card or cabinet scrapers

Going to place an order with Grizzly tomorrow and I see they have Shop Fox and Lynx card scrapers on page 367. I have played a little bit with likely pieces of steel and gotten a fairly nice scrape going a time or two, curls lighter than down. I want to try scraping turnings to reduce sanding, primarily exterior. The question is will these cheap scrapers work or buy quality and cry once? The Lynx scrapers are made in England but no info as to who makes them.

I do know there is a learning curve involved but skipping the lower grits sanding would be worth some time spent learning to use the scrapers.

Thanks for any input!

Hu
 
I don't know how much difference the manufacturer will make. The important point is how well you resharpen them and burnish the burr on the edges. I'll be interested to know how this works out for you. I don't find sanding my turnings that much of a chore, but I hate sanding flatwork, so that's where I use scrapers.
 
I like the Stanley #80 style scraper, lots of different manufacturers, very much. It works extreamly well to level mismatches of assembled parts, as well as saving time while sanding. But there is always a time and place for a card scraper and I would incourage a person to get both. There is a long learning curve on scrapers because there is usually no one around to help in the learning curve and it is trail and error.

On the 80s type the card is thicker and it needs to be sharpened at 45% and a gental hook because the blade is at a fixed angle. If you get them working right there is no looking back.

On a card the bottom is usually left flat and the burr roled but it can be used without rolling the burr. Some sharpen them at 45% and again gently rool a burr. The truth is in doing it anyway you want or doing it as to how it pleases you.

I do find the scraping tends to burnish the wood and the surface will still need to be sanded with fine paper if coloring wood with a stain, especially a pigmented oil stain.

The bottom line is I prefer both.
 
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The lynx are likely decent, thebestthings.com says that they're made by Thomas Flynn http://www.thebestthings.com/newtools/cabinet_scrapers.htm

Mostly for a scraper you want steel that's not to soft and not to hard, old saw plates are generally about perfect, I have one set I got from LV that looks a lot like the Flynn set http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32639&cat=1,310,41069 but could be the same mfg as the grizzly set for all I know. I don't think I'd end up spending more than the Flynn's and might not even be willing to go that far and take a chance on the shop fox (scrapers aren't exactly rocket science after all - although sharpening them is a bit of a trick, especially the curved ones).
 
Best I understand the deal with a scraper is rolling a burr, not a curl that will have the cutting edge facing away from the wood. I figure I am best off with some steel of known proper properties to learn to condition a scraper on and then move on to old saw blades or whatever. I tried rolling a burr on half the scrap around here that I figured was decent grade steel with various levels of success! :D

Buying from Grizzly was just going to create confusion since the lathe I was ordering is coming truck freight and scrapers would come separately. I need a different adapter for my talon chuck so I am looking for suppliers that have those and scrapers also now to try to get everything in one shipment. Might buy some different jaws for the talon too, smaller tower jaws and larger maybe dovetail jaws. I have the #2 "wave" profile jaws now. They work fine but I find I often want larger tenons on my wood or smaller ones to get the jaws out of the way.

I do have the #80 style scraper, wanting to play with the card style. Sanding wouldn't be quite as annoying without some issues with my old Craftsman that I haven't wanted to wrestle with. One thing is simple geometry and an odd sized tool rest post. I don't want to invest in tool rests that will only fit it. Once I open the banjo up slightly on the new Griz that is coming to one inch I'll buy or build a few rests for it. My friend with the machine shop doesn't know it but he is going to see a good bit of me soon. I fed him a seafood platter last night, that oughta be worth sumthin'! :thumb:

I have a little bit of pecan to turn, figure it should be a test for the new 766. The pecan was 33" DBH.

Hu
 

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Well, I'll freely admit that even with scrapers of known quantity my bur rolling technique is still a bit hit and miss :rolleyes: The more I do it the more hit it is, but it's kind of like they say, sometimes you get the bur and sometimes the bur gets you.
 
I just dropped in to say that's a lot of pecan bowls on the hoof there, Hu. :thumb:

I've not used card or cabinet scrapers on the lathe, so I have no advice to offer. :dunno:
 
I just dropped in to say that's a lot of pecan bowls on the hoof there, Hu. :thumb:

I've not used card or cabinet scrapers on the lathe, so I have no advice to offer. :dunno:


Vaughn,

A lot of that tree was punky or plain rotten but it still leaves a bodacious plenty of good wood. My neighbor wanted some for his smoker. I asked him if a truckload or two would do. He said "fine". He thought I was joking until I showed up with the first load. Still plenty to turn and I haven't started on the main trunk yet. Some rot but a lot of solid wood too.

From playing with other metal around here a scraper should work well as long as I use it like sandpaper and not a turning tool! Slow the speed down, move the rest out of the way, and have at it. I had shavings coming off maybe a thousandth or two thick about three-quarters wide. Something like that happening pretty consistently would be fantastic. I was only getting shavings like that out of about an inch and a half of a four inch "scraper" edge though, just enough to tease me! I think that "scraper" was an old trowel if I remember rightly. The theory is that card scraping should work as well as shear scraping with a gouge, be faster, and I'll have about ten times the edge to dull before it needs sharpening or rolling. We all know about them theories though!



Ryan,

I suspect you are right about the burr. The stuff I have been trying to roll a burr on was all corroded pretty badly and that tends to leach out more of some components than others so I figured I would get something that was at least supposed to work to try to learn on. I think I'll go whole hog and buy the Crown scraper set and the Crown burnisher. All from England and I have a couple of Crown gouges that are very decent, maybe a half step behind the Thompson's though. Haven't used any enough to swear by anything though.

Haven't forgotten about the camera system, I'll do my homework as soon as the new lathe is installed and get one to play with.

Hu
 
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