bowl saver question

[Duff Bement]

I am looking at purchasing a Woodcut Bowl Saver from Craft Supply. Has anyone had any experience with this brand or one of the others out there? All comments and suggestions appreciated.
Thanks, Duff

[David Walser]

Duff,

I've not had any personal experience, but I've read a lot about each of them. Here's what I recall learning about each:


Kelton: Most flexible system and most difficult to learn. Available with knives for any size lathe and just about any size blank. It reportably requires a lot of horse power to use efficiently. (That's not a complaint I've read about the other bowl savers. Still, the Kelton works with "under powered" lathes if you go slowly.) Many professional bowl turners use this system.
Oneway: Not as flexible as the Kelton, but it, too, comes in various sizes for various sized lathes. Easier to learn to use than the Kelton.
Woodcut: Less flexible than the Kelton, but eaiser to learn and smoothest of the three in operation. The smoothness might be due to the fact the Woodcut tool is supported by both the toolpost and by the tailstock. The tool comes in only one size and has only two knives available for it. The maximum sized core it can remove is 12" in diameter by 5" deep. The minimum sized core is 3" in diameter.

While neither the Oneway nor the Woodcut are as flexible as the Kelton, that doesn't mean that they are not flexible. By changing the distance from the blank (North and South along the ways) and the distance from center (East and West), you have a lot of flexiblity in the size and depth of the core you remove. The Kelton gives you more flexibility in the shape of the core.

Hope this helps.

[Reed Gray]

Duff,
I have all 3 systems, and prefer the McNaughton. The Woodcut is a good coring system. It is small. The big blade is a 5 inch radius. The system is on a pivoting center, so it is simple to core with. You do need to hook your tailstock up to the back of the plate it is on for coring. There tends to be some chatter with the tool, especially when coring at maximum size, and/or in harder woods. Origionally, it came with 2 paper templates that you would laminate and use to determine where the blade was going to end up. Now they have a laser pointer (for about $100 I think). I don't think the laser is necessary. Just make some plywood templates to go between your tool rest and the headstock to determine coring depth (set up the jig with your chuck on, and swing the blade so it comes within a half inch or so of your chuck jaws, and cut the plywood to fit). I do consider this one to be good on 12 inch lathes, easier to opperate than the Oneway 12 inch system, and more blades (2 blades to one). McNaughton also has a mini and micro set for the smaller lathes. 4 blades in a set, small curve, meduim curve, large curve (which means fairly flat), and straight parting tool blade.
robo hippy

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have the oneway and really like it. I tried the Kelton and the Oneway. I have cored a few bowls with the oneway and I like the ease of use.

[Frank Kobilsek]

Duff
I own the Woodcut system. Worked OK on my Jet 1642 works even better on the PM 3520. I think the extra power and stiffness helps. I use mostly wet wood and find that the bigger the tenon on the blank the better the performance of the system. Use your biggest jaws and you'll do fine.
Frank