spindle gouges

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Someone please help me. Why do they make the flutes so short on spindle gouges? More sales, maybe? A new one doesnt have much left in my Tormek after clamping it in the sharpening jig.A wheel balancer for the slow speed grinder costs about 54 dollars, so I just do the rough shaping with it. Up a dead end street on this. Max

[Dick Strauss]

Max,
I suspect that they need the extra metal for strength/vibration dampening with small diameter tools.

[Mike A. Smith]

Max, if I had to guess I would say it's so you won't be tempted to overhang the rest too far. But I'm sure someone here knows the real answer. I've had the same issue sharpening with the wolverine.

[Gordon Seto]

Not at all. It has to do with the rigidity of the spindle gouge. If the full length of the gouge is milled down. It is likely to chatter.

http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/store/Turning_Tools___Signature_Tools___Stuart_Mortimer? Args=

The following is a my post on "favorite tools":

If you do any of the off-center turning, the Thompson shallow flute detail gouge is beyond comparison. I have the Crown Pro PM spindle gouge and the Sorby spindle gouge; they have deeper flute than the Thompson shallow detail.

Here are the data:
Crown Pro PM: 0.254" steel remains underneath the flute
0.485" bar diameter

Sorby Spindle: 0.217" steel remains underneath the flute
0.496" bar diameter

Thompson shallow flute detail: 0.415" steel remains underneath the flute
0.517" bar diameter

Since the gouges have different standard on gouge size. I use the percentage as comparison: Crown 52%, Sorby 44% and Thompson 80%.

http://www.thompsonlathetools.com/tooltype.asp?TYPE=SD
His web site states 20% flute (but I can't measure the part that was milled away)

Even we disregard the difference in the quality in steel; the mass underneath the Thompson tool makes it a more rigid tool. It can overhang the tool rest far more before it starts chattering. On the other hand, a wider flute makes the gouge easier to control on long flowing curves.

Doug is a woodturner. I have been to his shop, he showed me a lot of experiments he had done with his prototypes. It is not just a better steel.

Give it a try, he has a buy-back guarantee. I'll bet you won't want to give it back.

Gordon

I have no financial interest in Thompson tool. Just like others, I have to pay for my Thompson Tools tee shirt. Proud to wear it.

[Jim Becker]

The safer tool is one that doesn't have a lot of extraneous metal available to hang over the rest and it will still be around for a lot of sharpenings with a light touch no matter how it's sharpened. Perhaps the mechanism for holding turning tools on the Tormek needs to be changed to accommodate these tools; both those that are short naturally and those that are short because they have been around for awhile!

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Thanks, everyone.Always happy to remove another wrinkle from the fabric of woodturning.Max.

[John Taylor]

HI

I had a club meeting tonight and we had a visit from Ashley Isles tool manafacturers (http://turningtools.co.uk/ashleyiles/index.html). Having read this thread earlier I asked Barry why some manafacturers spindle and bowl gouges have shorter flutes than others. His answer was manafacturing costs and resales.

He explained that as they are made from solid bar and the flute is ground out it takes about 40 mins to grind a six inch flute in a half inch bowl gouge but only about 20 mins to grind a 3 inch flute. Also the cutters obviouslly dont last as long before they need resharpening or replacing. Plus with a longer flute it will be longer before we need to replace them so replacement sales are affected. So it is cheaper to produce them with shorter flutes and also you will sell more, he also pointed out that theirs have full length flutes.

I also asked the question about strength, extra vibration etc with a longer flute especially when working a long way over the tool rest. He said they had done tests on this and the length of the flute makes no difference at all. What does make a difference is the quality/strength of the steel, the fit of the handle and the profile of the flute with regards to the amount of steel left after the flute is ground out. Which he says is why the bigger the gouge such as a 3/4 inch has a smaller flute percentage wise than a 3/8 gouge because it is designed to work further over the rest and on bigger work than a 3/8 is.

I hope this helps but I do wonder what a manafacturer who makes gouges with short flutes would say, I have a feeling it would be different.;)

I managed to resist temptation and only brought 2 new toys, sorry tools, now all I have to do is get them into the workshop and dirty before LOML sees them. :D

john

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Thanks, John, I suspected that was the reason.
I am so bright my mother called me sun,ha. Max