My First Attempt at Coring

[Harvey Ghesser]

For coring, I decided on the Oneway Easycore and the Glaser 3/4 oval bowl gouge. Both arrived quickly after I ordered them but I must say that work with the Glaser was easier than working with the Oneway:o. I know, I know, you can't compare the two:rolleyes:.

I used the Glaser Screw Chuck to mount the 19 X 8, 100 pound, very wet mulberry blank to the headstock. Worked like a charm!

I (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=227704&d=1332344534&thumb=1&stc=1I) will say this about the Glaser 3/4 oval bowl gouge, It was a pleasure working with it on such a large and heavy blank. With a total length of 33 inches and it's handle filled with lead shot, vibration was minimal (I noticed that right away)and It made quick work on the outside of the bowl. Definitely my tool of choice on these large and heavy turnings.

The Oneway Easy Core was my problem child but with any new tool, I always expect a learning curve. It worked better than I expected, considering it was my first time. I only made one funnel! But the largest core came out fine. I've got all four cores soaking in DNA at this time. I'm glad I chose the Oneway because I can see how easy it is to work with it, once I get the hang of it.

[Neil Bosdet]

Cool! It looks like you cored the smallest bowl first then worked out. Is this so? I've often wondered why, in every demo I've seen, it's done the other way (outside-in). In my imagination, as I don't own a coring rig, it would be more efficient to core the smallest to the largest. Thoughts?

[Richard Allen]

The coring experts, including Mike Mahony, indicate that thinner cores can be made from the outside in than from the inside out. I guess having the mass in the center while coring makes for a more stable coring.

I find coring inside out is quicker and less adjustment with the Oneway system. Setup the "tool rest" for the largest core and then start with the smallest core. The support blade will need to be adjusted as you progress with each core and between cores. You won't need to adjust anything else. This will yield fairly thick cores but the cores will all be successful and will have enough wall thickness for drying.

[Roland Martin]

Congrats on the new tooling, very nice. That mulberry looks great and should yield some really nice bowls.

[Bill Wyko]

Very well done Harvey, I knew that gouge would be up for the task, a real animal. It really is amazing that the Glaser chuck is able to man handle that 100lb'er. I'll have to put mine to a test like that when my new PM lathe comes in. Excellent job on the bowl and I look forward to hearing how you like the coring tool once you have some time on it. If there's one thing I hate, it's when I turn the entire center of a beautiful burl into dust to make a bowl. Yet another tool for the "to get" list. Thanks for sharing my friend.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Harvey,
Here's a tip. Draw all your intended cores on the face of your big blank before you begin the first core. Planning your cores makes sure you are within the sizes of each knife. Try not to be at the minimum or maximum. Remember, you will often use the same blade twice in a core, once near the lower end of it's range then again neat the upper end of the range. I draw in and blacken the entire "kerf". Next tip, the blades come sharpened but not to the new shape Oneway now recommends. Sharpen each blade with the sharpening jig. The #1 and #2 knives can usually make two cores before needing a touch up but the #3 will need it every core in hard woods.
Speed is important. Don't core at too high a speed and loser it as you use larger blades.
Make a spacer for each size blade. If you watched the video, you already know what I am talking about. The spacer isn't a bible, just a guide. There are times you will move the base closer or farther as you core. There is a maximum bowl depth you can achieve. Too thick a blank and the tool holders will strike the blank before the baseplate touches the guide board. All that means is your last bowl, the money bowl, will have too thick a bottom and you will finish it "by hand".
Lastly, after you take a core, push your center into the next bowl to be and mark the perfect center. Since you have no tenon on the cores, when you are ready to second turn, you can mount the core concave side toward the tailstock and using your Morse Taper extension find the middle while pushing the outside into a jam chuck (vacuum chuck). Then you can true a spot on the inside so you can safely turn the bowl around. put the trued interior on the vacuum chuck and either finish the outside with vacuum of create a tenon if you prefer.
By the way, beautiful lathe and set up. The Glaser looks like a beast. Good luck with it all. When I get a second I will take a picture of the rack I made to store my blades out of harms way.
Faust

[Bernie Weishapl]

Looks like it is going well for you Harvey. I always start with the smallest and go to the largest so I don't have to keep stopping and putting a tenon on. I pretty much follow Faust with marking each bowl on the face and blackening where the kerf will be cut.

