McNaaughton Coring System

[Dale Bonertz]

Reed I hear you, I know that's what heating the blade. I agree with the single kerf for sure however as you spray the WD40 into the kerf as it spins it slicks the side walls in the kerf and also helps cool the blade. Works well for me. It is all personal preference for example I don't care for the square end on my cutters. I tend to have a slightly longer sharpening on the outside edge from the tip than the inside. Since the outside edge needs to cut more wood it tends to push the tip inward where less pressure on the interior cutting edge is cutting. I also shorten the tip angle closer to square but not quite that far. Again that is what helps me in the drift rather than trying to bend the tip. Everyone needs to play around a little bit to find what works best for them to gain the confidence of the tool.

One other note sometimes the rubbing on the blade can happen if the user has turret set too high. As you track the rubbing starts about 1/3 way down the cut. The wood starts rubbing the bottom edge of the blade from about 1" to 4" back from the cutting edge which can get it very hot, smoking hot literally (this also depends on the size of blade being used). If one stops and lowers the turret even a 1/16" to 1/8" helps with the clearance on the interior blank rubbing so hard on the bottom edge of the blade.

All this dialogue is great from folks so people can try different things to find what works best for them.

P.S. Reed it is too bad with live so far apart. It would be fun to get together with you and collaborate on a good video. We could try many different things and most likely solve a lot of issues for folks.

Happy turning

[Pat Scott]

How can you tell if your blade needs to be replaced? As you sharpen the tip it gets shorter and the kerf gets smaller because the cutter is tapered. When is it time to replace a "worn out" blade or how do you know when it's worn out?

[Reed Gray]

I did experiment with tip shapes. The original ones had a tip that was all on one side of the blade, and kind of swept back or angled back to the outside. I tried that, square, and angled to the inside. It didn't seem to make any difference in how the blades tracked in the cut. I was chatting with the Oneway people in KC at the symposium there, and the rep commented that the spear point on their tip kept the blade centered in the cut. I don't agree with that at all. I had them ship me a tip that was hardened, but didn't have the chip breaker point on it, and sharpened it like a standard tip, leaving a good burr. It tracked fine, with no tendency to wander off course. It, to me anyway, cut far better and with less effort than their standard tip, and you don't have to take it off to sharpen.

robo hippy

[Jeff Walters]

Hi All,
Looks like I really started a lot of conversation. I have been away for a bit because of schedules. I also watched a lot of videos on using it with Robo Hippy's being my favorite. I did get the McNaughton and have used it once. It was with a piece of heavily spalted Maple and like everyone said, there is a learning curve. My biggest problem was the screws in the handle coming loose. I have put some Lock Tight on them and we'll see how that works. The person I bought the Nova DVR off of said I should rewire it for 220V so I get a little more horsepower out of it and less chance of burning up the motherboard. Does that make any sense to our DVR owners here?
Jeff

[Reed Gray]

I have turned and cored on a DVR. I am pretty sure it was wired for 110. The thing that surprised me about that lathe is how much torque it had, especially considering how small the motor looks. Not sure what difference it would make.

robo hippy

[Jeff Walters]

Hi All,
I have been using the McNaughton off and on for about 6 months now and feeling a lot better about it. I had lots of issues with the 2 grub screws, the seat the blade, coming loose. I fixed that by using Locktite on them however the issue I am still having is the thumb screw that tightens down on the blade keeps coming loose and I cannot use Locktite on it. Any suggestions on what I can use? Do I have to make separate handles for each blade and use Locktite on all screws?
Thanks,
Jeff

[Reed Gray]

Well, I never knew they had a thumb screw. I have always used the 2 set screws, and can't remember if they loosened up or not, but I do make sure to snug them down pretty good. I keep a T handle hex wrench handy. Since I have a couple of sets of them, I pretty much keep the blades I use most often in one handle, which is 4 of them. Mike Mahoney cuts his handles in half and used each end. I do keep one long handle. If you start off at center height, by the time you get to the end of a deeper core, you are often well below center because of the cutting pressure and the flex that is designed into the system. I do start with the cutter 1/4 inch or so above center height. I can 'feel' when the cutter is too low to finish cutting the blank out. Most of the time, if I have the long handle on, I will lower the handle a bit. Note here, this is master level skill. For most, you should raise the tool rest a little bit. I won't try this with a short handle on the tool.

Scrapers, and all coring systems use a scraper cut, on the inside of a bowl, you want to be at or slightly above center. This is because if you get a catch, the cutter will drop out of the wood. If the cutter is below center, it digs in deeper. This is the most common cause of extra vibration when coring.

robo hippy