Thread: homemade large scraper for hollowing

How deep?

say 15 - 20cm but its narrow so cant get my too rest in deep enough to be safe enough for my liking

For that depth a 1/4" is way too small. At least 14 to 16 mm minimum.

sweet thanks . so would a removable woodcut tip work? or would it have to be like a round nose scraper?

Originally Posted by mat_au

say 15 - 20cm but its narrow so cant get my too rest in deep enough to be safe enough for my liking

I like to have 2 to 3 times the length behind the tool rest as what is extending over the front.

If you intend to do any amount of bowls and do not have a 5/8 inch / 16mm bowl gouge, buy an unhandled gouge with an overall length of 300mm and put a 600mm handle on it.

Put the gouge 75mm into the handle and use a stout ferrule of steel or a coupler for copper pipe.

I like a big fat handle as I have big hands and arthritis, small diameter handles make my hands cramp sooner than I like. The long handle lets you put the back of the handle between your upper arm and body and gives lots of control.

The top one in the photo below is one I made. Going down, Thompson 5/8 gouge, Easy Finisher, Crown 5/8 gouge, Bodger 1/2 inch gouge.

The Bodger is Chinese and gives a good account of itself. It needed the inside of the groove honed and stays sharp only slightly less than the expensive ones.

Bodger 5/8" Bowl Gouge | Woodturning Gouge | Turning Tools

If you don't want to make your own handle, several companies offer "long and strong" bowl gouges.

You originally asked about a scraper. If you still are wanting a scraper to hang out 200mm, get a piece of 16mm drill rod and handle as above. Grind the top half off the rod 30mm or so back from the tip and then round off the nose with about 15 degrees back at the bottom.

Refer to my junk tool photos higher up in the thread for the grind.

With the round rod, it will be stiff and you can roll it over and shear scrape.

I used the two ugly junk tools to make bowls for over a year until I got some crazy money for Christmas and bought a $75.00 16mm Crown bowl gouge made of high speed Sheffield steel.

The advantage of a scraper or Bedan type tool is that you can set it down on the flat plate in front of your grinder, hold it down with one finger, rotate the tool side to side to sharpen the whole rounded nose and be back to cutting in 15 seconds or less.

so would a removable woodcut tip work? or would it have to be like a round nose scraper?

You do not say how much metal working experience or equipment you have. If you are going to mount a woodcut tip to something, you might as well make a bowl gouge with about 150mm of useable gouge. If you make a lot of bowls, you might grind off 25mm a year from sharpening.

If you are making closed vessels you will need to make some funny side cutting scrapers or Oland tools as suggested above.

Originally Posted by mat_au

say 15 - 20cm but its narrow so cant get my too rest in deep enough to be safe enough for my liking

Another option is the Robert Sorby modular tool rest system with their tool post and the flat tool rest for box scrapers.

Mat

I have been in the process of putting some handles on chisels I made a while back and I will probably start a new thread for that. There are gouges, parting chisels, skew chisels and scrapers, but it is this last group that I thought might be of some interest. Here are some pix. The smaller scraper still requires it's handle.

P1010013.JPGP1010012.JPGP1010016.JPG

The larger round nose is 26mm wide, the vee shape is 18mm and the smaller round nose 22mm. All chisels are just under 8mm thick. The handles are tallow wood, which I acquired from Forum member Mapleman and be aware that the backs do need further flattening to be truly sharp.

As you can see the steel is far from perfect being old truck springs, but as long as a good flat surface can be achieved on the under side of the blade for up to 25mm back from the cutting edge you will be able to sharpen them satisfactorily.

Because they are carbon steel, they will need more frequent sharpening than HSS, but they will also be easier to sharpen (quicker). Having said all that I would be one of the worst woodturners around. In fact the irony is that the only turning I do is for handles for chisels, screwdrivers and the like. In other words very limited.

If you plan to do a significant amount of work I would suggest you treat yourself to a good quality chisel (even if you have to starve yourself for a week or worse stop drinking alcohol).

There is some fun in making chisels such as mine and it cost me nothing as long as you don't take into account a considerable amount of time. Probably the purchase of HSS blanks are a better bet providing you can buy the right size.

Really when I think about the only justification for the home made effort is if you cannot buy exactly what you want unless you have the perverse desire to make something from nothing or at least waste tending to scrap materials.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Regards
Paul

wow thank you all so much its good to know there are ppl out there to help young new members like myself. just wanted to post and say thands im in the middle of my roster atm so ill sit down on wednesday and have a good read

A simple but very long & strong tool for this is an Oland tool. I made one following the instructions here Wood Turning Tools: Making the Oland Tool using a 100 mm length of 10 x 10 tool steel (same as they use in metal working lathes) set into a length of water pipe set into a wooden handle. I use this tool in preference to a gouge to rough out, as it NEVER catches and is bomb proof.
Another way to make a scraper is to get an old skew chisel and grind it down as a scraper.
I have several scrapers made from thickish chisels and never had/have a problem - the drive belt always slips if there is a catch, so no breaks so far. Has anyone actually had a file-scraper snap or is this just an urban myth?

Originally Posted by deepriver

Has anyone actually had a file-scraper snap or is this just an urban myth?

No myth.

I have had gouges snap.

As for files, if you could ask a mate of mine about files he would tell you to never use them, he was killed by one that snapped.

I have snapped a scraper I can tell you that it's not a good felling
snapped bounced off the inside of the bowl lathe spat it out at hight revs strate into my facesheild.

If you are going to use files make sure you have a parmedic close by ,yes I had one break into about 5 pieces inside a bowl when I was 20yrs old im now 67 and I havent used one since not a good felling I used to make my own the spashed out and bought a Crown tool revelution great tool for hollowing just my 2 cents worth

Ian

well im glad a file never came to mind at all. at this stage im going to get a nice peice of HSS steal from work and about 10mm thick 20mm wide and about 500mm long and go from there or get a HSS pole and about 500mm long and drill a hole at one end for a woodcut bowl gouge tip

I've bent a gouge & I've had a HSS gouge snap. It was replaced but I have never trusted them since.