skew

Turned the speed down ...

Fred in NC

>Amen!

Re: skew

Fog Tanner

>Well put. The skew is my tool of choice for spindle work (I still can't use a gouge). My favorite is the 1/2" with the 3/4" the prime for planing cuts on cylinders. I use the 1" for roughing any square stock alll the way down to pens. I use the 3/8" for cutting some coves normally left to a gouge and will have to try that 1/8" now. I have used the oval, but never cared for them, preferring the heavier rectangular sections. I have both the square edge and rounded edge, and haven't noticed much difference. I also have one of the round three pointed "skews", which sometimes works like a skew and other times not. I am still working on how to use that one.

I do put a slight radius on mine, similar to what Raffan uses these days. I learned to use the skew with the straight edge so I can use someone elses tool when need be. But, I like the slight radius to help cut down on catches. I also keep the angle at 40 degrees, which seems a good all around number for me.

One thing that helped, besides the hundreds of practice pieces, was a light pull drive. I made a bunch (somewhere over 100) of light pull blanks and used nothing but the skew to turn them. I ran the speed up around 2700-3000 to get momentum to drive that small a piece of wood. When I would do something that would get a catch, the piece would stop and I could see what the tool was doing. Remove the tool and make another cut. I wound up with several hundred light pulls to give away and a lot of fun practice. Plus the exhiliration of the wood peeling off at that speed. The downside is getting your feet back on the ground when you go back to a positive drive, you have to remember you can't be as carefree (i.e. careless) and you will get catches when you aren't paying attention.

Re: skew

Tom Colligan, Peoria

>Fog, what are 'light pull blanks'? Tia,

Re: skew

tek-Brunswick, Ohio

>I have the P&N 30mm (1 1/8") skew and a 1/2" M2 Crown skew and a couple of old Keystone Carbon Steel skews. I mostly use the Crown and P & N Skews. I sharpen them with a slight radius and with the bevel 1 1/2 times as long as the thickness. I use the Lee Valley skew grinding jig. I really like it, because I find it very easy to get a consistent curve and bevel. I hone them after grinding. I like the finish off of the skew. I especially like it on icicles for Christmas ornaments. I use the Oneway Safety Drive when I can.

Re: skew

Spence in Rhode Island

>All together I have 5 skews that I use all the time. 2- 1", a 1/2", a 1/4" and a 5/16" round skew that I just made. Mostly I use the 1" skews for roughing out and peeling cuts. The 1/4" has always been for close in detail work on ornaments and such but I think the new 5/16" will be seeing more use than the 1/4" once I get used to it. I also have an 1 1/4" Sorby oval skew but hardly ever use it because its always been diffucult to get a consistent grind on it. I have a jig half way made that should cure that problem. I hope! LOL

Took a long time to get half way decent with the skew but I kept plugging away at it and one day all of a sudden it started working for me. It was kind of a zen moment. Gotta love it.

Regards

Spence

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Fog

I've tried a radius on my skew and couldn't tell the differnce other that it was harder to sharpen. Could you explain how it makes it less likely to catch. I've heard that a lot but can't tell any differnce myself. Perhaps I'm missing something. wouldn't be the first time. John

Re: skew

Glenn Madsen in the SF Bay area

>"My favorite is a 1" oval skew. I've turned with a lot of different skews, but unfortunately not an Alan Lacer skew."

Today's mail brought a card from Rockler, offering 25% off on Alan's tools, as well as Sorby and Crown. In case you're interested. Through 5/27.

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Spence brings up an interesting point. The oval skew can be hard to grind on the grinder depending on which jig you use. It want's to rock in the jig. A flat skew sits flat on the tool rest if you use one of those. I use the oneway system now to get the grind. I sharpen the edge with 600 and 1200 diamond hones followed by a leather strop.

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Glen

I'm already broke. Don't temp me like that. I can never pass up a good tool. John

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Mike Hosaluk suggested using a cup center without the point as a drive for spindle turning. I think he said you could get one from Sears that has a #2 morse taper. I need to remember to look that up in their catalog.

It supposedly drives well but will slip if you get a catch.

Re: skew

Fog Tanner

>Small pieces of normally scrap wood with a hole drilled through them to fit on the light pull and for the string/chain to go through. I have a lot of small pieces of cedar that are too small for anything else, a couple of inches long of various shapes. I drill a hole through the piece and then counter bore with a larger drill for 1/4" as the light pull drive is stepped. The drive uses friction to drive the wood, the live center puts the pressure on the other end.

The more I turn the more my bucket of light pull blanks gets filled. You can buy the chain assemblys from C.S. fairly cheap and they make great give aways, besides all the good practice.

Re: skew

Spence in Rhode Island

>The way it rocks is what messes me up each time. My idea is to take 2 pieces of wood and carve out the oval profile on each one, screw them together with the skew sandwiched in between and use the flat outer surfaces to keep everything square. I imagin it will take a bit of fiddling to get it right but shouldn't be too diffucult.

Spence

Re: skew

Fog Tanner

>John,

When I got started I bought the Raffan Turning Wood book and video, watched the video 12 times before I got my lathe and read the book. In both Hisownself mentioned the radius grind. Being curious, I started out with the straight grind and found that I did get a lot of catches. Once I got to where I could use the tool, I put a radius grind on it. I use the Tormek and a jig so I have no problem repeating the edge, all my skews have the same radius.