[Mike Spanbauer]

That's a sweet setup for sure. That Glaser chuck is certainly a beaut too. Quick question though as I can't tell from the pics - did you screw chuck the reverse as well or use that tenon I see in pic5? Looks rather small for such a large blank, just want to ensure any looking at these pics who aren't familiar with coring know the safety rules is all :)

(I use a McNaughton and am a coring fan all the way, considering getting the oneway setup soon too for a different use case).

Pretty wood, should turn out rather nicely (sorry, that pun wasn't intended, but I'll take credit :))

mike

[scott schmidt grasshopper]

I core the larger blanks first then I have done the tenon and can finish turn ( green ) the bowl, once the large one is turned I move on to the next size smaller. it helps me to be able to reshape the outside of the largest bowl to remove any defects that might show up between cores.

[Baxter Smith]

Congrats on your first core Harvey. What size jaws were you using on your chuck, the tenon looks a little small for that big a blank? I would have probably ripped it off if I had tried it Were you able to use the tailstock for support on the larger cores?
Great looking tools and setup!

[Harvey Ghesser]

Congrats on your first core Harvey. What size jaws were you using on your chuck, the tenon looks a little small for that big a blank? I would have probably ripped it off if I had tried it Were you able to use the tailstock for support on the larger cores?
Great looking tools and setup!

Hi Baxter,

Thanks for your comments! I used my Oneway Stronghold to hold the blank. I used the Glaser Screw Chuck to turn the tenon and shape the blank. And as far as using the tailstock...:o I had ordered the tailstock extension but it hadn't arrived yesterday...so I like to live dangerously at times...but fortunately all worked out.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Cool! It looks like you cored the smallest bowl first then worked out. Is this so? I've often wondered why, in every demo I've seen, it's done the other way (outside-in). In my imagination, as I don't own a coring rig, it would be more efficient to core the smallest to the largest. Thoughts?

Hi Neil, You are correct in that I did core smallest to largest. That was the method Oneway recommended it be done in their video done by David Lancaster. This meant that I didn't have to remove and remount for each subsequent core. Worked great for me!

[Jim Burr]

Nice work Harvey! Inspiration for my Oneway purchase soon...McN learning curve, IMHO...is too expensive.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Nice work Harvey! Inspiration for my Oneway purchase soon...McN learning curve, IMHO...is too expensive.

Thanks, Jim...BTW you and I have something in common.

[Harvey Ghesser]

That's a sweet setup for sure. That Glaser chuck is certainly a beaut too. Quick question though as I can't tell from the pics - did you screw chuck the reverse as well or use that tenon I see in pic5? Looks rather small for such a large blank, just want to ensure any looking at these pics who aren't familiar with coring know the safety rules is all :)

(I use a McNaughton and am a coring fan all the way, considering getting the oneway setup soon too for a different use case).

Pretty wood, should turn out rather nicely (sorry, that pun wasn't intended, but I'll take credit :))

mike

Mike, I used the Glaser Screw chuck to turn the tenon and shape the blank. I then reversed it and used my Oneway Stronghold chuck and core the blank.

[Michelle Rich]

the mulberry looks promising..I await the finished set

[Tim Rinehart]

Nice work. I didn't see if mentioned, but though my approach is smallest to largest, I've also heard it makes sense to go from largest to smallest to make sure you are always optimizing the largest core section first. I think with careful planning and practice...it won't matter much personally, just whichever way you like to do most. Setup would seem to be minimized going smallest to biggest.

[Scott Hackler]

I core from largest down. I believe its better for me because the end result are cored bowls WITH tenons already on them and its easier for me to visualize the cut when I am always coring 1 1/4"ish thick...all the way through the bowl curve (or pretty close). I would be afraid that me geometry would be off by the time I got to the largest core and would screw up the most important one.

I do agree that marking out the kerf with a marker is a great way to plan the cuts.

Nice work Harvey. Hope the finished set turns out good.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks like you got that coring stuff all figured out! Looking forward to seeing the completed set!

[Pat Scott]

For a 19" bowl blank, the tenon should be 40% of the diameter or around 7"-8". Your tenon looks like 3" at most? Coring puts a lot of stress on your lathe, tools, and wood. Glad you didn't have any problems, but I'd sure look at getting bigger jaws or a bigger chuck with bigger jaws.

