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Finally: McNaughton

G

Gary Slater

Joined
Nov 26, 2008
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Well, I finally broke down and bought the McNaughton coring system for my Jet 1642. I have also watched the Mike Mahoney video (twice). Any words of advice or otherwise that would help me being successful at this would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Having watched him live twice ( I was running the camera) but never actually using one myself, it appeared that he did two things. He kept pulling up on the handle, and he mentioned letting the handle drop is where most people have the problem. In fact he cut his handles really short to alleviate part of the problem of dropping the handle.
He was also very careful to feed the tool at a consistent rate. It appeared that the only time he had problems was when he was talking to us instead of concentrating on what he was doing so he either pushed the tool sideways or pushing in too fast.
 
I have watched him live a few times (in fact I took his class and he helped me core a few bowls) anyway when he was making natural edge nested bowl sets he did not use handles at all. I tried it that way and I like it better, you can be a bit more delicate as you core. As for coring salad bowls I use the handles so I can move it in a fishtail fashion easier. I also use a solution of dish soap and water and spray that in the kerf, it helps it core better on larger pieces.
 
I have used Pam on my blades to help them slide a bit, but forget it 99% of the time. Not really necessary unless I am coring some thing pretty pitchy, which is almost never. The hardest thing about learning to use the tool is that the blades drift to the outside as they cut. You have to correct by opening up the cut on the top, either to the outside or the inside. You can bump the tool rest to the inside. I use one or all of these methods as various times. Seems to differ according to how a particular piece of wood feels that day. I never used the fish tail method. You want the sides of the cut to be as smooth as possible. Any bumps will slow down chip ejection and make the cut clog up a lot more. I did take one blade and bend just the tip of it in a bit, and it actually drifts to the inside a bit now. The bends on the blades can be rather inconsistant, and it doesn't hurt to check them against a radius of some sort.
robo hippy
 
I've a set of homemade Mcnaughton knives, and have never used a handle with them, except for the straight knife used without the gate.

I use wax on the bottom and sides of the knives.

Keep the banjo angled towards the headstock as much as possible, as it is more rigid regarding twisting in this orientation. When the banjo twists, the tip of the knife droops.

The knife cutting edge must be on center when cutting. As the knife extends farther during the cutting, if the tip droops a bit, it will pull the knife under and into the cut and catch or hog. I usually line the end of the knife up with the point on the tailstock with the knife fully extended from the gate.

If the handle end of the knife is allowed to drop, the tip will be above center, and at some point the cutting force will drive it down. As it is driven down, it will be forced into the wood deeper as a result of the curvature of the stock, and will hog.

A remote off switch is a nice thing to have.

I use a small scrap of wood similar to a popsickle stick to help clear shavings with.

Withdraw the knife and clear shavings often.

When entering a cut after clearing shavings, if the knife does not cut with a slight pressure, it likely has a shaving over the cutting edge, and is rubbing the shaving on the blank instead of presenting the edge. Withdraw the knife and reinsert in this situation.

Fuzzy wood is a bear to core as the shavings do not clear well.

Later,
Dale M
 
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I only use the soap solution when it needs it. Mainly for larger salad bowls that aren't going to well. How did you build your homemade blades? And what steel did you use?
 
If your going to use the McNaughton along with watching the Grumbine video and the Mahoney video one should have the definitive video on this system made by Reed Gray AKA Robo Hippy. It was/is a great help to me.
 
I have little money right now, and buying videos is not the priority to me. I also think I have the coring system figured out quite well. But if you have that video and want to trade me videos for a short time, then go for it.
 
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