A couple of months ago, I helped core out a couple of big pieces of camphor at one of my turning-group friend's shop, using his PM-3520-B and the One Way coring rig. Loved it, and decided to look into getting something like that.
So I sprung for the Woodcut Bowl Save Max3 tool, and have used it the last couple of days. Very impressed.
It has a couple of major differences from the One Way:
- Instead of using separate supports under the blades, it provides more massive blades, in effect building the support into the blade. This makes it easier to use, as you don't have to stop several times during each coring, to re-position the support.
- Instead of being attached to separate support hardware specific to the tool, the Max3 is fixed in place by using the banjo's tool-rest holder, and the tailstock. It feels pretty secure, and simplifies the setup process.
The three blades provide a coring range from 18" to 3", roughly. So if you have a 20" blank to start with, you can produce an outer bowl of that diameter, with the first inner bowl being about 18", and more bowls inside that.
I found their recommended approach, working from the outside in, made a lot of sense:
- Using the face plate on the "flat" side of the rough blank, round the blank and put a tenon on the round side
- Reverse and re-mount it using the tenon in your chuck, and true-up the flat side
- Put a recess or tenon on the flat side (this will be useful when you want to mount the cored-out interior, and continue coring more bowls)
- Core out the largest bowl, put it aside
- Mount the remaining blank using the flat-side tenon or recess
- Turn another tenon on the round side
- Rinse and repeat
This way, you have fully-prepared roughed-out bowls, ready to remount after they dry (or if already dry, ready to final-turn right then).
Here's the setup, ready to core out the first bowl on a 15" spalted maple blank. The tip of the blade is lined up with a mark at 1.25" inches in from the outside, and the flat-side tenon is ready to provide a mounting point for the remaining wood, after each core is taken.
Screenshot 2018-03-16 at 11.12.31 PM.jpg
And here's the three bowl blanks, after coring; 15", 12.5", and about 10".
Screenshot 2018-03-16 at 11.16.37 PM.jpg
Operating tips:
- Always check that everything is tight before you start cutting; it's a demanding tool, and you don't want anything loose. This includes: your chuck, the tool-rest post lock on your banjo, the banjo-ways lock, the two blade attachment screws, the pivot post nut on top, the pivot post screw on the bottom, the morse-taper lock on the tool base, the tailstock quill lock, and the tailstock-ways lock. All of these are essential to making sure both the wood and the tool are locked in place, before you start pushing a long blade into a big piece of wood spinning fairly fast.
- Take it slow and easy, pushing the blade in. At first, the shavings fly out quite easily; later, as the blade goes deeper, you'll need to draw it out fairly often, to clear away the shavings. It's easy to stall your lathe, if you push too hard or fail to clear the shavings, so easy does it.
- It gets loud, with much more vibration, as you close in on parting the remaining blank from the core you're working on. If you're lucky, you can stop at just the right point, and snap the remaining blank off the core you just did. Otherwise, it comes loose, which is fine, just a little startling at first.
If you're interested in coring out multiple bowls from a large blank, rather than just making a huge pile of shavings to get one bowl, this tool is worth considering.
Robert
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