Vortex tool - Cindy Drozda - questions.....

[John Keeton]

In watching the Cindy Drozda DVD on the Finial Star, she is using a "Vortex" tool. This looks to be nothing more than a piece of drill rod that has been honed with a flat surface at an angle to the center of the rod, and then ground with swept back wings, and undercut to get rid of the excess heel. She uses the tool for crisp cuts on small details with great success.

I have looked for a source without luck, but it seems one could make a "Vortex" tool easily enough. Any experience with this little tool?

[Bill Bolen]

John if I remember right this is also called the skeewchie gouge and I believe she made it herself...Bill...

[John Keeton]

It does look very similar to a Sorby Spindlemaster, or the Versa chisel from PSI, but the flat portion does not appear to be parallel to the length of the rod, but at an angle. I don't guess that makes a difference so long as the grind of the bevel is indexed off the flat surface.

[Dave Mueller]

John,
One of the guys in our club makes these out of 1/4" square cobalt tool steel welded to a 1/4" square cold rolled rod. I suppose you could just use HSS, but the edge will not last as long, however, since you will not be cutting very aggressively, it may not matter. He just gave me one, but, I have not had a chance to try it yet.

He believes there are two keys to using the tool. First, if you grind the wings so that there is a sharp intersection between a wing and the top surface, he said it is really grabby. He grinds a small vertical flat at the intersection of each of the wings and the top surface which makes it much tamer, especially for finials. Second, he does not go straight in, but comes up from under the finial, otherwise it tends to break the finial easily. Look at his latest finials here http://www.gulfcoastwoodturners.org/...ary/index.html under the Segmented Catagory. He does beautiful work and gets them really thin with the very fine grooves near the top.

Dave

[Bernie Weishapl]

John Packard Woodworks has it on page 1 of their catalog. I am thinking of getting one myself. They have most of the tools she uses the most. I watched her use that tool and it is pretty neat how crisp she can get her finials with it.

[Ron Erickson]

I made one from a 1/4" screwdriver, just cut the end off and start grinding. Works good. Ron

[John Keeton]

John Packard Woodworks has it on page 1 of their catalog.

Thanks, Bernie! I found it.

I made one from a 1/4" screwdriver, just cut the end off and start grinding. Works good. Ron

This is a thought, but I sure would prefer HSS, but it probably needs very little maintenance since it doesn't see heavy use.

Dave, thanks for the link, and the thoughts on making one. If the one from Packard is handled (and, I assume it is), the price at $45 is terrible, but if one could get some HSS 1/4" rod, looks like it would be a breeze to make one.

[John Keeton]

Did a little surfing around - to buy a piece of 1/4" HSS rod 36" long looks like about $24, plus shipping. That would make 3 tools, but what to do with the rest of it? I guess there are other configurations one could make, but I think I would want some bigger rod for other tools.

Makes the Drozda tool at $45 sound better!

[David E Keller]

Little hard to tell from the picture on the Packard website, but it looks like a spear point scraper with a rounded heel... can't imagine that it would be too tough to make one.

I use a spear point scraper sometime for detail, but it's nowhere near as small as that one.

John, where did you price the HSS rod?

I've got a Drozda DVD on the way, but I think it's the other one(not finial star). Maybe we can swap them at some point if you're interested.

[Dan Forman]

8 inch 1/4" HSS bits can be ordered from Enco at a very reasonable price. Look for HSS tool bits, round. Get more than you think you will need, cause the shipping is kind of high. They make a good 1/4" round skew too. I'd pick up one or two of the 5 inch, 3/8" bits too, cause you never know, you know?

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INLMK3?PMK0NO=1100135

Dan

[Rich Aldrich]

I though a lathe was a vortex tool....

[John Keeton]

Scott, I have seen the point tools, and they look like they would work for several things.

Salvatore, I did end up making a couple out of some Benjamin Best spindle gouges I no longer use. This pics were taken shortly after making them, and I have since cleaned up the grind on the underside, and removed more stock. I use these only for very deep undercuts in finial work, and it is absolutely critical that you not enter the piece above center with one of these! You will only do it once! I now use Thompson 1/4" detail gouges for 95% of the detail work on finials.

I thought I had posted some pics previously, but don't recall the thread, and too lazy to look thru my list of attachments - too many! Excuse the hair in the pic - didn't notice it until I looked at these.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Did a little surfing around - to buy a piece of 1/4" HSS rod 36" long looks like about $24, plus shipping. That would make 3 tools, but what to do with the rest of it? I guess there are other configurations one could make, but I think I would want some bigger rod for other tools.

Makes the Drozda tool at $45 sound better!

John make you a round skew. It works well on finials also.

[Ken Glass]

John,
I have one of her Vortex tools I purchased at Craft Supplies a few months ago. It has three sides and two of them are straight angled and the other one is rounded for rounded radial cuts. I like it very well for fine finial work as long as you backup your cut with a finger or thumb, as Cindy shows in her videos. It isn't a big tool by any means. It has though, made a difference in my detail on finials for sure.

[Jeff Nicol]

Did a little surfing around - to buy a piece of 1/4" HSS rod 36" long looks like about $24, plus shipping. That would make 3 tools, but what to do with the rest of it? I guess there are other configurations one could make, but I think I would want some bigger rod for other tools.

Makes the Drozda tool at $45 sound better!

John, You can buy it in shorter lengths than that. I have bought 6"-8" and 12" pieces. You can get a 36" length of drill rod cheaper and temper it yourself too. Check out Enco and Wholesale tool and I think it is called US steel is another place that is not to bad. Just bought a bunch of carbide inserts of different styles to play with.

Jeff