Thread: Bowl Saver Alternative?

Originally Posted by sjt

I'm in the market for the woodfast bowl saver however I'm baulking a little at the price. Is there an alternative to the bowl saver thats a little cheaper or am I best to go with whats known?

Thanks in advance,
-Scott.

Woodfast. Shouldn't it be Woodcut?

Yep, sorry. Brain fade.

ive got a woodcut bowl saver and i reckin its great cuts a bowl bloody quick but limeted to only one shape have also used a kelton bowl saver able to make the shape differently but twice the price

Bowl corers pay for themselves if you are:

• buying your blanks,
• turning something like 50+ bowls a year, or
• you are using very expensive wood, or otherwise valuable wood
• a less significant benefit is it reduces the amount of shavings that you have to remove form the workshop, but this will not help pay for your investment.

There is a more expensive corer than the Kelton and the Woodcut, the Oneway.

The Kelton is more versatile, more expensive and more difficult to master than the Woodcut.

As far as I know there is not a cheaper version of these types of corers.

The Bowl Saw may suit some, but unless you are into turning lots of dog bowl or hubcap shapes it has very limited design options, but could easily be made.

Straight parting tools will produce cone shapes.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about designing a powered corer; a Kelton-router hybrid. The flexible drive shaft to follow the curve and a small enough chuck and support bearings to minimise the width of cut are the design challenges. The cost would be well above any of the above, but, if it worked, it would be oh so sweet.

Robo Hippy on this forum who has extensive coring experience has made a video on coring and is in my opinion the expert on the various corers.

I was lucky enough to pick up a second hand McNaughten bowl saver so they do pop up sometimes. The bowl saw would be a standby while you wait for something else to come along. Sure it cuts a dog bowl shape but you do get to save some usable wood. It is also cheaper than most turning chisels.
Regards
John

The Woodcut is a nice little system. Big blade is 5 inch radius, so you could remove a fair sized core out of a 12 inch bowl. They are working on making a larger blade for the system. It is on a pivot center, and you can come in a bit more or less from the side for deeper or shallower forms.

The McNaughton is a better option in my opinion. There is a bit of a learning curve with it as you do all the aiming by hand. Every one who has tried to use it has sworn at it, and every one who has learned how to use it swears by it. You do not need the entire set of blades, and the standard set will probably core about 95% of the bowls you will ever turn. It is also the only system that has blades designed for the mini lathes. Both Mike Mahoney and I have a DVD on using this tool. He does twice turned bowls (green turn, dry, return) and I turn green to final thickness, dry, sand, and finish. Slightly different styles.

You do want about 1 hp or more for motor power. The cutters on all the systems are about 3/8 inch wide, so if you can take a 1/2 inch scraper and turn with it, you can core.

If you core about 3 to 4 sets of bowls, and sell them, you have paid for the system.

robo hippy

As a side note John Lucas who is a member here has posted else where, his home made version of a Kelton. I gather it works well and as he is a semi professional if not prefessional wood turner. I would imagine he has a lot of use for it and there fore his design would be worth a look at.