Sears Bowl Crafter

[Dick Brown]

I just became the proud (?) owner of a Sears bowl crafter. I have a lathe to do serious turning but this thing looked like fun to play with. Brand new but old, never been out of the box. Have no idea when it was made. The cutters are a seperate item, not included with the unit. They are like a router bit but threaded inside to screw onto the spindle. Sears dosn't show them when I enter the part no. so, like so many other Sears things, they must have quit offering them.

My question is, anyone out there have any input on this unit and also
anyone have the bit set they would care to part with.(3 cutters)? Or, anyone out there need a new unit without cutters?

Thanks,
Dick

[David Walser]

I've never heard of a Sears Bowl Crafter. Is it similar to the Ringmaster?

http://www.ringmastertool.com/

[Dick Brown]

David,

This thing uses a router mounted horizontally on a bracket with an extended shaft and a router like cutter to cut out the waste. The work mounts on a faceplate like a lathe which is driven by a motor and gear reduction to only run at maybe 15-20 R.P.M. All I know about the thing is what the pictures show on the box. Did get it put together but no cutters to try it out. On the box it says "Cutter bit set (3) sold seperately Part # 21235" Hope others will chime in on how it works.

Dick

[Richard Kagen]

went looking for a picture of this thing

http://morgantown.craigslist.org/tls/1427542608.html

[Ralph Lindberg]

went looking for a picture of this thing

http://morgantown.craigslist.org/tls/1427542608.html

em, I don't think the Router Crafter==Bowl Crafter

[Ralph Lindberg]

I recall the thing, it was on the market in the 80's and I give it about 30 seconds of thought

I suspect the bits were something like a 1/4 inch round nose, 3/8 inch round nose and maybe a fairly steep champer bit

[Dick Brown]

Richard,

The router crafter and the bowl crafter are two diffrent tools. I paid $10. for the bowl crafter and have the router crafter that was given to me. May have spent more than they are worth even at those prices!! Tried the router crafter for a little while and it was to fussy for my taste even for free. I am going to be working with a teen age boy soon and thought the bowl crafter might be of interest but so far have had no luck finding the cutters. Look a lot like a router bit as near as I can tell from the pic's but the hole in them for the stem is threaded inside to screw on the "spindle" or stem extension. Anyway, thanks to all you guys for your input.

Dick

[Harvey Matyas]

Dick

Did you ever use the Bowl Crafter? I purchased a used bowl crafter along with the manual. However, the templates that came with the unit when it was new is missing and I can't find where I could buy the templates. I have one of the router bites and one of the profiles for that router bite. If I can't use it for the intend purpose to make bowls, I may try to motify it as a router duplicator by replacing the bite extension with so type of cutter.

Harvey