New tool

Drew Watson

Member
Messages
2,070
Location
Salt Spring Island, BC Canada
I broke down and treated myself to the CiO easy finisher that are being sold through LV now. I just did some testing on a yellow cedar bowl that I am working on but I am already very impressed. Been thinking of the new easy hollower that they are selling as the next purchase ( as soon as LV start selling it). So long as the tests with this one go good. Oh yea pics to follow.
 
Congrats Drew. Make sure you give us a good run down on that thing. I have been resisting buying one because of the price. Looks like it would finish a piece nicely and be able to go places a bowl gouge may not go.
 
I like my Ci0 a lot. I tend to save it for those times when I'm having trouble getting a good cut with my other tools. I also use it in my Monster hollowing rig.
 
Well I put it through the paces on the yellow cedar bowl. It is outstanding. I was a little shy with it at first and had to go and check out the web page to see how it really works ( was sort of using it like a scraper with the same cutting angle). Once I got over that hurdle it went great. I can see myself getting a few more of these toools espesially the hollower. It is bigger and heavier than I had expected and could use a slightly skinner handle but not by much. I did find out one bad thing about the tool though and that is it doesn't fit into my tool rack. So off to the design table again to re design my tool rack. Oh yea and here are some pics ( not from the tool cataloge) and Lv was a better price than I found it on line at. :thumb:
 

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Good for you, Drew. I have to say I've never been sorry with things I bought from Lee Valley. :thumb:

Lee Valley just recently started selling the Easy Wood tools, but the folks who make them (Craig and Donna Jackson) are great people with excellent products...a perfect fit for Lee Valley. Craig is a turner and machinist who decided to come up with an easier way to rough out a bowl, and through a lot of experimenting and research, he's developed a great line of tools. And he's continually looking for ways to improve the products. A year or so ago I was involved in a field test he was doing on some new cutters, to see if there were better ones than what he was using. (The new ones weren't as good, at least in my opinion.)
 
LV seems to be having a hard time here keeping the tools in stock here. I was on a waiting list to get one of the three that were ariving at the store. Now that says a lot about a product when there is a great demand for it. Just hoping that Rob brings in the hollower next. In this economy of recycling and not wasting things I like the idea of not having to re buy the entire tool and just getting the replacment cutter heads. :thumb:
 
Easy Wood Tools

Hi,

I have three of the Easy Wood turning tools. Vaughn M. put me onto the Easy Rougher (For some reason I think of Teddy Roosevelt every time I say or write Easy Rougher) mode. I ordered directly from Donna and Craig. They sound like the people you would love to have live next door.

I added the finisher when they were on sale at Lee Valley. And then I got a really good deal on the detailer---Glenn gave it to me.

These tools are extremely easy to use. I would heartily recommend them to any beginning wood turner. The tools are fairly hefty. Since I am small, I wanted all the leverage I could muster for the rougher. I liked it so the other two tools are also the big ones.

You place the flat part of the tool flat on the tool rest. The tool approaches and contacts the wood horizontally---you might want to raise or lower the handle slightly as you work. This makes for a very stable relationship for the turner, the tool rest and the turning.

I started by using wood from that deluxe wood turning tree, the Rough Freight Pallet. This worked fine. Then I used a piece of Maple. It cut so smoothly I darn near went through the wood. The Easy Woods have no tendency to want to pull sideways. The perfectly horizontal tool approach is easy to learn. Surprisingly using these, almost fool proof, turning tools upped my lathe learning curve with traditional tools. I am not a "natural" woodworker like my son Glenn. I have to work much harder at it. Glenn's first turning was better than anything I made for months.

The preceding paragraph became all convoluted. I was just trying to point out that a woodworking klutz can get a faster, easier start with the Easy Woods.

Even though I sound like I do, I have absolutely no financial interest in the company. I had not even heard of it until Vaughn had me try the rougher.

Yes I also had to revamp my tool rack for the larger diameter ferels (spelling=?) on the handles.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
Regarding the larger handles...I bought my Ci1 and Ci0 unhandled, and I plug them into steel and foam handles from Monster Tools (like most of the other turning tools I use a lot). The Ci1 rougher in a steel handle filled with lead shot is a wood-eating machine, with no fighting involved. And the Ci0 also fits into the Monster hollowing rig. I can hollow out a potpourri bowl in dry ash or maple in four or five minutes.

To be honest, I don't use the rougher for the initial cuts on most pieces. I still prefer using a bowl gouge to get a piece round. (My 3/4" Thompson in a lead-filled Monster handle weighs about 8 pounds. It's doesn't vibrate much.) :p When I'm going through things like bark, I'd rather use an edge that I can resharpen. I'd rather save the carbide cutter for cleaner wood.
Once I'm through any bark and the piece is round, my Ci1 gets a a fair amount of use when I need to hog out a lot of wood, and the Ci0 is great for finishing cuts on the insides of bowls, and for larger cove cuts on spindle pieces.

I've also got the Ci2m and Ci3m mini rougher and finisher (a very generous gift from Stu). They're also great tools, but they're in the factory handles, which feel a bit short to me. I don't believe they're available unhandled, but I may put longer handles on them some day.

I'm not paid, but I'm an unabashed endorser. :thumb:
 
They come un-handled? well now ya tell me. :rofl: I will have to check out what the cost is for that as well as the shipping and see how much a differnce it is from just getting them through LV and unhandling them. I have to have a look at the mini ones too. Not saying these are going to replace my using all the other tools (as every tool has its purpose) I sort of want to treat these tools as more a finishing tools as I can't re-sharpen them and some of the woods do dull the regular tools down real fast. So Vaughn I know this might be difficullt to guage but how much use do you get with them before having to replace the tips? Just a ball park idea. I am glad in a way that I didn't start out with these tools as the tool manipulation is important to learn, but they do a nice job on cutting down the sanding time. I am sure that this attitude will all change the more that I use them. :thumb:
 
Drew, it's tough to gauge how long an insert lasts since there are a lot of variables, but I'm still using the round cutter I got a year or more ago when I was testing cutters for Craig. Over that length of time, I've hollowed out maybe 10 or 12 potpourri pots out of hard dry wood (using it for both hogging and finishing), and used it for finishing cuts on I'm guessing 20 to 30 bowls. It's not as sharp as it was a year ago, but it's still a sharper edge than my scrapers. Another thing that helps is that it's so thick. That really cuts down on the vibration and helps get a smoother cut. (I have a 3/8" thick round-nosed scraper that's also very vibration-resistant, but it doesn't get as sharp or hold an edge very long.)
 
Oh and while I am at it just want to pass on a huge thanks to Harvey for sharing some of his older bowl blanks with me it. The yellow cedar bowl blank has spread a great aroma all through the house. :thumb::thumb::thumb:

I did tell you that I wanted you to return those blanks after you've removed all the excess wood didn't I?:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Glad to see they're being put to good use.:thumb:

Harvey
 
I did tell you that I wanted you to return those blanks after you've removed all the excess wood didn't I?:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Glad to see they're being put to good use.:thumb:

Harvey

What was that Harvey? you want me to return all the excess wood that I have removed? :D:D

I have discovered that I have to build a Longworth chuck to finish off the bottoms of the larger bowls. ( ok all the bowls are larger :eek:) I am still working through them though and I will have to bring some to the next meeting for show and tell. I most definatly have to look at a stubby.
 
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