When I started using the radius grind I found that the tool handled easier and not as prone to catches. I believe it is because the radius presents a smaller portion of the blade than does the straight grind. I meant to ask Raffan during a hands on workshop, but got caught up in the aura of the moment and forgot. A few weeks ago, I was helping somone with their skew problems. I found that I would get catches with their skew if my concentration lapsed, but when I switched to another person's skew with a radius edge, the problem went away. The person I was helping did much better too. After that and another experiece using a skew with and "interesting" grind, I went back and looked at what mine was doing. In rotating by hand and observing the tool edge, there is a smaller amount that actually comes in contact. Even when you roll the tool over a little there was less tendency to dig in. The angle at the edge on the short point is also changed a bit. I think this also helps it keeping that portion of the balde from digging in so easily, creating more of a slicing action than an abrubpt point. Merly my humble observations though.

Question for you. What are you making your small skews out of. I though about using some small allen wrenchs for the 1/8" and possibly 1/4". Also have you ever used one of the round 3 point tools. If so any advice. It works for me sometimes like a skew and sometimes makes me question what it is doing.

Fog

Re: skew

John K Jordan

>>...oval skew ... its always been diffucult to

>get a consistent grind on it.

I use the Tormak and the skew jig grabs the oval almost as well as the rectangular. A big skew does take about forever to sharpen on a Tormak if you have to remove more than just a tiny bit of metal. I'm thinking of adapting the Tormak jigs to use with the slow speed bench grinder so I can switch more easily as needed.

I actually prefer the rectangular skew with a straight grind on the 1/2 and a slightly radiused grind on the larger skews.

JKJ in East TN

Re: skew

Ed in No.VA

>1/4" round, 1/2"straight, 1/2"radius, 1"straight, 1"radius, 1"oval. Favorite 1/2"radius.

John do you use the oneway skew jig? This will radius the edge. If you get Mike Darlow's book and DVD and do all the exersizes you will be a skew user. My wife and I both did this when we first started turning and we lost all fear of the skew. I took three turning courses and the teacher never picked up a skew.

Re: skew

Glenn Madsen in the SF Bay area

>I unloaded a 50+ year old 8" made-in-Milwaukee Delta long bed jointer into the shop this evening. Half the price of a new X5, and completely gone through by a fellow I completely trust. My wife still hasn't acknowledged the Jet 1442 that followed me home in March, although she's seen me using it. Neither tool was the subject of much or any discussion.

My discretionary budget is also overdrawn.

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Fog

Most interesting. I haven't seen this so far. In playing with the tool when I hold the skew so it's making a planing cut at lets say 45 degrees the skew is lifting a curl about 1/16". If I radius the edge and use the same angle the cut is virtually the same. You are actually using a very small portion of the blade for the cut. At least that's what it looks like to me. I really need 2 skews side by side to really test. I have a planer blade, maybe I can sharpen both ends and make a removeable handle. Then I would have the same steel, thickness etc to test the two different edges.

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Spence that's sort of what I did on my old home made jig. I had a block of wood that rode on my grinder tool rest. It had 2 pieces of wood mounted at about 45 degrees to each other. Then I filed out an oval to match the skew. This worked great but I gave it away when I sold that grinder.

Re: skew

John Lucas

>Ed

I am an avid skew user and have been for 8 or 10 years, ever since I took the Windsor chair class from Curtiss Buchanan.

I use the Oneway skew jig and don't get a radius edge on my 1" skew. I sharpen my narrower skews by hand.

Re: skew

Ric Taylor

>Fog,

Sounds like an idea for a quick demo at one of our meetings. :)

Ric

Re: skew

Les Robison

>How do you radius the skew using the Wolverine? I have not seen any information on this.

Re: skew

Brad Vietje

>Both true -- about $ 9.95. I recommend this to anyone starting out as the safest way to turn between centers.

Not a standard bearer for the most accurate machining, as they sometimes do have a little runout, but a good value as a learning/teaching drive center. The game is to turn the spindle to completion w/out stopping the wood with a catch -- then you're using your tools lightly and efficiently.

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

Re: skew sharpening

Brad Vietje

>I just HAVE to bite the bullet and get another digital camera... When I do, I'll post a new thread about sharpening skews, and show the way I do it -- could not be any easier without a magic wand.

Basically, I sharpen them on the UP side of a 12" sanding disk, with a V-block positioned to hold the end of the handle where it will give the desired bevel angle/length. I have mounted a piece of wood below the sander which has holes to position the V-block for a number of different tools. No jigs, no clamping, no muss, no fuss; 4-5 seconds for the whole operation, truly. This can also be done on a belt sander, but only if the motor is reversed, or the drive belt twisted, or other accomodation made for the belt to go up, away from the cutting edge. You do not want to sharpen tools on a belt sander with the belt running down, toward the edge, as this will round over the fine edge you are trying to produce.

For straight-edged skews, you hold it steady against the disk; for curved or radius skews you rock the tool against the disk. That's it; perfect bevel, no faceting, no oddball curves, no inconsistant edge support, no blueing and burning... well, you get it.

Results in a flat bevel, which can still be honed, if desired. Sorry guys, wish I had a few pics to post...

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

Re: skew

Brad Vietje

>John,

I find the radius very helpful in peeling cuts and in cleaning up cylinders a la Raffan -- those little flits right and left he does on his videos... Maybe I just need to learn how to do these anew with a straight-edged skew, but I find the radiused edge much easier to control, and use it for cutting tenons for my chuck jaws every time. I don't think I've ever been able to quickly clean up a cylinder (whatever that maneuver is called) with the straight skew; would have to take a nice, steady, bevel-rubbing cut from side to side for that.

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT