nesting tools

Hi all,
Has anyone got experience with nesting/bowl saver tools I have been given a couple of beautiful pieces of crows ash that are all fiddleback and I would hate to turn most of it into shavings. I have turned the smaller piece 360x360 as it was only 70mm thick the other is about 180mm thick same size. Our club is interested in buying a set to get better recovery out of our blank stock and we are looking for advise about which way to go the only one's I have been able to find are the wood cut and Kel Mcnaught,s set's any replies and advise very welcome.
Regards Rod.

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Originally Posted by Rod Gilbert

Hi all,
Has anyone got experience with nesting/bowl saver tools I have been given a couple of beautiful pieces of crows ash that are all fiddleback and I would hate to turn most of it into shavings. I have turned the smaller piece 360x360 as it was only 70mm thick the other is about 180mm thick same size. Our club is interested in buying a set to get better recovery out of our blank stock and we are looking for advise about which way to go the only one's I have been able to find are the wood cut and Kel Mcnaught,s set's any replies and advise very welcome.
Regards Rod.

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The McNaughton system is the most versatile but has a steeper leaning curve than the Woodcut.

A 2HP lathe will make the task easier.

Saving cores to make further bowls will come soon enough, but getting a nest of thin bowls will only come for most of us after much practice.

For an individual buyer, consider how many blanks one could buy for the cost of a bowl saver. One can go straight in at an angle with a long and strong parting too to make a cone shape, then remove from the lathe and whack the edge of the center piece a few times with a mallet and get two pieces. A club buying a bowl saver may have a better cost - benefit ratio.

I get almost all of my bowl blanks free, picked up off the side of the road or by helping people fall and cut up timber and getting some choice pieces. What few blanks I buy are off cuts from a wood seller: Wood — Asheville Hardware I pay 3 - 5 - sometimes 10 $$ for blanks.

Fancy woodworking store has exotic blanks $100 for a 3 X 12 inch burl. I am not in the $300 - $500 bowl league, so I pass.

Paul
I have used a Woodcut bowlsaver for probably more than 10 years and it has paid for itself many times over .Most of my timber is free and green but I do have to purchase burls at times .As a rule of thumb , the bowl saved will cover the cost of the blank and the main bowl is profit .Another advantage is you end up with a lot less shavings to get rid of .
I would not core out a 360mmx 180mm blank as the bowl would be out of proportion . I would cut the blank in two to give one about 100mm thick and one about 70mm thick . You would then get three bowls out of the thick blank and two from the thinner one .
Ted

I picked up a Woodcut Bowl Saver from the Woodcut in NZ in March this year, so my experience is limited.

I've found that the greener, or wetter the timber is, the better and easier it is. The dryer it is, the harder it is to core. As for whether hardwood or softwood is easier or harder to core. My limited experience is that the dryer it is, the harder hardwood is to core. When wet, as in dripping wet, I haven't found much of a difference; hot knife through butter experience.

My lathe has 2.2kW motor and things move along nicely. That said, it does at times labour if I start to push it or the cutter isn't that sharp. Hence my sharpening regime of a quick minor sharpen after every cut. I was speaking to someone yesterday who uses the Woodcut Bowl Saver with a 1.125kW lathe, works quite well as well. Essentially, the feed rate is the core issue (pun intended). :D

I have done a few where the wood is effectively dry as, very hard work and very noisy. Doable though, but you wouldn't wish to do it all the time.

I also have a Woodcut credit card sized diamond sharpener, two or three passes as per their video after each bowl core I cut, keeps things as fresh cutting as possible.

Yesterday, I visited a regional wood club in Victoria, we were shown, among other things, their mill; which is primitive but very effective. I picked up a piece which was approximately 1.5m long by 150mm thick and around 300mm to 320mm wide.

Upon arriving home I immediately worked out what I could do and cut it into 4 pieces, then rounded them on the band saw and started to get them ready for coring.

This morning I started and after working out the game plan, I was off. The piece you see here is the biggest bowl core at 320mm diameter (external) by close to 140mm deep (external). Since that was done I have gotten another two from the left over core, making three very usable bowls from each single piece. 12 bowls should come from this. It would have been possible to get 4 bowls from each blank, but the smallest one would be so small I feel the work involved is not worth it.


Mick.

Edit, changed the 140mm to external, over internal measurement as I remembered it incorrectly.


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Thanks for the replies and advise greatly appreciated thank you. I will try to get photo of the bowl I have already turned to show why I want to get as much as possible from the other pieces.
Regards Rod.