"G. Ross" wrote in
:

Puckdropper wrote:
Never being one to avoid asking what's on my mind...

Would a surform rasp or similar have any use on the lathe? I was
wondering if it would be handy for those "chippy" or wrong-way grain
turning projects that really don't want a whole lot of material to be
removed at once.

Puckdropper

OK I tried it. I used a sharp surform (small hand-held type). The
heel rested on the tool rest and I held the center against the work
with varying pressure. The piece was a 4" cylinder 4" long which had
been roughly turned round. It was well dried sweetgum wood.

At 100 rpm it caught and stalled the lathe. At 400 rpm it soon filled
with shavings. The blade was hot to the touch. There were multiple
mini-tearouts which did not happen with a bowl gouge. Also slower
than a sharp gouge. My impression: not useful.

Years ago I made a special baseplate for my router and a tool rest for
it to ride on and tried it for rounding irregular pieces. At that
time I only had a hand-me-down HF monotube lathe. It did work, but
was cumbersome and scary and I soon abandoned the idea.


Good to know, thanks! I got a little busy (a good kind of busy) and
haven't gotten back to the lathe with the tool to try it. At 400 RPMs,
though, with that tool filling with shavings and getting hot means my
lathe (a HF lathe) at it's slowest speed, 600 RPM, would probably
damage/dull the tool rather quickly.

Puckdropper