A banjo with two cranks, one to rotate the tool post, one to move the tool post toward or away from the ways. All this without having to unlock or lock anything.
A lathe with a knee bar across the front which, on being bumped will shut off the lathe and activate a soft-stop electric brake.
A laminated lawn mower blade (and lathe gouge) with a thin ultrahard layer on the cutting side and the rest soft steel to make it self sharpening by differential wearing of the materials.
A dust collector which runs as quietly as a squirrel cage blower.
A conveyor belt behind my lathe to automatically transport the shavings through the wall into a bin outside.
Gee Gerald what a great idea. Self sharpening bowl gouges. Oh well one can hope that someone does it some time. Me I am first on the list to buy.
Tom
A laminated lawn mower blade (and lathe gouge) with a thin ultrahard layer on the cutting side and the rest soft steel to make it self sharpening by differential wearing of the materials.
LMAO. You had better watch out, Mac. Using such lingo will apparently have people believing you participate in such activities. Many love nothing better than to shoot the messenger. Say it isn't so... ;-)
If you have one available, just have your significant other stand behind with a dust pan, broom, and vacuum. Also great for stopping the high speed bits of bark and such from messing up the walls. :-o Also useful for cutting up stumps and bowl blanks.
In a similar (yet eminently more serious) vein, add something to cure these sick vessels to your mythical wish list:
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Even with a DIY foot-switch, repeatedly shutting down to clear up this mess is time consuming.
Actually Robert Sorby supply gouges with a gold coating. The gold finish gouges have been specially treated with titanium nitride. The cutting edge is supposed to outlast conventional M2 blades by at least three times - and much more on the tougher woods. Alas not self sharpening. I have one of these and it does seem to hold an edge longer.
You folks must cut differently than I. I could certainly use a stronger back or a wider door, but 95% of convex and 90% of concave drop here to be carried away later.
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Even has handles. Perhaps I can get SWMBO to carry it? No way.
That is a start. Now if they could plate a similar thin layer of carbide, and only in the flute. Or something a little less brittle than carbide.
As for the electric brake--Dewalt can put it on their miter saws, why can't Technatool put it on the Nova XP? Not a sudden lock, as this would unscrew the chuck, but similar to the force I have to apply to the hand wheel.
long story, short form.. I was cooking at a church weekend and a guy admired my #2 Japanese knife. 1/8" by 2 by 7" blade.. He wanted one.. I knew he was a machinist and told him to go make himself one. He didnt know how so I said get me a piece of the highest carbon steel he could, of that size and I would.. 2 months later he presented me with a slab of 1/8" by 2 1/2" by 18" and said make yourself one as well.
I was not going to torch this apart but instead elected to hack saw it apart-after all this was un tempered tool steel. good idea.. wiped the teeth off the bimetal hack saw blade. WHAT THE?? went to someone that knew metals and asked WHAT was this?
un tempered tungsten vanadium steel... took a carbide tipped hacksaw and 2 hours to cut 5". took 6 hours with an air grinder to taper it to a knife edge.
this stuff is TOUGH.. and after its tempered its really bad.. Would it take the load of a wood lathe tool? Probably, but it would take diamond something to sharpen it. and FWIW, years back Sears made a set of carbide tipped scrapers for their wood lathes... they work fine, as scrapers. got a set at a garage sale once for $15
Yes they do. Don't try to turn a big vase in baltic birch without one. Not sure I would give $90 for another one.......but I wouldn't take $90 for it either. I have gotten used to it and how to sharpen it and that means a lot. Lyndell
I've never actually used or even seen one of those gold colored Sorby tools and I may not understand how they work. Is the coat of titanium nitride thick enough so that it coats the bevel and edge after grinding or honing or is that pertinent? I wonder if it's just that the core of these tools is a 'better steel' and holds an edge longer than M2. Do you have to grind with a green wheel and/or hone with a diamond card? I guess Harbor Freight's gold colored drill bits have a similar coating. Not Sorby quality, but maybe you or someone could offer an opinion on whether they hold an edge better than plain HSS bits.
and FWIW, years back Sears made a set of carbide tipped scrapers for
I have a set of sears carbide tipped wood lathe tools - they are mostly worthless in my mind - they don't hold enough of an edge to do anything except tear the wood - I used them on aluminum and steel parts that I turn in the wood lathe, but not on wood.
the TiN coating will only matter to the edge until it wears off, so if you never ever plan on sharpening, it might be useful, but once you sharpen, it's gone from the edge - it may help prevent metal from welding to the tool bit, but I don't see how it can help in wood. I have some TiN coated tools that I use on my mill - don't see any difference, and after a few inches of cutting the TiN is gone from the cutting edge
Hello, Arch. Well here are my two cents worth. It may be that the steel is indeed better and as Bill noble and others have pointed out the gold (titanium nitride) coating is paper thin. Let me also say that I didn't try a lot of bowl gouges before I bought my 5/8" gold gouge. But it has made a believer out of me cuz I turn a lot of baltic birch items. I sharpen with a pink/red stone( supposed to be slightly better than the white stone) standard 3450 bench grinder. I do use a home built jig for the gouge and not to brag, but get very close to original shape, just do to the amount of practice from sharpening it every minute or so while turning BB. Other gouges and skews etc. barely make it 30 seconds before they have to be sharpened. I have not had time to try it on turning, but I have a large headstock pulley for SS that will get me down to the 100 rpm range so that may help with the short sharpening tool life. I am not sure I could recommend it to everyone but for someone who turns very hard and or layered wood with lots of glue, I think it is something to consider. Go here , and in the site index box select "gold collection" for more info.
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Keep in mind the part of the gouge doing the work is a microscopic area in the trough. If the titanium is .005 and keeps that edge for a while that is what counts. I would be skeptical on drill bits due to the pressures involved, it looks like it would peel away the skin of titanium. I hope I have not completely confused you now. Happy New Year To All Lyndell P.S. If I nick the titanium I do not try to grind out the nick......I just sharpen the gouge. This is the only expensive turning tool I own ($90 I think). All the rest of mine are homebuilt and/or inexpensive. Again I don't own enough quality tools to judge what is or isn't worthwhile.
"Arch" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@storefull-3176.bay.webtv.net...
The titanium nitride coating was first used on metal cutting tools. In softer metals (aluminum and mild steel), it makes little to no difference in tool service life. When you get into the tougher alloys (stainless, titanium, et), it extends tool life greatly. While the coating is quite hard, the hardness has little to do with wear life. The key to it is that it is slippery. The coating allows the chips to slide over the flute with less friction, letting the heat be carried away more readily with the chip. Heat is the enemy of any cutting tool. When cutting the tougher alloys, turning tools, milling cutters and drill bits last substantially longer with a titanium nitride coating. Increased service life of a wood turning tool is more likely due to superior steel rather than the coating. BTW, the thickness of the coating is measured in millionths.
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