It still amazes me that those who are trying the Easy Rougher are so
astounded by what it does. I have been using scrapers on bowls for
years now as my primary roughing tool, and it makes an excellent
finishing cut as well. The Easy Rougher is a scraper. So is the Big
Ugly (for those who don't know, home made, 3/4 inch square steel
barstock about 30 inches long with a piece of tantung steel silver
soldered onto each end, a heavy glove is work on the 'handle' end,
developed by the Myrtle wood turners on the Oregon coast, who turned
at 4,000 rpm on a screw chuck, sharpen in the morning, use one end
till lunch, then the other end till end of day). Scrapers are great
for roughing and refining the shape, a rounded one is better than a
square one.

As to the cut quality, it is simple, you get more tear out with a
scraping cut than with a shear or angled cut. This is true with any
cutting tool, it is the same steel, sharpened the same way, it is all
in what angle the tool is applied to the wood. As for the force on the
tool rest, I have always held my gouges level, so most of the force
goes onto the tool rest. Cutting with the handle dropped never felt
'good' to me. Other than that, how much you hang out over the tool
rest does more to transfer shock to your arms than tool angle.

I have always felt that banjo designs for holding the tool rest in
place with one set screw was poorly thought out. Not so on my Robust,
where the screw attaches to another floating metal piece on the other
side of the tool post, and the pull is on both sides of the tool
post.

The biggest difference between the Big Ugly, and the Easy Rougher is
that you can sharpen the Big Ugly.

robo hippy

On May 29, 7:31*am, mac davis wrote:
On Fri, 29 May 2009 13:20:13 +0100, "Tom Dougall"
wrote:

I have had an easy rougher Ci1 for some time now. * I made all the mistakes
Ralph made but with a little experience I have found it to be the most
useful tool I own. * * *I can rough a bowl inside and out in less than half
the time it takes me with a bowl gouge and I can get a reasonable finish
that just needs a couple of passes with a scraper before sanding. * But the
biggest advantage as far as I am concerned is that I can use it without
having to sway my body to get good results. * *For a disabled turner like me
this is a major advantage.

Tom

Tom.. I've considered this tool, but one thing (besides the price) that turned
me off is all the talk in the ad (and Ralph's excellent review) is the force
directed to the rest...
I think they say something like "Let your lathe take the punishment"?

Is this only part of the learning curve with this tool, or a constant?

My lathes are a major investment and I really hate to subject them to abuse,
especially enough force to pound the tool rest down through a tightened banjo..

mac

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