slightly OT - repairing chainsaw

Always use fresh gas in any two-cycle engine. My Echo weed eater taught me this. It wouldn't even start until you gave it fresh gas and replaced the spark plug each season. You may have to clean out the carburetor to get rid of the gunky residue.

Barry

Start by looking at the air filter. You may have clogged it up. After that, check your manual for the mixture valve adjustments.

Almost every brand of 2-stroke oil contains anti-varnish stabilizers. Oh yes, use premium gas.

Last resort, and this can happen when you let the gas run out entirely and suck a wood chip in, open and clean the carb flappers with clean gasoline (no oil).

I'm relatively new to turning. I got a lathe for Christmas and my table saw has turned into a table for the most part. I have a crown bowl gouge that I have modified the grind on the edges to cut down on catches. I am grinding it at about 60 degrees now. I am wanting to do deeper bowls. More like wooden vases actually. I know that I can make the grind steeper to go deeper. What is the practical limit for the bevel? At 60 degrees I can't seem to rub the bevel in anything over 3 inches deep. I really want to do taller items. If there is a practical limit how do I hollow out a deeper item?

This turning thing is addictive. Am I going to have to find a 12 step program? I can't seem to go more than a day without making shavings.

Generally speaking, folks new to turning are encouraged to do more open bowls with sloped sides and not too deep for exactly the reasons you state. The steeper the sides and the deeper the piece, the harder it is to do.

What you use to turn deeper bowls partly depends if you are mounting the blank cross grain or long grain.

On cross grain, some people grind a bowl gouge as you have suggested, with an angle close to perpendicular to the tool with the left side or both sides ground back. The alternative is to continue with large scrapers after you get to the point where your gouge no longer can be rubbed properly.

On long grain, since you are hollowing from the center of the bowl (which has been center drilled) you have more options. Richard Raffin might use his back-hollowing method with a gouge as he does on boxes. It looks scary but can be learned if you can find somebody to show you how to do it. Others use a gouge with a cut back left edge, working out from the center to about 10 o'clock. There are also real specialties such as the Soren Berger tool.

Scrapers are also a possibility if you work from the center to the wall. One with a sharp left corner can be used to nibble short cuts from center to wall.

Some people use the various shielded cutters.

In a word, the answer to your questions is -- get out the old credit card!

Bill

Also, Dennis, there are lots of turners in your area. If you are not in contact with them you should be -- you will enjoy it. Check the AAW site for a link to your local chapter.

Bill

Remember, there are two ways to "rub a bevel." You can rub perpendicular to the edge, or parallel. Catches happen when your deepest point of cut is not the point where the edge exits the wood. This is visible as torn grain in minor form, or as the big tilt when you get a dig.

More important than grind angle or type is to keep your toolrest as tight to the work as you can to minimize the piece's leverage, and to present the cutting edge only after you've steadied on the bevel. You can then hog if you like, right on the fine edge of a catch to clear the interior, returning to a cut to clear up the torn grain when you're close to final shape.

Hi Dennis Sr, Obviously you know how to grind and sharpen edge tools and how to use them. Your question is both proper and welcome here and I hope my reply is also.

As you know, your question is a common one and answered differently in books, tapes, magazines and almost daily on net sites. Turner friends offer (demand?) to share their revelations. Although their opinions differ as day to night, each is held with a death grip by their proponent. Does make one wonder about authority, rules, always and nevers for woodturning?

We turners generally fall into groups of bevel & edge true believers, but no matter how much we want to believe in our particular guru and submit to his/her authority, we usually end up finding out for ourselves what works.Then as experts we the chosen go out with zeal and conviction to preach our (egocentric, Chuck?) truth. :)

Within reason and common sense, innovation and 'trying it for ourselves to see if it works' is safe, economical and easy to do. This is fun and one of the attractions of woodturning. IOW, you ought to _Ask, But Verify_!

