Home Made Tool

[Peter Blair]

Hey Thom. Do you quench in oil or water or does it matter?
Would this process work with drill rod or other high carbon steels as well?

[Dale Winburn]

My most used home built tool is my bowl lathe. I've use this lathe to make every bowl I make. It's been a real work horse. That's a 17" cherry salad bowl on the lathe.

BowlLathe.jpg

[jared herbert]

are you talking about the blue tarp chip shield? Ha Ha

[Darrell Feltmate]

Most of my tools are shop made. My favourite for bowls would be my 1/4" Oland tool and for spindles my skews. I have a 1/4" round in HSS, a 3/4" I reground from a flat parting tool, a 1/2" straight that began life as a bench chisel and am making a 3/8" from a drill bit. Making tools is a good part of the fun of turning. Nice to be back on the site. I have not been here for a year or two.

Darrell

[Thom Sturgill]

Hey Thom. Do you quench in oil or water or does it matter?
Would this process work with drill rod or other high carbon steels as well?

I think I mis-stated the steel type - it was A2 the O refers to Oil quenched while the A is air quenched which is why I bought that steel. It was drill rod, but in a softened or annealed state which made grinding and shaping (or bending) much easier. Hardening and tempering was as I described and we used a MAPP gas torch. A2 classifies as a HSS and is a stainless alloy. (ie it has chromium in the mix I believe). I am not an expert in these matters, but there are several sites that have good info (including SMC). There is a discussion and chart on crucible.com that gives the heat ranges for different steel types. A2 has a low preheat temperature that can be obtained with MAPP gas, but gets almost as hard as 10V, probably nowhere near as good an abrasion level though.

[Thom Sturgill]

I know you said one tool, but I just thought of two others that I use constantly. I bought a length of 3/16" aluminum rod from the borg and cut it into two lengths and rounded and polished the ends. One was bent into a circle as a thickness gauge while the other is a sighting stick for measuring the depth of the bowl, box, or HF. The polished ends keep it from marking the piece I'm working on.

[Peter Blair]

Dale, I think you win!!! Some of the other Creekers are sneaking in more than one home made tool.

Your bowl lathe looks fantastic!

[Peter Blair]

I finally finished my "Christmas Tool".
I went with Curk and Berni and made a small skew.
I am anything but a polished Skew user but this little guy works great.
Sorry for the phone photos but I left my camera at my daughters at Christmas and haven't had a chance yet to retrieve it.
IMG_1452.jpgIMG_1453.jpg

I spent a lot of time thinking and researching a 'sphere' making jig but just couldn't get my act together for this Christmas so I am planning to build it over the next few months.

[Mike Peace]

One of my favorites is a chatter tool I made. The shaft is a piece of conduit with a 1/4" hole. The blade is a replacement chatter tool blade which cost about $6. An alternative that has worked well is a 1/16 x 1/2 x 4.25 HSS cuttoff blade from Grizzly for about the same price. I have a 1/4" bolt that goes thru the conduit held inside with a 1/4" nut. The bolt presses the chatter blade against a small half round dowel section with the same contour as the inside of the conduit.
chatter tool_0134 (Small).JPG

[Dick Mahany]

Most of my tools are shop made. My favourite for bowls would be my 1/4" Oland tool and for spindles my skews. I have a 1/4" round in HSS, a 3/4" I reground from a flat parting tool, a 1/2" straight that began life as a bench chisel and am making a 3/8" from a drill bit. Making tools is a good part of the fun of turning. Nice to be back on the site. I have not been here for a year or two.

Darrell

Not to hijack this thread, but good to see you posting Darrell ! I've visited your website and made several tools when I first started turning from your excllent info. Inspiring.

Now........back to the regularly scheduled postings And to stay on track, my favorite and most used tool, (more like accessory) is my home made twin bed tail stock pivot.

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[Mike D Harris]

I'd like to grind a pointy scraper that I don't use into a bowl scraper profile. What's the procedure? It seems like taking off that much material would screw up the hardening/tempering.

[Dick Mahany]

I'd like to grind a pointy scraper that I don't use into a bowl scraper profile. What's the procedure? It seems like taking off that much material would screw up the hardening/tempering.

If the tool is HSS, then you can reshape it without loosing hardness. Just take it slow and a little bluing won't hurt it. If not HSS, then heat treating would be required.