I got a DVD in the mail today from Reed Gray showing me how to core bowls using the McNaughton system. I watched part during lunch and the rest as soon as I got home and went to the shop! I recently bought a used setup from a fella on the AAW forum. Now I will say that my pre-owned McNaughton setup is an older version and the one in Reed's video has what looks to be a newer piece or two....but the important lessons transfer to either model.

I went real slow and triple checked everything to try to not screw the cores up. The blank was a freshly processed (by me, tonight) chunk of cedar and just becuase I had to know, I checked the blank after coring and it was 14.6% moisture. I made a basic bowl shape and turned a tenon on it. First try and the blank hit the floor! Broke the tenon clean off the blank. Doh! So I flipped it around and did a recess instead. This worked better for the large blank. I still used a tenon for the other two and the size (I think) allowed the tenon to work.

SO.... I can anounce that I have officially cored my first nested set .......AND I repeated it again with the other half of the log!

This system works pretty good. I can see (after watching Reed) how the new gate piece would be a benefit, but believe me ....it isn't a have to have part!

The negatives: A bit of a learning curve to imagine how the knife is proceeding into the blank and it cuts a pretty wide slot (which seems like overkill to me).

Here's the pics to prove it:

core1.jpgcore2.jpg