Thread: Diamond Point Tool

I had one, hardly ever used it so I reground it for cutting dovetails for chuck mounts.

It can be used for shear scraping.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

I had one, hardly ever used it so I reground it for cutting dovetails for chuck mounts.

It can be used for shear scraping.

Why bother cutting dovetails for chuck mounts!

I always cut a dovetail using a skew as a scraper and I do it because my O'Donnel chuck jaws are dovetailed. They give a very good and positive grip.

Hi Bazza that tool is very good if you want to make detail Vs in something like a tool handle just present it lightly with the handle slightly raised try this on a waste spindle

Cheers Ian

One of the first four tools that purchased when I thought that I might give turning a try. I did use it between centers and then reground to a round nose scraper.

Now it is actually being used.

THey were often found in sets of turning tools, designed to make a "V" cut in a spindle. They were used as a scraper, horizontally, but left a very ragged cut. A skew used vertically, on a slight angle, will make a far better cut, and clean too.
Jim

Thank you all for your help, I thought it might be used for spindel turning, might just have a play and see what happens.

Cheers
Barry

Originally Posted by artme

Why bother cutting dovetails for chuck mounts!

So big lumps of wood don't attack my head.

Originally Posted by Jonzjob

I always cut a dovetail using a skew .....

So did I until I had a spare bit if good steel to make a dedicated scraper.

Get it good and sharp Barry and you have a double handed skew there mate.

A tip for anyone using a rectangular skew with sharpish corners on the blade is to do a slight grind to take the sharp corners off. It makes it a lot easier to transverse the tool across the tool rest and stops it trying to dig in, especially if it's a cast iron rest.

Another thing I do if there are any kind of digs on my cast tool rests is to dig my belt sander out and sand the rest back to a nice smooth surface. It makes a hell of a difference. Done it a couple of times in the past 16 years or so, so it ain't going to wear your rest down.

Don't often use it myself but when I do (like Jonz) I use it as a skew.
Cheers,
Jim

I've expounded my theory before on the suject of dovetails. I think cutting them is BS.

Originally Posted by artme

I've expounded my theory before on the suject of dovetails. I think cutting them is BS.

Missed it, I always cut them to fit, not hard with tool that is the right shape for the job.

Depends on the jaws you have on your chucks. Shark jaws its a waste of time, for Nova jaws straight with a slight dovetail for their second bevel, Vicmarc Std jaws I cut the dovetail with a skew for spindle stock, or bowl gouge for bowls & refine with the skew on flat as a neg rake ??? scraper. Much stronger grip matching the bevels of the jaws.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

... Shark jaws its a waste of time....

Depends on how you use them.

I hate changing jaws so when I am roughing out, I use a big forstner bit to bung a hole in what will be the top of my blank, slap the blank on over the shark jaws & expand them to fit. The bit is just a little larger than the outside diameter of the closed jaws.
That doesn't need bevels 'cos there is a stack of grip.

I rough out what will be the bottom of the bowl & cut a foot to suit gripping with one bevel of the inside of the shark jaws & using my dedicated bevel scraper, I put a bevel on the foot with a neat shoulder for front end of the jaws to square up against.
Then I reverse the bowl onto the shark jaws & rough out the inside the bowl.
I leave a similar spigot in the bottom of the bottom of the bowl & then leave it to dry & go on roughing out more blanks.

Once it is dry, I can then reverse the bowl onto the internal spigot ('cos the shark jaws can reach the bottom of the bowl & still be done up) & true up the foot on the bottom of the bowl (with my dedicated bevel scraper) for remounting.
This is because sometimes the foot has warped a bit.
I then turn the bowl around onto the jaws & finish the job.

If I want to remove/remodel the foot once it is finished, now I can change my jaws to the big bowl/cole jaws.
(I actually hate changing jaws that much that I have a chuck with the big bowl jaws permanently attached but I also try to cut down the number of times I have to change chucks)

If I have more than one to finish, I do them all before I change chucks & remove/remodel the feet.