your question on a detour, if not a complete hijack.

[Mike Peace]

Unless you are not sure you are going to stick with turning, I would suggest go ahead and getting a roughing gouge. I think you will be happier roughing a spindle blank with it than using a BG although that works. You can get a cheap 1" Benjamin Best for $22 or Amazon has a good deal on a Crown 1 1/4" at $63.17 shipping included. I use a cheap 1" from HF that works just fine. And I use it a lot since I turn a lot of spindle type items starting with stock around 2" or less.