Making your own tools

[Sawdust=manglitter]

I fancy making myself a couple of heavy duty bowl scrapers and was just wondering if anyone here has done it themselves. If so, did you use HSS steel to make it? I cant find many places that sell suitable HSS steel blanks, but i have found this on the bay...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291567366980? ... EBIDX%3AIT

Would you trust that this would actually be HSS steel, coming from Hong Kong? I very much doubt it would be the quality/grade of HSS that you'd get made in the UK, but its pretty cheap if it's as described! Does anyone else have any suggestions as to where i could maybe get hold of some cheap suitable UK made HSS steel blanks?

 

[cornucopia]

Ashley isles have HSS blanks for sale

 

[Sawdust=manglitter]

Hi Cornucpia, is the following link what you mean?

http://www.ashleyilestoolstore.co.uk/ac ... us/special

If so, have you bought one before? How does it work for the width? There's not much of a description.

Thanks!

 

[CHJ]

Hi Cornucpia, is the following link what you mean?

http://www.ashleyilestoolstore.co.uk/ac ... us/special

If so, have you bought one before? How does it work for the width? There's not much of a description.

Thanks!

That is not a turning tool, that's for hand carving.

Ashley iles are often at the larger wood shows with a selection of their complete tools and also bins of HSS blanks and part formed or unhandled tool steels.

If you have problems traveling to such from your location then an enquiry to them for a given steel blank or its near equivalent normally results in a quote including delivery.

 

[paulm]

Have a look for threads on here about making your own turning tools as well, most use carbide tips on the end of round bar which are very effective and relatively easy to make.

Cheers, Paul

 

[steve w]

i have read the threads on home made tools breaking and causing injury but was wondering about old car springs as they are not prone to shattering plus it gives a good lencth of steel to keep the handle insert real strong and chunky?

 

[woodpig]

Spring steel, both coil and leaf is a source of material for tools in many poorer countries and whilst I'm sure it's good enough in many cases I'm not sure how long the edge will last if used for wood turning. HSS is not the be all that some think it is but it does hold an edge for a long time compared to most of the older tool steels. It's very rewarding making your own tools so if you have easy access to suitable stock give it a try, just keep safe.

 

[graduate_owner]

I too have been thinking of making some heavy duty bowl scrapers, especially since they cost around £30-40 to buy. (My logic is - I could never make, say a chuck so I am willing to pay £160 to buy one. But since I could easily make 4 scraping tools, why shell out £160 for them?)

I have not found a supply of HSS in a suitable size so I was thinking to buy some, say 4" lengths, cut and shape them to suit and fix them on to a mild steel shank, 'fix' being the important word. I'm not sure drilling would be easy so I thought to clamp a HSS segment to ms by slotting the ms and drilling / tapping a thread so as to use set screws to clamp the HSS in place in the ms slot. Perhaps weld the sides of the ms to make a sort of mortise into which the HSS sits as a tenon. The ms is cheap enough to buy, and can be as rigid as needed, and as long as needed too, including a decent length of tang.

I have a milling machine so I can use a slitting saw to make the mortice. Otherwise careful use of an angle grinder might do the job. The same applies to creating the tang. The handles will be the easy part, with 1" copper pipe for a ferrule.

It does not sound ijke a difficult job to me, and with a 2" or so length of HSS as thecutting edge, I think it should be pretty cheap to do.

The other option is to buy HSS tips and screw them to a ms shank. They come ready drilled but cost about £10 each (replacement tips for Crown etc tools). I have not tried using carbide tips yet but that is another possibility. In both these cases all that is needed is to shape a length of ms and turn a handle.

I will let people know how I get on when (and if, of course) I give it a go, but I'm definitely interested.

K

 

[paulm]

I used round steel bar for shafts, ground a flat on the end and drilled and tapped to take different shaped carbide cutters, and used the shafts in a hollow handle when required. The hollow handles have the advantage of being able to extend or shorten the protrusion of the shaft to suit the job in hand, and of course quick and easy to swop shafts/cutters over when wanted, no need for multiple fixed handles, unless you particularly want them of course

Cheers, Paul

 

[Lons]

I've made a couple of carbide scrapers but have been looking at something else and wondering if viable.

