Made a set of wood turning chisels

[Ed.]

Hi Guys, I recently had to make a small wood knob for a old wood plane I bought at a local market, and I decided to use my metal lathe to do it as that was all I had, it turned up well and that got a new hobby/habit starting for me.

After posting on this forum, apparently quite a few of you guys use a metal lathe for wood work, so I decided to join the ranks.

Anyway needed some big chisels so scrounged around for a big leaf truck spring which I got for $5 at a recycling plant, sliced and diced the ends off with a cut off wheel to make the shanks and then a few different profile ends. Found a small length of hardwood plank and ripped it down to 45mm square and then turned those in the lathe with the carbide tipped tools lathe tools I had.

Had enough wood in that piece for 4 chisels but found a hardwood round dowel which I used for the other two, that dowel wood wasn't as nearly as nice or hard for turning with a lot of tear out, so used it for the 2 smaller chisels. Drilled a 13mm hole for the shank and then used a small hand wood chisel to enlarge the angles and shape the hole to fit the shank. Forced a heated piece of aluminium pipe over the end and also one on the handle to stop the wood from splitting when I forced the shank into the hole. I would have preferred to use stainless pipe but didn't have any of the right size so made do with the aluminium which is what I had, then put a series of cross cuts on all 4 sides of the shank to help give some grip to retain the shank in the hole together with some epoxy. I grooved the handles to provide some extra grip and put in an small round hook to hang them somewhere.

Just need to do the final shape grinding on the ends and polish them up a bit, but they seem to work OK as is. The steel isn't as hard as I would have liked but a file will just scrape off the edges a little bit, but not easily, so the steel seems to be reasonably hard. A couple of coats of Estapol to coat the wood and ready to go.

Do of you guys have other recommendations for shapes that I might need? I will probably figure out new profiles that I might need once I get some practice doing some bowls and things, but at this stage this basic set should do me untill I decide whether or not I like wood turning. The drink can is in one picture just for size comparison.

Cheers

Ed.

 

[schor]

Nice job Ed.

 

[LJP]

Hi Ed, nice set of chisels! You might make a "spear" point, and a round nose chisel. These are both scraping chisels, as are the shapes you have already made (except for the gouges).
Scraping chisels are easier to use, and will allow some intricate details.
A "skew" chisel is used for a "shearing" type cut, and can take some practice to master the technique, easy to catch in the grain and cause tearout. It can also be used as a scraper, as well.
You will probably want to make an 1/8" or 3/16" parting tool.
If you google woodcraft supply, or robert sorby there will pictures of all the standard shapes. You may want smaller sizes for some work as well as the sizes you have.
Old mill files make great lathe chisels.
Nice set, you have started! Woodturning is a lot of fun.
Best of luck, Larry

 

[DMS]

Looking awesome.

That steel is probably spring steel, 1095 or 5160, something like that. Will take a good edge if properly tempered. If you decide the edge isn't holding up, it should be easy enough to re-harden/temper them, though I would experiment on a leftover piece of that spring first

 

[Ed.]

Thanks fellas, also Larry, thank you for that Robert Sorby name, I googled it and went on to his site, gave me some ideas and watched one of his movies, I liked the Turnmaster indexable tool, I could possibly make something similar and use some of my metal turning carbide tips. I will bookmark that site for later study.

I am still trying to find a cheap Variable Speed inverter to drive the motor, can't find any used ones and ebay has plenty but double at what I can afford, so getting quotes from China which should work out 50% less including delivery. Their 3 phase 415V units are priced at what ebay listings have for 240V units. They will have warranty but from my point it will be nill as it would cost more to send back than get another new one but I could live with that risk. Seeing one of my electrician mates on the weekend and will show him the specs from the info I have received and he can advise me on which one is better and what features I really need, as I am sure they will all have more features than I require.

Ah! too many projects on at the same time, still working on making a radial arm saw followed by a router/saw bench. There just isn't enough hours in the week.

Cheers

Ed.

 

[David Kirtley]

Ahh, something I actually know about

Seeing that you are from Oz leads me to say one thing though, your native woods are beautiful but insanely hard. You will eventually want to get tooled up with some HSS and carbide tips. Those indexable metal cutting tips mounted on steel shafts are all the rage and work well for some things. Look up Easywood tools.

Softer than a file is exactly what you want in those carbon steel tools. Wood turning ends up with a huge amount of interrupted cuts and can do bad things when tools are too hard.

Keep your speeds low and don't normally scrape with those tools. You have to be careful not to overheat carbon steel turning tools. You cut metal so you know what a chip looks like. If you are getting dust and not chips, you are scraping. Any scraping you do will have to be *very* light and stop often for the tool to cool down.

You only really need one skew. Turning skews are usually double beveled so they will work both left and right. I would convert one of those skews to a parting tool. The curved side blade on the far left of the first pic won't be that useful unless you are doing bowls or other hollow forms. The second from the right you will most likely use with the bevels to the sides and the flat edge pointing up. Shapes like that are really nice for cutting in details. You did a nice job on the gouges. Look up fingernail bevel. On the skew and gouges, you generally ride on the bevel for it to regulate the depth of cut.

 

[283v8]

Very nice - you may have just lengthened my list od "to do" things.
Love the great idea using a truck spring