Turning tools

Don't buy a set. You're better off getting a couple of good tools that match the type of turning you want to do than getting a half dozen tools that you only use a couple of.

If you plan on doing bowl work, I'd recommend a 3/8" bowl gouge. I'd also recommend a 3/4" skew chisel. I usually get my tools from Packard Woodworks,

They specialize in woodturning, so the tools they sell are good tools. The Stone Mountain tools don't look bad, but I've never heard of them before so can't really say. I presume you already have a grinder to sharpen with. It's not a bad thing to get a sharpening jig to maintain an consistent profile on the tool. I use a Oneway wolverine jig. There are other jigs that are similar that you can't go wrong with.

Mostly I'd recommend that you find a turning club near you, and find some experienced turners to give you some lessons. If there are none, I'd get some turning videos and watch them multiple times. "Turning Wood with Richard Raffan" has always been one of my favorites.

Hope this helps...

...Kevin

I've been turning for about 8 years (in between other wood projects and work)....I've never seen those tools, but I bought the 8 piece set from Harbor Freight years ago for $40. It's now going for $60 (when not on sale). This set meets all of my spindle and pen turning needs. Bowl turning which I'm just starting to play around with needs a bit different chisels (or at least a different grind on them).

IMO, basically if they are HSS (High Speed Steel), then if you don't like the handles - turn your own. If you don't like the grind angle on them, change them. I've also found that investing in some system like the Wolverine sharpening system ensures that I get it nice and accurate when I sharpen the gouges (much better than doing it free-hand).

Gimp

Set up appropriate filters and see almost none of the irrelevant crap. That's what I do.

No idea about that particular set, other than they evidently can't spell "spindle" right. I'm also a little suspicious of High Speed Steel with no mention of which grade of HSS it is, but both of those could be sloppy catalog rather than any defect in the tool itself.

IME many "sets" end up with half the set sitting. What do you want to turn, at present? Bowls? Chair Spindles? Lamps? Lamp Shades? Stair Spindles? Pens? Mallets?

If price is an object, one branch is yard sales, one branch is Horrible Fright (aka Harbor Freight) carbon steel, may or may not be hard, but at least you'll know which half to replace and gets lots of practice sharpening and one branch is unhandled tools (you are a turner, you can make tool handles) from the good turning supply place my mind is blanking on right now - starts with P, not penn state. Packard. Mastercut from OneWay seems to be the unhandled selection at present. Just put unhandled in the search box. You may find tools with handles for less...

If price is no object, Glaser makes nice stuff. Others like Sorby and Ellsworth, but Glaser is my favorite high-dollar tool. Last I recall (can't find my catalog just now) Packard had them in the catalog, but not online for some reason.

If you have any bent toward making stuff, look into the "Oland tool" as well - your basic shaft to hold a metalworking-type tool bit, which just happen to be an inexpensive source of good quality high speed steel. Here's the link to Darrell's site with directions:

Like, Gimp, my frist set was the 8pc set from Harbor Freight. I still use them for spindle work and they are holdiing up well (had then about 7/8 years) For your bowl gouges, buy individually and I would recommend Crown for your first couple. They are good quality and will get past your learning stage. You may wind up being perfectly happy with them and replace with the same when you do replace. The 3/8's is a good all around gouge, but I prefer the 1/2". Stay away from the Penn State Benjamin brand or any other off brand. I was curious about the quality of the Benjamin's Best bowl gouge and you get what you pay for. Its half the weight of the Crown and really not even worth the $19.95 the charge for it.

As for the Stone Mountain, you have two choices. Get ONE and see what you get. Get a Crown and develop your skills.

In any case, a grinder and jig are a necessity.

Deb

An> Is this a wood turning forum or a "Hot Sexy video" forum? What a bunch > of junk! >

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:26:50 -0400, Anon Ymous wrote: No idea about the hot, sexy tools from Stone Mountain, but I agree with the Harbor Freight set..

Don't get the one that's like $20 on sale, it's worth about $10.. The one that goes on sale for $40 is pretty good steel with nice handles.. These are as good as any that I'd recommend to a new turner until they've mastered basic sharpening.. You can use up a $100 gouge really fast if you try learning to sharpen with it.. I'm a full time turner and use what most folks consider "cheap" tools...Mostly from Penn State..

I do recommend an inexpensive set of chisles so you can get familiar with the basic tools: gouge, skew, parting tool, etc... Get the set from HF or one like this: Add individual tools as your ability and type of projects grow: Bowl gouges, scrapers, hollowing tools, etc.. Ask LOTS of questions here and check out some of the turning videos on utube..

In my case, the HF HSS tools were my second set. The first were not HSS. I don't know what grade the HF tools are but I can testify that they held an edge longer than carbon tool steel.

For the original poster, here's the link to the set:

The handles definitely look better than the ones on the set I bought :-).

snip

A minority dissent:

I have been turning for about 10 years, mainly bowls. I own three "grinders" but have never used one for sharpening turning tools. I use a 1" belt sander with a blue zirconia belt with the small sanding rest set at the angle I use. Has always worked great for me. Incidentally, no lessons either. Maybe that is the reason I do things differently.

I use a 1" x 40something" belt grinder for scrapers.. Works really well with the table at a negative angle and the scrapers sharpened "upside down"... I use a low speed grinder with the funky white wheel for gouges with the EZgrind jig...

