Rasp for turning

Never being one to avoid asking what's on my mind...

Would a surform rasp or similar have any use on the lathe? I was wondering if it would be handy for those "chippy" or wrong-way grain turning projects that really don't want a whole lot of material to be removed at once.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper
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Try it and bring us a report.

I have used a belt sander on a piece while it was turning on the lathe. Had it turning in reverse at the time and it worked ok. I forget now what I was working on.

Reply to
G. Ross

I've used one to help carve some knotty areas. With any tool on a moving job one has to be prepared for kickback work splitting and tool destruction.

Mart> Never being one to avoid asking what's on my mind...

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

You know, it might be interesting to watch a Youtube video of someone using a sureform rasp on a lathe. That is about as close as I would want to come to actually doing it. You are going to have catches and tearout galore.

Reply to
Dr. Deb

OK I tried it. I used a sharp surform (small hand-held type). The heel rested on the tool rest and I held the center against the work with varying pressure. The piece was a 4" cylinder 4" long which had been roughly turned round. It was well dried sweetgum wood.

At 100 rpm it caught and stalled the lathe. At 400 rpm it soon filled with shavings. The blade was hot to the touch. There were multiple mini-tearouts which did not happen with a bowl gouge. Also slower than a sharp gouge. My impression: not useful.

Years ago I made a special baseplate for my router and a tool rest for it to ride on and tried it for rounding irregular pieces. At that time I only had a hand-me-down HF monotube lathe. It did work, but was cumbersome and scary and I soon abandoned the idea.

Reply to
G. Ross

"G. Ross" wrote in news:b8GdnVlvHKvdgV snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Good to know, thanks! I got a little busy (a good kind of busy) and haven't gotten back to the lathe with the tool to try it. At 400 RPMs, though, with that tool filling with shavings and getting hot means my lathe (a HF lathe) at it's slowest speed, 600 RPM, would probably damage/dull the tool rather quickly.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

It could be useful, but not in the way you're thinking. When roughing a square piece, I will use a rasp to take off the hard corners, before actually turning. My headstock locks, so I will use that to hold the piece, take the rasp to the corner, unlock, turn 45 degrees, knock off the next corner, etc. A sureform would work just as well for this. At any rate, it does make roughing out a piece a bit easier.

Reply to
Bob

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