Wood cutters for a lathe: their purpose and types
Wood cutters for a lathe: purpose and types of tools
Wood cutters for lathes are designed for processing wooden parts on a special machine, which are widely used for the manufacture of furniture or interior elements. A wide range of different types of tools is presented on the construction market, which is selected based on the scope of use and the material of the wooden billet. Everything you need to know about wood cutters can be found in this article.
As tools for working with a lathe, special cutters are used, which have long handles so that the master can hold the tool firmly in his hands
Wood cutters for a lathe: purpose and design of elements
The main purpose of turning wood cutters is the manual processing of a part rotating in a special machine. The lathe used for these purposes is designed to give the body rotation. Wooden blanks, which initially have a rounded shape, are installed on a lathe with the help of two latches. One lock is connected to an electric motor, which sets the part in motion.
The choice of the type of turning tool, its sharpening and condition largely depends on the possibility of certain operations, the manufacture of parts of the required configuration
Important! On the motor side, the fixation must necessarily be rigid so that rotational movements do not occur at idle.
The incisors, which are fixed to the rotating mechanism, perform the processing of the body of rotation. Depending on the strength, shape and sharpness of the cutter, traces are formed on the wooden billet. This also determines the shape of the workpiece.
The design of the lathe cutter consists of a working metal part and a wooden handle. The working element conventionally consists of a blade, a body and a shank. The blade consists of an anterior, posterior and pointed angle. The size of the sharpening angle depends on the material of the workpiece. Most often, craftsmen use sharp corners to work with wood. The body is the main part for which the turner holds the cutter on the armrest of the machine with a non-working hand. The shank is a narrowed part into which the tool body passes. It is on it that the handle of the lathe cutter is attached.
The handle design consists of a base and a neck. The base is most of the handle, which the turner holds with his hand. The neck is represented by a small cylindrical part with a metal fastening ring. It is designed to prevent cracking of the handle while stuffing it onto the shank of the working part.
Turning wood cutters consist of a rear, pointed and front corner
Varieties of turning wood cutters
Today, on the shelves of hardware stores, you can find several varieties of tools for working on wood for lathes: reyers, meissels, chisels, scrapers, edged cutters, oblique cutters, hooks, rings, combs.
The main purpose of the reyer is the initial, rough, rough processing of the workpiece. The blade of the tool has a special design and is presented in the form of a semicircle. It can be made of a semicircular groove or a thick plate. With the help of a reyer, the workpiece can be given an approximate outline of the future product.
The meissel is used for finishing and giving the final shape to the product. The tool can also be used to cut off the final product from the remnants of the workpiece. The shape of the meiser is similar to a jamb knife and is represented by a plate with an oblique blade sharpened on both sides at the same angle. Using reyer and meissel, turning operations of medium complexity can be carried out. The workpiece is processed on the outer surface. In certain cases, it is possible to perform work with the internal cavity of the parts.
Cutter-meissel: a) left-sided sharpening; b) double-sided sharpening; c) right-sided sharpening
Other types of turning cutters belong to the shaped group of products. Chisels are designed for grinding smooth surfaces. The blade of the product has a special shape and sharpening. To give the workpiece relief, you can use a special chisel with a rolled roller. Scrapers can have smooth or curved incisors, which is convenient for scraping flat or cylindrical wood. This tool can also be used for roughing wood.
In cutting cutters, the blades are shaped like a spoon, which makes it possible to create cups or other semicircular designs. Oblique incisors are represented by grooved chisels, concave chisels and semicircular incisors. The hook and ring are designed to perform in the blank cavity of any configuration. The comb is used to create carvings and apply decorative patterns and grooves.
How to make wood cutters for a lathe with your own hands
Many craftsmen prefer not to buy cutters in the store, but to make tools for wood carving with their own hands. It is not difficult to make a macer and a reyer. To do this, you can use the waste material in the form of files and rasps. These products have the necessary dimensions, strength, material quality and steel grade. A sharpening machine is used to give the file the necessary shape. Then a chiseled handle equipped with a mounting ring is stuffed onto the product.
Homemade turning tools for wood processing: 1 — for deep processing, 2 — for clean processing, 3— shaped turning, 6 —cut-off, 5— boring, 6 — for turning balls, 7— for end shaped turning, 8 — cutter with a limiter
With your own hands, wood cutters can be made from automobile springs or rebar rods. These materials have the necessary hardness. However, it is necessary to be extremely careful with this tool during its further operation. The test should be carried out first on soft wood species such as poplar or linden. Next, a visual inspection of the tool for cracks and chips is carried out. If they are absent, then hand-made wood cutters for a lathe can be used for hardwoods.
When making a tool for working with wood, it is important to follow certain recommendations. The choice of body length should be based on the possibility of fully grasping it with the hand, resting on the armrest. It should also take into account the distance between the armrest and the workpiece and the margin for sharpening and wear. The optimal length is from 20 to 30 cm . The length of the shank should be calculated in such a way as to exclude the possibility of its pulling out of the handle.
Useful advice! If files or rasps are used to make incisors, the length of the shank should be increased by 1.5-2 times.
Everyone will be able to make homemade cutters, which will become an indispensable assistant for surface treatment
The thickness of the working part of the tool should be calculated taking into account the fact that it is not damaged during the grinding of the workpiece. Therefore, this value should be the maximum, which is especially important for large diameter workpieces. The handle of the cutter should be at least 25 cm. If this value is less, then when performing the turning process, the tool will be difficult to hold in your hands, which will negatively affect the quality of work. To study in more detail the process of how to make a wood cutter with your own hands, you can visit specialized sites on the Internet.
