Trouble Turning Laminated Wood Blanks

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mikefoye

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Nov 19, 2015
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Lago Vista, Texas 78645
I purchased an assortment of laminated blanks from Woodcraft so I have no doubt about the quality of the blanks. I am having a tough time turning them without essentially "catching" some of the laminates and a section popping out, particularly when I am down almost to finished diameter. I tried high speeds (2500/2900 or so) and slower speeds (1500 or so). I used carbide tools and newly sharpened tools and nothing seems to work. What do I need to be thinking about?
 
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jttheclockman

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Use a sharp skew in the traditional way and never get a catch. If using any tool as a scraper such as a carbide tool it will have a tendency to catch because not all laminated pieces are of the same hardness. Or switch to sandpaper the last bit. But use a backer piece on the sandpaper do not just use a piece in your hand. Will get ridges.
 

KenV

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Mike

I presume your carbide reference is to flat top scraper style carbide tools.

Hunter cup carbide in bevel riding mode or shear-scrape form will get the job done.

I like the skew and 5 cps thin CA too

Spectra,ply is what I usually,use.
 

mikefoye

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Lago Vista, Texas 78645
I am new to turning and have come to use round (2 sizes) of carbide and radiused square (2 sizes) with great success on most all woods and acrylics. I started out with steel gouge and I have sharpening jig and can now get them real sharp. I can do well with a sharpened Gouge. As for skews, I own two different kinds but have not come close to mastering them yet. Even though they are newly sharpened I repeatedly get catches with them. I know it is a learned technique that I still have not yet mastered. Ill try the gouge and CA and sandpaper with thin CA coats to keep colors from "bleeding" from sanding dust.

Thanks so much. You guys are great.
 

low_48

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Peoria, IL, USA.
Find a mentor in your area if possible. It will save you weeks and lots of frustration learning how to use a skew. They are like hand planes, you need an edge that will shave arm hair. Most don't understand that you have to work much higher up on the blank with them. Practice rubbing the bevel before raising the handle and making a curl. Also read about shear scraping with your carbide tools.
 

KenV

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I am going to find a mentor. I youtubed shear scraping and I think that might be a real solution for me. I'm going to try it and see how it goes..

Thanks

Shear scrape has a lot of uses but does not come with training wheels. Also is useful to level CA in the finishing process if you have dead on control. Worth working on the skill.
 

ed4copies

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Logically, the more of the surface you are touching at one time, the more of the edge of the segments you will pry up.

If you scrape with a round carbide, you are touching less surface than the square carbide, you are likely to have more success.

If you master a skew in the "near vertical" orientation, you will have the least contact AND the contact is not parallel to the segment joints, so it is by far the least likely to pry out a piece.

Perhaps put off turning segments until you have more skills in your arsenal.

FWIW!!!
 

edstreet

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No longer confused....
I purchased an assortment of laminated blanks from Woodcraft so I have no doubt about the quality of the blanks. I am having a tough time turning them without essentially "catching" some of the laminates and a section popping out, particularly when I am down almost to finished diameter. I tried high speeds (2500/2900 or so) and slower speeds (1500 or so). I used carbide tools and newly sharpened tools and nothing seems to work. What do I need to be thinking about?


Try very high speed. I.e. Over 3,000 rpm and perhaps 4,000+. The try very light cuts.

Also note it is not about the tool width or point or even the shape. Instead it is all about the pressure of the chisel into the material and the angle you approach it at. Think of it as a plane landing, if your approach and speed is off then you just crashed the plane and it will burry into the ground.

You also need to 'feel' the material as you turn it through the chisel. Once you get use to doing this you can do amazing things.

As a fail safe method you can get a sanding arbor for the hand drill, slap a very coarse grit ( read 80 grit abranet ) pad on there then go the job. This will ensure its clean.
 

farmer

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Jun 16, 2012
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Trouble turning wood and plastics and laminated woods

This is not going to help most turners who own a wood lathe .
But this might give those of you that have metal lathes a Idea.
Pretty much any lathe could have some linear rails mounted on it so a router could be slid along to cut squares into round stock .
Buy one rail , cut it in half, put mounting ends on it so you can mount it to your wood lathe,
make a router mounting plate for the linear rail blocks .
20mm Linear Slide 78-3/4 20mm Linear Slide 78-3/4 [] - $160.99 : Get Hubbed, The Art of CNC

In winter time Plastics and acrylics get brittle in our cold shops.
I have rice in side a couple of socks I put in my micro wave and heat the rice up.
Then I put these rice bags I wrap them around my west system epoxy to make it flow better and not have air bubble issues .
But I would have no issues warming up a acrylic pen blank using the same rice socks ..

My method
This method works really good when making wood round from being square .

If you look closely I am using a standard dead center to spin the wood and I don't have to gorilla tighten it .
My lathe is going 50 rpm as slow as it will go.
My ridged veneer trimmer on the other hand is going as fast as it will go 30.000 rpm.
I do about 50 thousands of cut each pass , finish pass is just a couple thousands .
And I have dial indicator help me gauge each cut.


Another option is to make a jig that pen blank could have the edges cut off by using a jointer or a plainer.

Jointer routers saws plainer Scare the hell out of me , I want to keep all of my fingers ......
So caution (safety ) really needs to be a priority.

The method of using a live router or cutter has worked the very best for me .
 

Hawkdave

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Jan 1, 2016
Messages
243
Location
Adelaide, Australia
I am going to find a mentor. I youtubed shear scraping and I think that might be a real solution for me. I'm going to try it and see how it goes..

Thanks

I use shear scraping for my acrylic pens and also for the laminated wooden blanks as well. It works fine, and if your skew chisel is very sharp, you will only need to do a small amount of sanding to get your required finish.

My suggestion for you is, practice your shear scraping on a scrap piece of wood until you feel comfortable with developing your technique. It is much easier than you realise. Good Luck!!

Dave.
 
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