GN Stearns Adjustable dowel/tenon cutter

[Morbius]

Craig, say you're going to cut a 1 1/4" tenon on a 2" piece of wood, you've got to reduce the end of the wood enough to insert it into the mouth of the cutter. You could probably use a rasp or a draw knife to achieve that. I think a spoke pointer is the best option but anything will do if you haven't got one.
I'll keep my eye out for one for you, you occasionally see them on ebay or at swap meets.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Geoff,

That's a generous offer!

I'll play with a rasp first off to see how I go I am looking forward to sharpening the blade this weekend when my adult supervisor isn't looking

Craig

[Morbius]

Well,

I just finished sharpening the blade to 12.5 degrees on both sides and had a quick go at cutting a tenon on a bit of old pained dowelling I had in the junk pile. I used a rasp as per Geoff's suggestion above to fit the auger and had a quick go.

The mouth of the auger clogs quickly, causing some tearing of the dowel. The dowel is old and dry as, so that probably exasperated the issue.

I examined the mouth and noted that the blade seems to sit proud of the mouth a little and I am was initially not sure if this was a fault in the casting. I removed the blade and noted 2 small bumps under the blade, similar to a super low quality frog I have on one of my first planes. So I figure the proud blade is deliberate.
I took the blade out and polished it a bit, to help the shavings slide past the blade. Having no other references to hollow augers, I decided to use a bit of candle wax (thanks Jim Davey for this tip on my planes!) to lubricate the casting under the blade to help prevent it from clogging as well.

Suddenly, a big difference!

I'll post a few pictures tomorrow after I get off work.

While I figure that the blade is meant to be a little proud, I note that it isn't at 90 degrees to the casting, having a slope of approx 3-5 degrees. Is this the same on other similar hollow augers, or something I need to fix?

Thanks,

Craig

[Boringgeoff]

Franklin it probably would fit in an Ultimatum but then you'd have to file a notch in the tang, better stick with your Stanley. Incidentally I went to clean mine up to see if it had the Stearns brand the same as yours has on the big dished head of the bolt and found mine is cracked, looks as though it's been over tightened. The later model (yeah I know, I need help) uses a much thicker bolt head at this point so may have been an inherent problem.

Craig, see how Franklins blade looks on the first photo in his post #4 that looks pretty good to me. I would assume that the same theory for setting up a plane would apply to the blade of a tenon cutter, but I don't know anything about planes. Since the corner of the blade needs to be pretty well in line with the inside edge of the mouth of the tool there's nothing else you can adjust apart from sharpening it at a different angle. It sounds like you've got it going ok now.

Cheers,
Geoff.

[Morbius]

Here we go, a few photos of the auger before I got it working, what I found and how it is going.


Phoenix Hollow Auger - Uncleaned 01.jpg Phoenix hollow auger, needing a bit of a clean.
Phoenix Hollow Auger - Uncleaned 02.jpg Bottom of same hollow auger. Screws all seized. After an overnight soak in WD-40 and accidentally dropping it in a wooden floor (), they came unstuck.

Phoenix Hollow Auger - Partially Cleaned 01.jpg A quick look at the results of removing the worst of the rust, and cleaning up the screws. Gave the blade a polish and a sharpen.

Phoenix Hollow Auger - Partially Cleaned 02.jpg Using wax to lubricate the mouth of the "frog" - no idea what the correct hollow auger terminology is, so using plane talk instead, as well as I can.

Phoenix Hollow Auger - Partially Cleaned 03.jpg The two bumps that are in the frog I mentioned earlier. You can also see where I cleaned up the mouth of the frog a little.

Phoenix Hollow Auger - Partially Cleaned 04.jpg Here you can see the mouth of the auger still clogs, but thats after a few turns on a very dry piece of dowelling, rather than on the first turn as I found on my earlier attempts.

Phoenix Hollow Auger - Test Tenon 01.jpg The results. Not pretty, but getting better.

Craig

[Fuzzie]

Hi Craig,

It looks like you have the blade set considerably forward of where it is set on mine. Also it looks like you have a very sharp leading corner.