OTOH, I use mostly carbide tools now so my bowl gouges last a LOT longer..

The hot ticket at the NH guild meeting more than a few years back was a cheap 4x36" bench belt sander, rearranged in some way (ie, bolted to a wall was one method - messing with the drive was another) so the belt was running "uphill" with Al/Zn belt - jig or not jig as you like it or depending what you were sharpening. The usual sorts of fingernail jigs worked fine on it. Rub the burr off with a bit of leather and go. Being a belt sander, no heat build up to speak of, and a flat grind.

A freind was telling me that he bought a sharpening system for his shopsmith that uses the 12" sanding disk, support table and some sort of jig.. Claims that it's the easiest method he's ever seen and is very happy with the edge it puts on the tools, especially skews. I HATE sharpening skews..

Hello Anon,

See, there are still woodturners reading this forum. The off topic posts is what keeps me from reading it more, but today I felt that I should read it and there was your question which has been well answered from some experienced turners. I only purchased one set of "cheap" turning tools about 22 years ago and found that they would become dull while I was turning away from the grinder or at least when first applied to the wood. I personally own a large number of turning tools from the major manufacturers: Robert Sorby, Crown Tools, Hamlet Tools are all good tools.

As a beginning turner, you might find the Easy Rougher tools very useful or the Hunter Carbide Tools excellent. Both are easy to use and they are always sharp and do not require sharpening. I've been turning since 1998 and find these carbide tools nice to use. I feel they are well worth the money and they save time learning to sharpen.

But as others have stated, do not purchase a set of tools!!! Decide what you want to turn and then purchase the tools needed to do it. For example, if you want to turn spindles (grain running along the direction of rotation), you need a spindle roughing gouge, a 3/8 inch or 1/2 inch spindle gouge, a skew chisel, and a parting tool. If you want to turn bowls, you need a 3/8 inch or 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch bowl gouge depending upon how large of bowls you plan to turn, a wide heavy duty round nose scraper to smooth up the ridges left by the bowl gouge, and I recommend a good four jaw woodturning chuck such as Nova, Vicmarc, Oneway, Robert Sorby, Vermec.

You may find some useful information at my web site also.

Fred Holder

Hi All, If you go with teh HF tools I would go with the set that sells for about $65. Almost the same as the $40 but heavier. I have a set of each and both are fine, But, I like the heavier tools a bit better.

Dan

: I'm a beginner turner and would like a decent quality set of tools that : I can grow into.

You've gotten some excellent advice from other turners. Two more things to consider:

1) Diefenbacher Tools makes and sells some excellent carbon steel tools. These can be sharoened to a really sharp edge; it won't last as long as HSS but I like them for finish cuts. 2) A set of the diamond hones on plastic paddles is useful for touching up an edge (HSS or carbon steel) without regrinding.

-- Andy Barss

Hi Fred! Long time no type..

A couple of quick comments: The 4 or 5 tools you recommend are a set, in most cases.. Add bowl gouge and scraper(s) for bowls later..

I use mostly carbide tools but I never teach with them.. They make it too easy and folks tend to not learn how to use "real" tools.. I guess I believe in learning basic turning first and them getting the "shortcut tools" after you know what cuts you're using them for and which tools they're doing the job of..

Nice to see you here.. I can't begin to thank you for all I've learned from you over the years..

I think that we're all talking about the same set, Dan.. Just that some refer to it as the $65 set and others as the "$40 on sale" set..

Mac you say you use mostly carbide turning tools but prefer to teach using conventional tools. Can you explain to this novice why? I started being taught using conventional tools and found it to be discouraging, I went to a class taught by a demonstrator for Easy Wood Tools and got the hang of it fairly quickly.

2 reasons, Russ.. The first is that I've never found a tool that completly replaces the bowl gouge... I use the WoodChuck Bowlpro a lot but they're for roughing... I can't get a sweeping curve on the inside of a bowl from anything but a sharp bowl gouge.. 2nd, you should know what tool(s) you're partially replacing with the carbide tool and how it cuts... I have several carbide tools that I use as roughing gouges, skews, hollowing tools, etc., but I feel that my learning to use/control the conventional tools first makes me much better with the carbide ones..

You can rough out a bowl with the EZrougher or Bowlpro, (same tools with different prices) and then use a bowl gouge and scraper to smooth and shape the inside of the bowl.. I can turn a complete bowl with the bowlpro, just like I can write a letter in Excel.. Just not well ;)

Hope that makes a little bit of sense..

I have some china junk I 'm learning on ,two years . My 3/4 gouge is 1" long after a catch in some oak. But I did buy an $80.00 scraper yesterday for cleaning up the inside of my urn. I could of closed my eyes & used that thing, real steel This thing is 3/4 thick & 1& 1/4 wide ,about 3 foot long

Jerry.

While I have been doing woodworking for the past 65 years I am new to turning. About a year ago I bought a HF lathe (the cast iron one for $150) and HF tools (the 8 chisels heavier HSS for $40). While some recommend against buying a set, I don't think you can buy just a few chisels for the cost of that set. This set will probably hold me for the indefinite future. So far I have mastered the scraper and the parting tool and a few special ones I made from old screwdrivers. Remember a poor craftsman blames his tools. For some pictures of a beginners efforts see

I think they turned out OK.