Thread: Using Spindle Roughing Gouge

Spindle Roughing Gouge
^^^^^

Hi Steve,

I am curious to hear what people say in response to this. I would think it is unlikely to matter with regards to safety unless the blank is incredibly gnarled around the outside and there is high potential for a catch. For a typical blank which has been pre-roughed on a band saw I would think that this would be a safe practice. The only fallback I might see is that the rounded, fingernail profile of a bowl gouge actually lowers the effective cutting angle (assuming your bowl and roughing gouge have the same bevel angle) which assists in sheering those two endgrain zones on either hemisphere of a faceplate blank.

Now... That said... While I have thought about this before, I eventually dismissed the thought based on the idea that there was no real reason to try it. A large bowl gouge works fine for this. I understand that a large (30-40mm) spindle roughing gouge could make a wider cut, but are you really turning bowl blanks that are so thick that this really solves anything?

Not to shoot down your question... I am just genuinely curious what the advantage might be to using a roughing gouge over a bowl gouge for this application.

Cheers,
Luke

Further to that, I know a lot of people tend to think of the roughing gouge as a tool which doesn't need to be quite as sharp as, say, a bowl gouge. I'm guilty...

But with this proposed application I would only do it with a freshly ground/honed roughing gouge. Otherwise I think you are greatly increasing your chances for nastier cuts through the end grain zones. But you can always hit them with the scraper I guess.

Cheers,
Luke

Luke, you can do two things...
1. Before you use the roughing gouge on any face plate work, notify the ambulance and the emergency dept. at the hospital of an impending disaster.

2. Be sensible and use only a bowl gouge, or even a spindle gouge, for any face plate work, including bowls.

In other words do NOT use a roughing gouge on face plate work.. please?

Jim

Spindle roughing gouge for bowls

See here for why not https://www.woodworkforums.com/vbtube...Gouge-on-bowls

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Spindle roughing gouge for bowls

See here for why not https://www.woodworkforums.com/vbtube...Gouge-on-bowls

You beat me to it!

There has been a deliberate campaign to rename them spindle roughing gouges (SRG's) in the modern era of wood turning.

Milled bowl gouges are a much preferred choice for face grain orientation work over forged tools. However that was not always the case as the fluted bowl gouge milled from solid round bar stock is a relatively modern invention from the late 1960's. All bowls prior to that time were turned using forged hook tools or forged fluted gouges.

The reason SRG's should not be used for roughing squarish face grain orientation flanks to round is the hazards created from inappropriate tool presentation, stresses imposed on the tang from such inappropriate use, and the risk of injury through breaking the tang, or shearing off large sections of the blank etc.

As Powderpost says above - please do not use SRG's on face grain orientation blanks - unless you love living on the edge and like visiting emergency departments.

A couple of handy resources for you
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.woodtur...detogouges.pdf
http://www.peterchild.co.uk/info1/sflute.htm

Originally Posted by WaggaSteve

I know (and understand) that because of the sharp corners , this tool is designed for between centres and should not be used on bowls. However, can I use it to flatten stuff that will later be turned into bowls or is all faceplate work banned ??
Steve

Steve, many milled bowl gouges are supplied stock standard with "sharp corners." Tool presentation and awareness of the position of the actual "cutting portion" of the cutting edge, wings and corners is a significant part of learning tool skills. The sequence of cuts is also very important.

I'm not sure what you are referring too when you say "flatten stuff that will later be turned into bowls." Are you saying trimming to round? or simply flattening off the face of the blank? or rough turning to shape with over thickness walls to hasten drying of wet timber?

I almost said the answer could be in the name

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

Spindle Roughing Gouge
^^^^^

Trimming to round and possibly flattening face
Steve

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Steve, many milled bowl gouges are supplied stock standard with "sharp corners." Tool presentation and awareness of the position of the actual "cutting portion" of the cutting edge, wings and corners is a significant part of learning tool skills. The sequence of cuts is also very important.

I'm not sure what you are referring too when you say "flatten stuff that will later be turned into bowls." Are you saying trimming to round? or simply flattening off the face of the blank? or rough turning to shape with over thickness walls to hasten drying of wet timber?

Originally Posted by WaggaSteve

Trimming to round and possibly flattening face
Steve

Give the SRG a wide berth and go for a milled fluted bowl gouge i.e. "bowl gouge". look up some of Glen Lucas' or Mike Mahoney's DVD's & videos on roughing and coring bowls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NaBnaMnLJI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_0jHdjdh0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY2OnZmeZOA

My interpretation of the original post was that he was wanting to use the roughing gouge to basically rough the stock to round, then sit it aside. So after you bandsaw off the corners the first thing you do after the lathe turns on is hit the edges of the somewhat-round blank with the bowl gouge, thus making it truly round. THEN you move to the actual "face" of the blank and start to shape the bowl.

In the ill-fated video the guy is doing what everyone knows not to do, which is approach the face of the faceplate with the roughing gouge. Just to clarify: I do not in any way endorse this practice, and if my original post read in such a way that felt otherwise please accept my apology.

BUT I'm still not convinced that the same violent reaction would occur if you were just doing it to rough the bowl blank to round, which is what I thought was being asked. As Steve clarified in his last post, he did intend to flatten the face, so he now knows not to.

But what about roughing to round? It seems like you're eliminating the factors at play which make it so dangerous by not approaching the face of the blank.

Thoughts?

It was good to hear Robbos voice again.

I'll tell you what, if a bloke with that vaaaasssstttt experience tells you not to do something and then shows a finger almost being torn OFF in way of demonstration, its good enough for me!

Thanks for the timely reminder all!

Good clip of how not to use a spindle gouge... ouch.

So..... do we classify the 32mm P&N SRG ( milled from 32mm round bar) as an enormous bowl gouge ( at an enormous price!)