For help in comparing and deciding on the 'best' tools and accessories for deep hollowing, I suggest the excellent reviews of Lyn Mangiameli. Find them in rcw's archives or Fred Holder's "More Woodturning". I happen to enjoy making and using inserted bit scrapers/cutters ground to

41.2345andsometimes6 deg., but I'm not forcing you.;) Darrell Feltmate has full instructions on his site. There are many other good sites plus you should get lots of opinions here. Please let us know who you end up believing in and follow as a loyal disciple. Happy hollowing, Arch

Fortiter,

Thanks for the input. I have learned over the years to value all opinions. In my other life (I own a print shop) I see the same type of opinions (Mac vs. PC, Quark vs. PageMaker or InDesign). the trick is as you say; to look at all of them and see what works for you. I am fortunate to be a quick study and am more than willing to spend a little money to try new ways of doing things. I will try most anything once. I have found some of the craziest sounding things work well and some of the most logical sounding don't. That to me is the benefit of a serve like this. The wide rage of opinions that I can sample to improve my addiction to wood. I imagine someday I'll learn enough to share my knowledge, but for now I'm here to soak up whatever I can pick up.

I don't guess there's any kind of practical limit other than one of safety. As long as your edge is still thick and stiff enough to support the kind of work you're doing without chipping or breaking then you can have it to whatever angle you need to get the job done.

Assuming you're talking about cross-grain/faceplate/bowl turning orientation of the wood as opposed to engrain hollowing...

I tried doing what you described below before and it worked but it was a pretty specialized bowl gouge that I couldn't really use too much elsewhere. What I ended up doing, and still usually do for those steep sided turnings where you don't have a lot of tool swing space to work with was just to use a fingernail ground shallow fluted gouge (aka spindle gouge) instead. The more steel you have under the flute, such as in what many call a detail gouge but usually larger diameter than those most often seen, the better as the deeper you go. Less vibration that way. Keep that flute pointed to around 4 o'clock and cut with the edge just to the right of the tip centerline of the tool. It takes a little getting used to but it works well and you don't have to pretty much dedicate a bowl gouge to the purpose.

Otherwise, I'd just do as much as I can with a "regular" swept back bowl gouge; drill to (close to, of course) my final depth and as wide as will accomodate the bowl gouge; start cutting from center to outside (bowl/vase depth up to rim). It's a far more tricky thing to do but does work. You're only riding that left side bevel and doing a pull-cut instead of push-cut. Get it over-rotated to the right and you'll get a good catch. Keep the bevel around the 9-10 o'clock position and just slightly rotate the tool to the right (clockwise) until you start cutting. I usually have to shear scrape after this procedure as I can't get a smooth finish just from the tool this way.

BTW, these flute positions everybody always talks about (including myself, of course) is so very dependent on how your gouge is formed (V-shaped, U-shaped, depth of flute, size of flute, etc.) as well as how it's ground. They are only rough approximations. Many of the techniques themselves that we discuss are also dependent on these things too. I wouldn't even think of doing some of the techniques that I regularly do with some of my friends tools. They're just not the same kind of tool (and especially grind) even though they are all called a "bowl gouge". When in doubt, stop the lathe and hand turn the piece with the tool in the position you're thinking of. See how it acts this way before turning on the machine. If still in doubt, maybe you shouldn't be trying that cut right now anyway.

Good luck,

- Andrew

It sounds as if you , like most of us here have been " bitten by the turning bug". And this is the "meeting" for turners but the only help we can offer for your addiction is to encourage more turning and talking of turning - thats the only cure!

Welcome to the group !

Bertie

Hi My name is Darrell and I have a problem. I only have a four or five year supply of wood in the yard and LOML will not turn her back long enough for me to pile in some more. What will I do with the oak and apple and spalted birch and pin cherry and ample and birch that have been promised to me?

Hi Darrell and Max, As a Scottish 'Whiskypalian' I've found a thrifty deal. I'll provide the tea, even a little sugar & milk, but I'll sip a drop (needn't be _too wee) of Max's expensive single malt while we snack on Darrell's biscuits. I'll be in the company of two fine fellows while learning about grind angles and excess wood. We need a free place to meet. Any volunteers? For aye, Arch

Fortiter,

You're not OT at all. The manual for my chainsaw says very emphatically that I should end the season by running it until empty. Every season I forget.

The next Spring, I have learned that putting a small amount of gas without the normal oil proportion, then cranking for a while, I can get it to start. I let it run for a few minutes to sort of clean out, then stop it and put in the PROPER oil and gas mix. Runs like a damn charm the rest of the summer.

Bob Moody (cheapskate at large)

Hi,

Thanks for the advise (to you and everyone else who answered). I think I'll give your idea a try first, then clean the air filter and finally the carb, if need be. I'm not really mechanically-inclined :o)

Thanks again everyone, Shawn