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vertical stacked ring cuttin methods

Don C Davis

Don C Davis

Joined
Feb 15, 2018
Messages
256
Likes
64
Location
Canton, GA
I have experimented with some stack ring laminated bowls, and I like them very much, I am however NOT a fan of RingMaster--the principal is horrible on communication and NEVER follows up as promised--so long story shortened, I am looking for a lathe attachment--preferably mounts into tool rest post holder on banjo, that will cut the rings from a board mounted to the lathe. I've searched around on the internet, and have only found one device that a fellow made from the Oneway Drill Wizard--so I'm looking for different input than that.

Thanks for any input/advice
 
Thanks Gary-hope you are well, I'm just now getting up an at em from the ankle fubar. Mike, I do make segmented bowls, and they are far wider in options for sure--It's just that I liked stacked ring bowls, and want to find a method for cutting rings that allows thicker bowls than the RingMaster and larger ones as well--I don't think you should be limited by anything other than the swing of you lathe with an ideal system.
 
Don C Davis said:
I have experimented with some stack ring laminated bowls, and I like them very much, I am however NOT a fan of RingMaster--the principal is horrible on communication and NEVER follows up as promised--so long story shortened, I am looking for a lathe attachment--preferably mounts into tool rest post holder on banjo, that will cut the rings from a board mounted to the lathe. I've searched around on the internet, and have only found one device that a fellow made from the Oneway Drill Wizard--so I'm looking for different input than that.

Thanks for any input/advice
Click to expand...
I have done them by using two half size and cut them out on bandsaw. Ie if you have two boards 8 x 16 you can make a 16" bowl using a bandsaw. The Id to od size ring is dependent on thickness of baord. Check out bowl from a board on youtube.
 
I have done rings using thin parting tools and used a flat tool rest with angles drawn on it. Works pretty well. There are several good videos on how to build some pretty fancy machines but you would need a metal shop to do it. I don't do a lot of stack laminated bowls and have found the scroll saw is the best way for me. I've used the bandsaw and half ring method and it works well unless your design is critical. Then that half ring gap can cause problems. With the Scroll saw you cut out whole circles and it's easy to change the table to any angle so you can get much more variation in your bowl shapes. there is a book by Carol Rothman call scroll saw bowl that covers all the angles is really helpful.
https://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Bowls...oll+saw+bowls&qid=1550278125&s=gateway&sr=8-1
 
I have done a few of these with 2" dimensional lumber with a parting tool, however you need to cut them from both sides of the board, trying to cut a ring that thick from one side is almost impossible as the tool tends to heat up from too much friction in that deep of a cut. The ringmaster concept that uses a carbide cutter from both sides is about as good as it gets for the concept. A thin parting tool like what they use on a metal lathe might work if you can get two of them rigged up on a jig with adjustable angles.

You could possibly have a welding shop, blacksmith shop or machine shop grind a tool that has a gap in the middle of the tool with two apposing cutting blades to cut the blank by hand from a tool rest with an angle guide to go by. This would be the same principle as the Ringmaster but a hand held tool. How thick of a ring do you want to cut to start with? You are wanting to use standard 1" boards correct?
 
I like the concept of cutting through 3 layers. You can remove each layer and not have to go as deep with the parting tool. Of course each layer is thinner. I have been searching. years ago while researching Bowl From a Board to learn more I found a guy who built a sliding cuttoff jig. It had 2 parting tools mounted opposite each other and it was on a rotating device so you could change the angle. The cutters were on some linear bearings so you could slide them back and forth. You cut half way through the blanks with one cutter and then pulled that cutter out which fed the other cutter in from the back side at the same angle. I will keep looking for that video but haven't found it yet.
Before I got married and moved I started building a hand held parting tool that used a metal cutting parting tool. The idea was to use this between a rotating gate. The gate would fit in my banjo and could be rotated to any angle. Then you feed this parting tool between the gate. The tool is thinner and not as tall as other parting tools so it won't bind up as much. The gate would keep it from tipping and keep the angle constant. That got put on the back burner and now that I'm moving again I guess it will stay there for another 6 months or longer.
 