I mark each diameter on the outside for reference. I used to core from inside out, but lately have switched and now do outside in. This let's me put a tenon on each rough out. When I started on the inside, if I didn't get the curve just right and ended up with a thinner bottom than I wanted, this caused "challenges" re-turning it after it dried. If you have a round bottom rough out, you can easily lose 1/2" to 3/4" in depth when flattening the bottom once dry (when creating the tenon). If you have a thin roughout, you might not have enough thickness to do what you want, especially with the foot.

Creating a tenon on each blank ensures I won't have problems when re-turning. I think of it as "quality" instead of "quantity".

[Reed Gray]

I would consider that to be a rather small tenon for that size of bowl, especially if you are coring. If you go very lightly when coring and turning (that means slow to me) then you can get away with it.

I prefer to remove the largest core first. I use a big forstner bit to drill a recess in the blank for turning the bottom. I use a recess, though tenon works just as well. I finish turn my bowls green and let them warp, so the efficient method it to finish turn the outside first, reverse, remove the big core first, then finish turn the big bowl. The core had the recess centered for remounting to turn the bottom of the first core. No screw chuck, and the main chuck never comes off the lathe.

I don't think it really makes a difference which method you use. If you are rough turning, drying and then finish turning, you could remove them from the smallest down.

McNaughton vs Oneway, well, Oneway has almost no learning curve. McNaughton is a LOT faster. Time to finish turn and core a 4 bowl 14 by 6 inch blank, for me about 45 to 50 minutes. I have never timed myself with the Oneway, but it is much slower. Time in production work is money.

robo hippy

[Dick Strauss]

Harvey,
Congratulations on your first time successs!

Do yourself a favor and get the OW Cutter Sharpening Jig for the coring system. It is inexpensive (about $20) and just makes things easier IMHO. It has templates to align the platform to the right angle with respect to the wheel. Then you mount the cutter in the jig. This allows you to hold the cutter parallel to the platform surface even though the cutter has a tapered side shape (for side clearance). You really sharpen four areas of the cutters though the directions aren't real clear about this. You shapen the top face of the cutter just forward of the mounting hole once mounted to the jig (to sharpen both cutting wings at once). You should see a shapening line straight across the top face of the cutter if it is aligned properly. You also sharpen the top bevel on the center protruding knife and you sharpen the bottom bevel on the center knife. When you sharpen the bevels, come in from the corners of the wheel (and make the bevel face parallel to the wheel face) and sharpen across the grinding surface of the wheel. Stop before you hit the corners of the outer cutting wings while trying to sharpen the bevels (DAMHIKT!)

http://oneway.ca/coring/cutter_sharpening.htm

Take care,
Dick

[Brian Kent]

What an amazing process (and result). I love woodworking techniques that seem impossible until you see it work.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Harvey,
Congratulations on your first time successs!

Do yourself a favor and get the OW Cutter Sharpening Jig for the coring system. It is inexpensive (about $20) and just makes things easier IMHO. It has templates to align the platform to the right angle with respect to the wheel. Then you mount the cutter in the jig. This allows you to hold the cutter parallel to the platform surface even though the cutter has a tapered side shape (for side clearance). You really sharpen four areas of the cutters though the directions aren't real clear about this. You shapen the top face of the cutter just forward of the mounting hole once mounted to the jig (to sharpen both cutting wings at once). You should see a shapening line straight across the top face of the cutter if it is aligned properly. You also sharpen the top bevel on the center protruding knife and you sharpen the bottom bevel on the center knife. When you sharpen the bevels, come in from the corners of the wheel (and make the bevel face parallel to the wheel face) and sharpen across the grinding surface of the wheel. Stop before you hit the corners of the outer cutting wings while trying to sharpen the bevels (DAMHIKT!)

http://oneway.ca/coring/cutter_sharpening.htm

Take care,
Dick

Thanks, Dick...I always thought it was a good idea to get an extra cutter and any grinding jigs that are made available. Based on the profile of the cutter, I'm glad I bought the jig, although I haven't used it yet. I'm currently looking around try to find another monster blank to core.


What an amazing process (and result). I love woodworking techniques that seem impossible until you see it work.

Brian, it actully was a lot of fun!