Dealt with tear out

[Rick Fisher]

Was turning a bowl today out of Chestnut. I was having a terrible time with tear-out and couldn't seem to do anything to get rid of it. It was like the wood was stubborn. It had a definite directional feel to it ..

So I spun the banjo around 180 degrees, put the lathe in reverse and used the same scraper at the same high angle, but from the other direction.

It worked. No tear out.

I am new to turning. About 5 weeks .. I figured it works with hand planes. Why not ?

Is this weird, normal .. is there some simpler way ..

Feedback ?

[Josh Bowman]

Rick, very normal. Wood is wood......unpredictable. As with hand planes learning to use a sharp cutting tool like a gouge and following the bevel usually helps. But again, wood can be unpredictable, sometimes a scraper will cut clean. Keep your mind open to changing the cutting approach to wood. One word of caution, most stuff screw on the lathes head stock, reversing could unscrew it if precautions aren't taken, like en-gauging a grub screw.

[Thom Sturgill]

Reversing direction between grits when sanding is common. As Josh said, reversing is not without issues as a chuck or faceplate can unscrew unless the grub screw is tightened and removing the chuck or faceplate without loosening the grub screw can damage the threads on the spindle, though a file will generally clean them up.

Another, slightly embarrassing, issue would be starting up in reverse and not realizing it and wondering why your gouge isn't cutting not that that has ever happened, mind you!

[Reed Gray]

Well, I can't figure out why that would work. When turning in standard bowl grain orientation/flat grain, for 1/4 turn you are cutting with the grain, and for 1/4 turn, you are cutting against the grain, then it repeats. So, if you reverse, then the quarters are reversed, so in theory, you should still get some tear out but opposite from where you were getting it before.

robo hippy

[Ron Rutter]

Reed. The orientation would be the same. The only way it would be different is if the grain structure was spiral. I think! Ron

[Reed Gray]

Orientation is still the same, but the quadrants reverse, kind of like when you reverse the bowl, the tear out on the outside is opposite from what is on the inside.

robo hippy

[Rick Fisher]

Maybe I held my left foot just right .. I dunno .