McNaughton coring system - newbie questions

[Al Rogers]

I have access to a regular sized McNaughton coring system at our senior's workshop but no-one knows how to work it. After reading the short instructions and watching some of the videos available, I have some questions I was hoping someone might answer.

A) is the gate ( the round thing with 4 fingers the tool slides through) grub screw tightened to allow the gate structure to swivel, or to be fixed/ unmovable?

B) The instructions suggest a safe rpm speed but dose not say what a "safe speed" would be. What would a good rpm speed for a 12 in dia oak blank might be?

Would it be better to use another type of wood to start?

thanks
Al Rogers

[Jeffrey J Smith]

Al: I use the Mcnaughton system a fair amount...thegate needs to be able to swivel on the post. Keep the set screw just tight enough to keep it in the groove on the post, not tight enough to keep it from swiveling.
I've never turned oak, but for the native maple we get a lot of up here I typically core at about 700 rpm for pieces that are 14" and smaller. Slower is better to start, make the rpm something you're comfortable with until you've figured out what's going on when.
The learning curve can seem long, and you may want to think twice about coring that beautiful piece of wood until you've made a few funnels from the blander stuff.

Jeff

[Reed Gray]

I prefer the gates/fingers to be locked in place, but that is me. For first attempts, I would suggest some green wood, maybe 12 inch diameter, and maybe 4 to 5 inches thick. Plan on getting one core out of it. I would core a blank that size at 500 rpm at least, and usually closer to 1,000, but I core a lot. Use a softer woof for first attempts. Fruit woods are perfect, not too hard, not too soft.

robo hippy

[Richard Jones]

Reed won't toot his own horn, but his DVD on the McNaughton is really invaluable when you're learning the system. Highly recommended.

Rich

[Al Rogers]

thanks for the ideas - I have some fresh soft maple I'll have a go with first, I think.

daily thought:
Turners are rarely happy when the ID becomes bigger than the OD.

AL

[allen thunem]

mike mahoney has prodcued a mcnaughton video as well