On Mar 19, 1:53 pm, "Bob Daun" wrote:
Enjoyed all of the "riding the bevel" things. One thing that I see very
little discussion of (and I am primarily talking about doing small bowls 12
inch diameter or less) is the typical speeds that people use for the various
operations. For example on my Jet 1442 when roughing a bowl, I work at the
slowest speed until the exterior is round (450RPM). As the turning gets
easier and everything comes into balance I find that I do most of my work
around 1200 RPM or so. If I have end grain "fuzzies" on the surface, I have
taken the speed up to 2000 RPM and use a very light touch with a freshly
honed gouge. I would just like to hear peoples thoughts on this.

"Gerald Ross" wrote in message

. ..

John wrote:
In message , mac davis
writes
On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:20:30 GMT, John
wrote:
You got some great answers, John, and I learned form your post, so thanks
for
bringing it up..
Hell, I've been trying to ride the whole damn bevel for years, since
George
advised me too.. Now that I know what the term really means, I realize
that I'm
actually doing it right when I don't "ride the bevel"..lol

Mac, I wonder how many people never ride the bevel, just present the tool
and cut ?

I know I am probably taking a risk, but I so often find I just present
the tool at the exact angle needed and get on with it, its almost like an
inbuilt instinct for what is right. I almost have to consciously force
the tool to ride the bevel before contact. I keep saying to myself I must
do better , but it hasn't worked yet

A good example is a winged object where you spend most of the time
turning air, riding the bevel isn't easy, just slowly presenting the tool

Maybe this is why I was able to create captive rings within my first few
hours of turning back in September, and not doing one till last weekend I
created a captive ring only 1/2 inch diameter on a 1 1/2 inch tall
goblet.

I used it as a learning tool, and for safety, when I first started
turning. Now it is automatic to use the tool at the correct angle and I
don't have to slide down the bevel until it starts cutting.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

I've got a mind like a.. a.. what's
that thing called?


Hello Bob,

My normal rule of thumb for lathe speed it to increase the speed until
it vibrates a bit and then back it off until the vibration goes away.
That often makes the speed fairly low for an out of balance piece of
turning and as you say you can speed it up as it comes into balance.
The basic rule put out by Dale Nish in one of his books was this: The
diameter of the workpiece in inches times the speed of the lathe
should be between 6000 and 9000. For example the low end on a 12 inch
bowl would be 500 rpm and the high end would be 750 rpm. This was
stated for a safe speed. A 12 inch bowl rotating at 2000 rpm is very
dangerous and I highly recommend sharpening your gouge rather than
increasing the speed to that high. Another thing that often eliminates
fuzzies is to step down in the size of the tool. If a 1/2" bowl gouge
is leaving fuzzies, try a 3/8" bowl gouge. If that still leaves
fuzzies, try steppind down to a 1/4" bowl gouge. All of this without
increasing the lathe speed outside of the recommended range.

If you were turning spindles (like pens) with a 1/2 inch diameter you
could supposedly safely turn them at speed between 12,000 rpm and
18,000 rpm. Unfortunately, most lathes will not go higher than about
3,000 rpm so one cannot turn in that speed range.

Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net