The tooling that Mark Damron designed for this task is very well built for the task way beyond the abilities of most wood turners. There are cheap cross- slides available that could be modified for this purpose but you still need to offset the cross-slide and get the working end of the tool out on the edge of the rotating board and still allow for moving the cutters in four directions. The cutters used could be easily attached to a hand held tool and a U-shape tool rest could support a hand held tool from both sides of the board. The critical part is the angle of the cut into the board you could mount an adjustable guide on one or both sides of the tool rest to visually provide a guide to follow while moving the tool from both sides of the board. A wide body scraper with a notch cut out of one side with small apposing carbide cutters attached to the hand held tool could possibly provide a simple solution for any wood turner. Having support on both sides of the board for the tool would be critical in keeping the hand held tool from catching and binding between the two cutters if the tool were to lift off the tool rest when cutting from one unsupported side with a conventional tool rest. You could use two tool rests one on both sides of the board if you have them available. This is where a simple U-shaped tool rest that fits around both sides of the rotating board would be easy to fabricate and move as the board is cut each time. The tool rest would need to be aligned properly each time it is moved to provide the proper angle of cut for the board. You could check this angle with a simple template held against the face of the board or a simple gauge mounted to the tool rest showing alignment to the board.

I have free handed hundreds of wood rings using a parting tool which requires patience and sharpening of the tool when I was making hollow spheres. You usually need to approach the board from both sides to avoid binding the parting tool from friction cutting through certain woods.

Dremel makes a circle cutting jig, if you could mount the Dremel at an angle on this jig you could use spiral bits to cut through flat boards at any diameter needed but you would use a lot of spiral bits in the process.

Another option would be a scroll saw with adjustable table set to the correct angle needed for the cut, drill holes needed in the board to insert the blade into to start each cut. You could mount a center point to pivot the board on to simplify the cutting process to illuminate having to guide the board for each cut. Here again you will eat up scroll saw blades in this process.
 
I would love to have tools like Mark Damron, but he isn't willing to make tools for other folks. I would love to find a track/rail that I could weld to a tool post and be able to attach a cross slide rail of one direction that I could mount a tool holding device on that would hold a 1/32" carbide cutter that one could cut up to a 1.5"-2" thick board with.
 
Don,

I purchased a couple of Harbor Freight #40641 HSS Mini Tool Bits to use for a hand held tool for cutting rings. When I get the time I will get several of the HSS cutters mounted on a flat bar with an opening that will fit over the board and see how this works on a tool rest.

A metal lathe has a cross slide and if you use a modern style tool holder that supports a parting tool you can easily cut wood boards on the metal lathe by setting the tool post at the proper angle to project the parting tool into the board at the correct angle. I have cut a number of 2X12 pine lumber using this method you just need to clean all of the wood dust from the machine and keep it lubricated so you don't gum up the moving parts on the metal lathe. Metal lathes and wood dust do not work well with each other unless you seal up openings to keep the wood from entering a few of these areas. You could possibly cut half way through the board and flip it over on the lathe mount and readjust your tool post to match up to the correct angle, if you marked the round board on both sides with a pencil line that matched up with each ring it would be easy to line up for each cut.
 
Don,

I need to scrounge through the steel dumpster at work and see if I can find a flat piece of 1/2" thick steel about 12" long and weld a lag bolt to one end to screw a wood handle to the tool. A quick trip to the iron worker to punch an opening on one side of the tool and then drill and tap a couple of holes to secure the HSS cutters to the tool. I might make the tool big enough to handle 2" thick lumber which would also work for 1" thick lumber. I just need to come up with some adjustable stops on the tool rest to set the angle of the tool based on the thickness of the board.
 
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