I have a number of duplicate sets of spindle moulder block knives which are HSS, at 30mm and 40mm wide and i think it might be possible to form a ms rod or bar, maybe flattened / fannned out at the end and fit these in a similar way to carbide inserts. Or perhaps cut a slot in the rod and screw right through. I can't see why it wouldn't work and won't cost me anything to try - just haven't got a round tuit.

Bob

 

[graduate_owner]

I was wondering about spindle moulder cutters, perhaps ones that could be picked up cheap because they no longer comply with safety regs, but I don't know if they would be thick enough. As you say though, if you have some thsn it won't cost anything to try. Let us know how you get on.

K

 

[Paul Hannaby]

If I was after a cheap source of HSS, I would probably look at the second hand market. There are lots of turning tools out there and even if they aren't exactly what you need, you can always regrind them. I have scrapers that used to be skews, some tools I made myself from HSS bar bought from Ashley Isles (they do a range of sizes) and some that were fine as they were and just needed a new handle.

Either second hand tools from a quality supplier or new blanks from a similar source would be a good bet because you know they will have been heat treated well. Rember, not all tool steel is heat treated to the same standard.

 

[Sawdust=manglitter]

Thanks for all of the great advice guys.

I needed a wider straight edge shear scraper so I've made my first prototype using an old chisel which I've re-ground and turned a Sorby style handle, which I'm pleased with. So I'll be giving Ashley Iles a call for some HSS blanks rather than risking an eBay order from Hong Kong

 

[CHJ]

I would seriously advise you not to proceed with using that converted wood chisel on your lathe.
Should an inadvertent catch occur then you are in serious danger of having the snapped tang imbedded in your person, best case is that the tool tang will bend to 90 deg. and the tool ending up jammed between tool rest and work.

 

[CHJ]

This is what can happen to a tanged tool if it catches, and this was made for turning but mis-used, possibly on a bowl blank.

 

[Sawdust=manglitter]

Thanks Chas, that puts things into perspective for me. I like my hands and want to be doing this for decades to come, I'm not even 30 yet (2 months to go but I'm still clinging on to my twenties)! That looks like it could have been very nasty. It was just an experiment though really, maybe it can just be ornamental.

 

[John Brown]

This is what can happen to a tanged tool if it catches, and this was made for turning but mis-used, possibly on a bowl blank.

For those of us without a clue, can you explain how a proper turning tool is constructed, if not with a tang?
Genuinely interested, although I've never turned anything...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Out of round bar.

 

[woodpig]

I too have been thinking of making some heavy duty bowl scrapers, especially since they cost around £30-40 to buy. (My logic is - I could never make, say a chuck so I am willing to pay £160 to buy one. But since I could easily make 4 scraping tools, why shell out £160 for them?)

I have not found a supply of HSS in a suitable size so I was thinking to buy some, say 4" lengths, cut and shape them to suit and fix them on to a mild steel shank, 'fix' being the important word. I'm not sure drilling would be easy so I thought to clamp a HSS segment to ms by slotting the ms and drilling / tapping a thread so as to use set screws to clamp the HSS in place in the ms slot. Perhaps weld the sides of the ms to make a sort of mortise into which the HSS sits as a tenon. The ms is cheap enough to buy, and can be as rigid as needed, and as long as needed too, including a decent length of tang.

I have a milling machine so I can use a slitting saw to make the mortice. Otherwise careful use of an angle grinder might do the job. The same applies to creating the tang. The handles will be the easy part, with 1" copper pipe for a ferrule.

It does not sound ijke a difficult job to me, and with a 2" or so length of HSS as thecutting edge, I think it should be pretty cheap to do.

The other option is to buy HSS tips and screw them to a ms shank. They come ready drilled but cost about £10 each (replacement tips for Crown etc tools). I have not tried using carbide tips yet but that is another possibility. In both these cases all that is needed is to shape a length of ms and turn a handle.

I will let people know how I get on when (and if, of course) I give it a go, but I'm definitely interested.

K

I've made about 7-8 turning tools using carbide tips and it's easy if you have a milling machine. I've used round, square and hexagon mild steel stock for the shafts with suitable sized Torx screws to hold the inserts in place. I've also made my own collet handles out of alloy tube with poly hose covers.

 

[woodpig]

For those of us without a clue, can you explain how a proper turning tool is constructed, if not with a tang?
Genuinely interested, although I've never turned anything...

Apart from gouges most have a tang but there are exceptions like Carter & Son Tools:

http://carterandsontoolworks.com