Thanks for the repost, Fred. Your suggestion on checking the archives is a
good one -- guess I got carried away with my good fortune.

--
Ken Vaughn
Visit My Workshop: http://home.earthlink.net/~kvaughn65/

"Fred Holder" wrote in message
...
Hello Ken,

I've made several posts on this tool and other Robert Sorby tools on this
newsgroup over the last several years. There is a lot of information to be
gathered by going to DejaNews.com and chosing "Power Search", enter Robert
Sorby
as topic, rec.crafts.woodturning as the newsgroup, and Fred Holder as the
author. I picked up one of my old posts on this newsgroup on the texturing
and
spiralling tool and post it here again:

The Sorby Spiral Cutting Tool was facinating to watch, so much so that I
had to
have one. Personally, I didn't think the texturing part of the tool would
interest me at all; however, I found it can provide a texture much like
sand
blasting that is very attractive. You still have to have the part you are
texturing smooth, but not highly polished. So far, I've textured several
pieces
with very satisfactory results. Sorby says the tool is only limited by
your
imagination, I'm sort of short on this item, but it's fun to use and it
does a
real fine job of texturing.

The Spiralling setup is even more fasinating. You push the tool in
straight
until the wheel spins, then tilt it down until the tool starts to cut. You
then
move it slowly along in the direction of spiral until you reach the end of
your
area to be spiraled. At this point, you can check for depth. If you want
to go
deeper, come back to the beginning and gently push the tool in
horizontally
until you feel it grab into the grooves, then tip it down to cut. You can
move
it back and forth along the spiralled area to deepen the cut, but move it
slowly. The lathe should run less than 500 rpm according to Sorby, but
I've been
cutting spirals on bottle stoppers at top speed on the RPML-300 (about
2400
rpm). I think it does work a bit better at the slower rpm's but the tool
seems
to be speed independent. You can incidentally texture with the spiralling
cutters also.

I honestly don't know how the tool works, but it does. When cutting
spirals, the
cutter is near horizontal, when texturing, its near vertical. The
instructions
say that if it is horizontal, it will cut a series of beads. I simply
haven't
tried that so far, I've been having too much fun making spirals and
texturing
surfaces. I haven't tried spiralling the outside of a bowl surface, but
that is
in the planning for the future.

As far as sharpening goes, lay the wheel on the grindstone at the proper
angle
and let it spin. Its sharp in a jiffy. Or you can hone it with a diamond
hone. I
haven't tried, but you might be able to spin the wheel on a piece of
rotating
wood while holding on the diamond hone.

This is about the most versitile tool that I've purchased so far in my
turning
experience. I sometimes think that I'm a turning tool collector more than
a
turner, because a lot of the tools I buy don't get used on a regular
basis. I
believe this tool will get regular useage, however.

When I ask Sorby if the tool would work inside, because it is so near to
cutting
threads, they said no, but they're working on it. If this tool could be
made to
work on the inside of an area and you had the right cutter, it would cut
excellent threads. A real extension of the thread chaser to be used by
everyone.

Hope this helps you people who have been eyeing this tool and didn't know
whether to purchase one or not. I was in that boat until I saw the tool
demonstrated at the Sorby demonstration in Seattle, I was so
impressed with the demonstration that I devoted a page to that
demonstration in
More Woodturning.

Incidentally, I have no ties to Robert Sorby, other than I've personally
been
using their tools for about 10 years and am rather fond of their tools.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com

In article k.net, Ken
Vaughn
says...

First the story:

I was in a used tool store yesterday and the owner was pricing a bunch of
recent acquisitions. On the table was a bundle of Robert Sorby lathe
tools -- 10 in total, all with ash handles and maroon script Robert Sorby
logo. None had been used much, 3 still had the original factory grind,
and
there was a Texturing and Spiraling Tool with an indexing tool rest
platform, a texture wheel, and 3 spiraling wheel cutters. All of this
in
the plastic display packaging, never been so much as unpacked from what I
could tell. I asked the owner what he would sell the bundle for and he
said
$125. I almost broke my arm reaching for my credit card. I looked up
the
spiraling tool on the Internet, and it alone was priced at $131 with the
four wheels. There was also a roughing gouge, 2 bowl gouges, 2 spindle
gouges, 2 scrapers, a parting tool, and a skew chisel.

Now my question:

Has anyone ever used the Texture and Spiraling Tool? I am curious if it
is
as easy to use as the instructions indicate? The packaged instructions
are
minimal, but I printed off some more complete instructions from the Sorby
website.
--
Ken Vaughn
Visit My Workshop: http://home.earthlink.net/~kvaughn65/