Читать книгу Ellsworth on Woodturning - David Ellsworth - Страница 32

The average time required to make an average tool? A bit more than an average Internet visit. The more tools you make, the less they cost, because you already own the important stuff. The handles are free because you walk outside and cut some off a small tree, or you go visit your local friendly furniture maker and beg or trade some of your bowls for some of his scraps. Neither one of you actually needs either one of them anyway, so it should be an equal exchange.

If you don’t like how the tool works, if the handle is too short or too long, if the angle of the bend is too little or too great, keep making the tool until you get it right. But save the first tool, because you’ll always find another use for it down the road. You can’t fail. There are no bad tools, just ones you don’t use as often.

In fact, without experience, you can’t know how a tool is going to react on the wood until you try it. It’s that trying part, the figuring out what a tool does and doesn’t do, that helps you solve problems and guides you in new directions. If the tool doesn’t work on dry wood, try it on green wood. I have some bent tools with ½"-thick shafts and severe bends extending as much as 4" past the bend that work better than thicker ⅝" bars of the same shape. Why? Usually, when the cutting tips receive less support from the shaft, they become more sensitive to the surfaces I’m cutting. Logic says more support would be better. In this case, logic is wrong.

To drill a hole in a tool shaft to hold the tip, secure the rod in your vise and use a twist bit slightly smaller than the diameter of the rod.

Materials and tools

For those of you adventurous enough to make your own tools, here is a list of the materials and tools you’ll need. You may already have many of the required tools. If that’s the case, you won’t have to invest much money at all.

• A couple of 36"-long 0-1 drill rod steel bars of various diameters

• A couple of 10% cobalt high-speed cutting tips, 3/16" or 1/4" square

• A couple of standard drill bits (3/16" and 1/4")

• A set of long-stemmed Allen wrenches

• A good bench vise

• A propane shop torch

• A hand-held power drill

• A pair of vise-grip pliers

• A grinder

• A hacksaw

• A tube of superglue