Advice on a bowl saver please?

[Lazurus]

If so which one, and how do you get on with it. They are quite expensive but I can see the advantages and timber saving opportunities as well as the chance to do matching nested bowls.

Also what fittings are available, this would be for a VB36.

Any suggestions welcome.

S.

[malcy]

I Have the Woodcut Bowlsaver and it works pretty well. I have only had it a short time and only cut seasoned wood with it so far. Easy to set up. The only difference from lathe to lathe is the post going into the banjo but these are interchangeable anyway. Requires a 2 morse taper in the tail stock. Hope this limited info helps. Malcolm.

[Lazurus]

Excellent thank you, I would rather hear from people using items than on line reviews.

S.

[fuzzyturns]

I have the Kel McNaughton with the medium series blades. I have used it a couple of times, mostly on green wood. It only requires the correct size toolpost holder, which in my case is a 1".
It does take a little practice. I went through the bottom on my first attempts, mostly because I got the setup wrong. However, I believe the Kel McNaughton is probably the most flexible on the market (although Mark Hancock will possibly dispute that), and once you get the setup right, it does work very well. There's an instructional DVD available where Mike Mahoney shows how to use it (in flippers, will you believe it!), that does help some.
Tricky to use them on lathes with less than 1HP, but that won't be a problem with a VB36.

Haven't used any of the others, so cannot really give a comparison.

[seventhdevil]

i've the woodcut bowlsaver and would recommend it to anyone. even though it only has in my opinion this is enough. i can easily get 4 bowls from a large blank. i've had it for years and have gone through most timbers in that time although anything over 3000 on the janka hardness scale needs some patients.

as long as you core a dozen bowls in one week then it's paid for itself in days.

[Mark Hancock]

I have the Kel McNaughton with the medium series blades. I have used it a couple of times, mostly on green wood. It only requires the correct size toolpost holder, which in my case is a 1".
It does take a little practice. I went through the bottom on my first attempts, mostly because I got the setup wrong. However, I believe the Kel McNaughton is probably the most flexible on the market (although Mark Hancock will possibly dispute that), and once you get the setup right, it does work very well. There's an instructional DVD available where Mike Mahoney shows how to use it (in flippers, will you believe it!), that does help some.
Tricky to use them on lathes with less than 1HP, but that won't be a problem with a VB36.

Haven't used any of the others, so cannot really give a comparison.

You know me too well 
The most flexible bowl savers are those that don't rely on cutters moving on a pivot point such as the Slicer from Sorby (originally designed by Dennis Stewart) and the more up to date one developed by Hannes
http://hannestool.com/product-category/coring/
These allow you to do any size bowl you wish. The last core I did was about 2 ft diameter.

[Paul Hannaby]

I have the McNaughton and the Woodcut coring systems and the Sorby slicer.

The Woodcut is probably easier to set up but limited to two curved blades and won't do as big a core as the McNaughton with medium blades. The newer model of the McNaugton has four ranges of blade sizes and also comes with a straight blade so can do the same as the Sorby slicer but with the benefit of the captive gate.

There are times when a conical core produced by the slicer is ok but either of the curved blade systems will potentially leave a bigger core if you are coring a simple curved bowl to start with.

[seventhdevil]

i agree that the woodcut has it's limits but i certainly does me very well indeed so unless you are into biggest bowls and nests of 6-7 from the same block then i think it's the best value for money. i'll be honest and say that i don't know what any of them cost these days.

these mother bowls are all 18"-20"+ and 6" thick and the small bowls are no smaller than 6".

[edbanger]

I use the McNaughton on a VB36 and it's great yes you need to learn how to use it but with the different blades it's very flexible.

I would not buy the kit with the short handle as I did, I soon upgraded to the longer handle.

Ed

[fuzzyturns]

Funny you say that. In the Mike Mahoney video he states that he cut his long handle into two, because it got in the way. Mind you, he's got the version with the vertical limiter on the pivot (which seems to have been lost on mine, which I bought second hand). That does take most of the force out of using the tool.

[Lazurus]

i agree that the woodcut has it's limits but i certainly does me very well indeed so unless you are into biggest bowls and nests of 6-7 from the same block then i think it's the best value for money. i'll be honest and say that i don't know what any of them cost these days.

these mother bowls are all 18"-20"+ and 6" thick and the small bowls are no smaller than 6".

Both systems are around the £300 mark....... Ouch

[fuzzyturns]

The most flexible bowl savers are those that don't rely on cutters moving on a pivot point such as the Slicer from Sorby (originally designed by Dennis Stewart) and the more up to date one developed by Hannes
http://hannestool.com/product-category/coring/
These allow you to do any size bowl you wish. The last core I did was about 2 ft diameter.

Sorry, Mark, but I have to disagree here. The Hannes tool only allows straight cuts, producing cones. And from what I can see on the Sorby website, the same is true for the slicer. The McNaughton also has a straight blade, but in addition I have several curved blades, allowing much more flexibility. Plus: Both the slicer and the Hannes tool require the user to counteract the force produced by the cut (which can be considerable on larger diameters), whereas the McNaughton (and the other ones) have mechanical means to do that, therefore making usage a lot safer (and lot less exciting).

Yes, they are not cheap. I got mine from a private sale for a lot less, otherwise I probably would have winced, too. But if you do a lot of bowls, they save enormous amounts of time and money.

[seventhdevil]

if you were to buy every blade and part of the mcnaughton bowl saver how much would that set you back?

[Lazurus]

I decided to email woodcut direct and got the following swift reply

Our UK distributor is Axminster Tools & Machinery.
Whilst we do make a 40mm Toolpost, Axminster don’t normally stock this size but they should be able to get one in from us for you.
If you are not already aware, I need to advise you of our new Bowlsaver MAX3 that Axminster are soon to start stocking.
It has been designed for power users with large lathes like your VB36.
The MAX3 has a new 3rd extra large blade capable of a cut size up to 450mm diameter.
The small and medium blades are the same size as the small and large blades of the traditional 2 blade bowlsaver which we still make and sell.
The construction of the MAX3 is much stronger and heavier than the 2 blade Bowlsaver with most components cast.
If you are interested in a MAX3 with 40mm toolpost we can make sure there is one shipped with Axminsters first MAX3 shipment going some time in September?


So I guess this will be the one for me then!

[seventhdevil]

i've been waiting for ages for the max version to be stocked over here so will be interested in buying one.

if you reply to woodcut can you please tell them to put some better photos on their website of the MAX3 as the one there ate the moment is tiny.
http://www.shop.woodcut-tools.com/product.php?xProd=314


i wonder what axminster will charge?