Newbie question

[Waluy]

I was just wondering would using a quarter round bit on my router table to knock the corners off help in anyway? As in would it be quicker, it obviously means less time at the lathe but would I just be trading that for time at the router table? Does it reduce or increase chances of having chip outs?

As I have only turned 4 things and only 1 of them was wood I am just trying to get an idea as I get ready to set my shop back up after moving. I.e should my router go closer to my lathe or closer to my general woodworking tools?

 

[walshjp17]

Personal opinion, others may disagree:

The reason I got a lathe was to turn square wood into round objects. I do not use anything to turn off the corners other than a roughing gouge or a square carbide cutter. INHO, it tales less time to do this on a lathe then it would to go to the router table, insert a bit, adjust the fence run a blank through on one side and turn it around three more times just to knock off the corners.

 

[Waluy]

Well I don't use my router table often so I was thinking of basically setting it up as dedicated for taking corners off of pen blanks. I was just thinking I know a lot of people use a band saw to take off corners but since I don't have a band saw (I use a scroll saw to but blanks in half) I figured a router set up might work just as well. And possibly reduce wear on my gouges.

 

[Chasper]

I've seen this topic come up many times and I'm mystified about why anyone would ever round the corners of a blank on anything but a lathe.

On average it takes me just over 5 minutes to turn an acrylic blank from square to ready to sand, a little more than half that time for a wood blank if there no voids to fill. Of that 5 minutes, 4 minutes are spent getting the turning from 80% finished to 100% finished. Knocking off the corners takes less than 30 seconds, turning it from round to ready to start putting on the finishing touches takes another 30 seconds.

I can't sand the sharp corners off on a belt or disk sander nearly as quickly as I can clip them off on the lathe. I haven't tried using a router, but I seriously doubt that it could be quicker.

 

[Waluy]

I've seen this topic come up many times and I'm mystified about why anyone would ever round the corners of a blank on anything but a lathe.

On average it takes me just over 5 minutes to turn an acrylic blank from square to ready to sand, a little more than half that time for a wood blank if there no voids to fill. Of that 5 minutes, 4 minutes are spent getting the turning from 80% finished to 100% finished. Knocking off the corners takes less than 30 seconds, turning it from round to ready to start putting on the finishing touches takes another 30 seconds.

I can't sand the sharp corners off on a belt or disk sander nearly as quickly as I can clip them off on the lathe. I haven't tried using a router, but I seriously doubt that it could be quicker.

Wow I definitely need to practice more it took me a good hour and a half for the first pen I did start to finish with at least a hour of that being turning time. Second pen only took a hour start to finish but still close to 45 minutes of turning. And probably close to a hour for the bottle stopper/corkscrew (All were acrylic) and I won't even try to guess how long I spent making my Red Oak ice cream scoop (that one had a lot of stopping to test how if felt in my hand).

 

[Chasper]

Wow I definitely need to practice more it took me a good hour and a half for the first pen I did start to finish with at least a hour of that being turning time. Second pen only took a hour start to finish but still close to 45 minutes of turning. And probably close to a hour for the bottle stopper/corkscrew (All were acrylic) and I won't even try to guess how long I spent making my Red Oak ice cream scoop (that one had a lot of stopping to test how if felt in my hand).

It took me an hour to turn the first pen too. By the 10,000th pen I had gotten faster.

 

[BSea]

The only advantage I could see from using a router is if you were doing some serious production work, and were doing hundreds of blanks at a time.

And don't worry about speed. That will come. And for what it's worth, It takes me longer than 5 minutes to turn a blank down to size. We all work at our own speed.

And what you need close to your lathe is your grinder.:wink:

 

[Waluy]

The only advantage I could see from using a router is if you were doing some serious production work, and were doing hundreds of blanks at a time.

And don't worry about speed. That will come. And for what it's worth, It takes me longer than 5 minutes to turn a blank down to size. We all work at our own speed.

And what you need close to your lathe is your grinder.:wink:

First I need to get a grinder LOL. As is I have to go to my cousins shop or use my belt sander to sharpen my tools. My shop was actually set up as a general woodworking shop so I didn't really need a grinder before I was gifted an old craftsman lathe from the 60's. It uses MT1 but does the job :wink:

 

[Hubert H]

As you keep turning you will learn that three of the most important things to learn - sharpening, sharpening, and sharpening.

 

[Hendu3270]

Knocking the corners off is what the lathe is for. I reckon it could be done but most of the acrylics and burl wood just might get beat up by the router. I say stick with the lathe.

 

[monophoto]

I don't have any concern with cutting solid corners off of large faceplate blanks, and in fact some of those cutoffs can often be recycled as small spindle pieces.

But it would seem to me that unless one gets a major thrill from playing with a router, there's no particular benefit in using a router to knock the corners off of spindle blanks, and especially pen blanks. A router is just another tool for converting solid blocks of wood into chips and sawdust, and since a lathe does that very nicely, I prefer to round off on the lathe. (And a spindle roughing gouge is a heck of a lot less expensive than a router and table.)

 

[monark88]

Using the lathe to knock off the corners is ok,to me, if it is a rather soft type wood. When turning the hard woods or PR I use the combo sander to round the corners a bit. I do it to help prolong the sharpness of the tool. I don't find that it takes any longer to do it this way.

Russ