I think the leading corner should be the first point of contact and it should be relieved a touch to give it a slicing entry to the wood rather than a sharp point digging in and catching. The rest of the blade then naturally follows with a slicing action.

I read this recommendation for setup on some other forum when I was first looking for info, but I can't seem to find the post again.

Franklin

[Morbius]

Thanks for those tips!

I'll try relieving the corner of the blade and move the blade back a bit. I'll post pictures of the results after I do this.

Craig

[Fuzzie]

Some more information here, but not the posts I was thinking of...
http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthr...Number=6770167
http://swingleydev.com/ot/get/162315/thread/

[Boringgeoff]

Hi Franklin and Craig,
that's a good link to the Woodnet forum article by MikeS and Phil S. Mike makes the point of boring the hole first then adjusting the tenon cutter to suit, that makes sense, since some bits are slightly different size from what they're branded. Though Phil is using an A A Wood tool he nails the process pretty well in his post. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Franklin.
The next post down by MikeS is a link to Mike Siemsen, I think is incorrect when he says a spoke pointer is also called a "Fore auger". A fore auger is a spoke pointer and tenon cutter in one tool and is used to "rough out" a spoke or stick so that you can reduce it to the required finished size with the tenon cutter.
The two in my photo are by A A Woods and Sons of Atlanta Georgia patented in 1901 (690339) and will cut a tenon of 1 5/16". George Stearns had 25 years earlier, in 1876 (181874) patented a fore auger that was adjustable from 1/2" to 1 1/2".
Enough pedantry from me.
Cheers,
Geoff.

[Morbius]

After my initial trial, I was pretty happy and have I picked up a spoke pointer, and have got a smaller one on the way.

I have yet to relieve the blade and adjust it to have another go. I'm keeping an eye out for some green wood to try out the complete set, once I sharpen the spoke pointer.

I'm thinking 25 degrees for the spoke pointers, making sure that the inside is waxed as well.

Photos after I give it a go on the weekend (hopefully).

Regards,

Craig

[Boringgeoff]

G'day Craig,
Have you had a chance to have a play with your spoke pointers and tenon cutter yet?
I'm still trying to fine tune cutting the tenon in line and also swapping between the Stearns and A A Wood to try and work out which I prefer.
If I put the stick in the vice dead straight (level), register the end of it against my belly and hold the head of the brace at that point then I'll get a tenon that runs down. If I lower the head of the brace an inch or so lower the results are better.

Cheers,
Geoff.

[Morbius]

Actually, I've just sharpened one of the spoke pointers and polished up the blade a little, and it works beautifully.

IMG_0190.jpg


IMG_0191.jpg

I also ran some wax over the inside of the spoke pointer and got rid of the surface rust that was in there. I don't have an decent photos of the points I was cutting because I got a bit excited and kept trimming bits down with the pointer! I'll post more pictures this weekend

Craig

[planemaker]

Hi Fuzzie. I have an E. C. Stearns No. 13 flexible sole spokeshave in my tool collection. http://virginiatoolworks.com/2015/04...le-spokeshave/

Stewie;

[Boringgeoff]

Hi Stewie,
Nice tool, interestingly, the EC Stearns 1924 catalogue refers to it as a "new tool" even though it had, apparently, been in production from 1900. Also quite an expensive tool, where the ten other spoke shaves in that catalogue are listed from $4.00 to $9.00 per dozen the No 13 comes in at $30.00 per dozen.

Cheers,
Geoff.

[Fuzzie]

I found a brace to fit my tang. At first perusal I can't see any makers marks and I don't really know what pattern brace you would call this, but it holds my big tang solidly.

It's quite heavy and all parts appear to be forged iron. The swing feels a bit on the large size, but I guess the mass will help it make the cut.

Cheers, Franklin

p.s. I missed Stewie's update about the adjustable spokeshave. Pretty tool!
brace.jpg

[Andy Mac]

I found the Stearns tenon cutter in an old catalogue at work. We don't have one, our adjustable one is a James Swan, and we have a couple of fixed ones, plus a pointer. We use them for demo's and they all work pretty well. When we are really making wheels though we use a set from Pine Creek Industries in US, which fit to electric drills or a drill press! 😉 I have taken some photos but not sure if I can send them from my phone.
Cheers