Touch n turn gouges in literally ten seconds

[Rob]

Hi folks

Thought I'd share a big time saver at the lathe.

It's for roughing of either between centre spindles or bowls.  We all know that those first few cuts are the most brutal on the tools, whether its the square edges ( or bark) of a spindle or the bandsaw'd or chainsaw'd bowl blank.  The stock is all over the place, lathe at slowest speed for safety, it's just ugly!  Those edges sure take a pounding.

My method is a short cut extraordinaire.  You set the tormek up for your favourite starting point bowl gouge (or roughing spindle gouge depending on what you're turning ). I have the tormek on a table literally one foot to the right of my tailstock.  I insert the gouge in the jig which for roughing bowls for me is the 65mm projection hole A JS 2 grind ie regular.  Nothing fancy for roughing out. 

I start turning. Bang bang. Slap of some hard corner and the edge goes off the boil.  Now turn back to the tormek, jig up and sharpen again, this time I leave the jig clamped to the gouge.  There's enough room in front of the jig to accommodate my gouge on the tool rest, in fact the additional "handles" gives me more control of the gouge.  I turn some more, back on the tormek etc. I roll the edge about four times on 1000 grit, don't bother to hone as for roughing that edge is easily sharp enough.  I've timed it and its literally ten seconds.  I don't even turn the lathe off!

Purists will say, hone etc....remember this is roughing out, aim is shape and fast stock removal safely.  I now spend virtually no time sharpening and all turning.  I take it out of the jig when the articulated collar starts to restrict movement by hitting the tool rest.  That tends to happen as you come right round the base of a bowl before reversing it ie anywhere the gouge is a long way over the tool rest

This method will have you turning not sharpening.  It's akin to the speed of hand grinders on dry wheels but with all the advantages of the tormek ie perfect bevels every time with no risk of drawing the temper of the steel.

[Jeff Farris]

That's an interesting idea. It seems to me it would be in the way, but I've never tried it.

Just one point to add to the whole issue of getting the piece round. Run your lathe as fast as possible without vibration. By that I mean if you have variable speed, dial the speed up until you get vibration, then back it off a little. You want to minimize the time that there is a gap between contact with the stock and no contact. The faster the piece is turning, the less likely your tool will creep too far forward into the space.

[Rob]

That's an interesting idea. It seems to me it would be in the way, but I've never tried it.

Just one point to add to the whole issue of getting the piece round. Run your lathe as fast as possible without vibration. By that I mean if you have variable speed, dial the speed up until you get vibration, then back it off a little. You want to minimize the time that there is a gap between contact with the stock and no contact. The faster the piece is turning, the less likely your tool will creep too far forward into the space.

Thanks for the response Jeff. I agree re vibration, my lathe is a variable speed and I do exactly as you describe to balance speed and safety.

I also thought the gouge jig would catch on the tool rest but thought what the heck, tried it, and to my surprise it worked for the most part. As I mentioned it comes undone as you sweep under and have the gouge protrude a long way beyond the rest.  But when I say ten seconds I really mean it literally. Because the edge is only just off sharp anyway, literally 3 or 4 passes on the tormek has it true again. It's the installing of the jig (on the gouge) and the universal support setup that takes all the time and not the actual grinding.  Because this approach makes those two steps redundant, the grinding time is negligible.

I'm straight back on the lathe and you get that sweet feel of a sharp tool slicing the fibres again. I guess the principle is little and often.  Because the time "burden" is removed you're actually motivated to sharpen more often.  I'm so confident in the technique I would challenge any hand/dry grinding approach where judgement was based on time to get back turning and quality of single facet bevel

[Jeff Farris]

But, of course, the only thing you're really gaining is the 3 seconds it takes to drop the gouge onto the TTS-100 to set protrusion. If you leave the jig setting fixed, and the Universal Support position fixed, then the only thing to set is protrusion. Furthermore, leaving the tool in the jig and grinding repeatedly, you're changing your protrusion (albeit very minor) with each grind.

I do what you're talking about...that is sharpening frequently, with the Tormek right beside the lathe...but feel that leaving the tool in the jig is going to take more time figuring out how to hold the tool with it on there than I would spend measuring the protrusion with the TTS-100.

[Rob]

Aye, you're right Jeff. However holding the gouge with the jig clamped to it really isn't a biggy.  Maybe when you next do a bowl give it a whirl and see what you think.  It works great for me :-). Nice talking to you