Long time lurker, First time poster.

I am thinking about purchasing Sorby's Spiral and texture tool set. Has
anyone here had experience with this tool. If so, was it a difficult
tool to master and how were the results? I do a little bit of
everything, from furniture parts to bowls to pens. I'm a little beyond
the stage of having all my work look textured before sanding but I still
am a beginner. I'm about an hour and a half drive from any store or club
for a "live" demo of the tool, although I've watched the video on the
Woodcraft site. It only shows the tool used to texture, and I would
probably use it more for spirals.

Thanks,
Carl McCarty

Hello Carl,


Here is my post on this group from 2001:

I've made several posts on this tool and other Robert Sorby tools on this
newsgroup over the last couple of years. 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 last month, I was so
impressed with the demonstration that I devoted a page to that demonstration in
the September issue of 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.

Incidentally, I demonstrated this tool at the AAW Symposium in 1999 held in
Tacoma, Washington and have done articles on it in More Woodturning.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com/

In article , Carl McCarty says...

Long time lurker, First time poster.

I am thinking about purchasing Sorby's Spiral and texture tool set. Has
anyone here had experience with this tool. If so, was it a difficult
tool to master and how were the results? I do a little bit of
everything, from furniture parts to bowls to pens. I'm a little beyond
the stage of having all my work look textured before sanding but I still
am a beginner. I'm about an hour and a half drive from any store or club
for a "live" demo of the tool, although I've watched the video on the
Woodcraft site. It only shows the tool used to texture, and I would
probably use it more for spirals.

Thanks,
Carl McCarty

Thank you both for your quick reponses. I will likely buy after New
Years. If anyone is interested, I post a short product review, although
Fred has covered everything exceptionaly well.

Carl,

I have one that is in the sleeve, with the instruction sheet. But it
only has one wheel. You can get the wheels at Woodcraft. It is
basically new. I will never use it. If interested make me an offer.
The wheel has never been sharpened. Drop me a line if you are
interested.
RP