Sharpening of wood cutters for a lathe
The quality of the workpiece being processed largely depends on the correct sharpening, namely on the geometry of the lathe cutter. The sharpening angle is selected by each master individually, depending on their own skills, the hardness of the wood, the quality of the working tool, the final desired type of surface to be treated.
For a novice master, the angle of sharpening of the chisel and the grinder should be equal to 40 degrees relative to the working surface and relative to each side of the blade. For reyer, this value is 50-60 degrees. With an increase in the skill level, the sharpening angle can decrease to 20-35. The sharpening process is carried out on a special machine for sharpening turning tools, which is equipped with a set of circles of various grain sizes and a velvet bar for manual blade straightening.
Before sharpening the cutter, you need to fix it correctly in the mandrel
Useful advice! In the tool kit of the turner, there must be cutters of the same type of uniform size, having different sharpening angles. This will significantly speed up the work of a specialist and extend the life of the products, since there will be no need for constant re-sharpening of the blade, based on the type of workpiece being processed.
A tool with a more obtuse sharpening angle is used for rough processing and workpieces made of hard wood. A cutting tool with sharper angles allows you to process the surface of the workpiece more efficiently. It is used to speed up the turning process. However, in this case, the probability of damage to the blade and chipping of the workpiece increases. In addition, the editing and sharpening of wood cutters with sharp corners will be performed more often than elements with blunt angles.
The approximate sharpening angle of the blade is formed at the manufacturing stage of turning cutters before the start of the hardening process. After the end of the heat treatment, sharpening is carried out using an abrasive wheel and is completed on a velvet bar by manual finishing.
To prevent the appearance of bullies and chips on the chiseled parts, it is important to use properly sharpened incisors
What kind of turning wood cutters to buy?
To work on a woodworking machine, it is better to have all the necessary tools. For this purpose, it is better to purchase not one unit, but a whole set of elements. One of the popular and in-demand options is a set of turning wood cutters Anchor 10430. Here are eight elements of various profiles, which are made of high-speed steel.
The design of the product consists of a cutting part, a base, a wooden handle and a fastening ring. The cutting part with a metal base is rigidly and securely fixed in a wooden handle and securely fixed with a ring that prevents the blade from falling out when working with the product. Each cutter is equipped with a comfortable, long, lacquered handle, which is convenient to hold with both hands.
The cutters are sold complete with a wooden box, which is equipped with sockets for each element. The blades of the products are made of high-strength steel, which exhibits increased resistance to wear, and can remain for a long time without sharpening. The tool allows you to process a billet from any kind of wood, regardless of the hardness of the wood. High-quality sharpening of the blade allows you to process products of any shape. When using these cutters, labor productivity increases, which is associated with the possibility of increasing the speed of rotation of the spindle without paying for the formation of chips and notches. You can buy cutters for a wood lathe for 4600 rubles.
Anchor HSS turning cutters have a set of accessories of various profiles, made of high-speed steel
Another good option is a set of cutters for the JET 19500118 lathe. High-quality tool steel HSS serves as the material for making the blades. The set includes 6 incisors: grooved, semicircular, grooved elongated, flat, cut-off and oblique. The cost of the set is 7000 rubles.
Cutting tools for the HSS NAREX wood lathe have proven themselves well. The blade is made of high-quality high-speed steel HSS, which is hardened to a hardness of HRC 64. The kit may include cut-off, semicircular and oblique products. The cost of a set of five elements is 7,500 rubles.
The German company KIRSCHEN is one of the leading manufacturers of tools that are designed for wood processing. The catalogues present a wide range of different types of chisels and turning wood cutters, which are characterized by a convenient and reliable design. The blades are made of special high-carbon steel. The tool can be used for soft and hard woods. A set of chisels or chisels on wood for a lathe can be purchased for an average of 10,000 rubles.
The set of cutters for the JET lathe is made of high-quality steel, and also has carbide inserts
Every beginner and experienced woodworker should have in his arsenal the necessary set of cutting elements. Before purchasing wood cutters, you should familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the products and choose the most acceptable option that can be effectively used for a specific task.
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Wood turning works
Wood turning is the artistic processing of wooden blanks. The grinding process is very complex and time-consuming, and consists of certain components: the choice of a wooden workpiece and a tool, determining the required rotation speed, grinding and finishing.
A chisel on wood is very useful in works that are associated with the processing of wooden blanks
The size of the workpiece directly depends on the dimensions of the future product. If there is a cam chuck for a wood lathe in the design of the woodworking device, then 8 cm must be added to the selected length of the workpiece, if a machine spindle with a faceplate is used, 4 cm is added. The thickness of the product should be with a margin of at least 20 mm.
As a material, it is better to use hard woods such as ash, beech, apple, pear, hornbeam, walnut, oak and cherry. Products made of beautiful wood, such as walnut, ash and apple tree, the texture of which has a pronounced pattern, will have a good aesthetic appearance.
Useful advice! An incredibly beautiful texture has an adult white acacia tree, which resembles malachite in section.
With the help of a machine and wood cutters, you can create attractive and unusual decorative elements
First of all, a deck or a blank is created. Next, the workpiece is installed in the lathe and its roughing is performed. This allows you to level the surface and eliminate all kinds of defects. Then the artistic processing of wood on a lathe begins. With the help of incisors, the product is given the necessary volume and surface relief. The appearance of the future element depends on this stage. Then the finishing is performed, which consists of grinding the product and impregnating it with antiseptic agents. You can learn more about all the features of the process thanks to the video “Turning works”.
How to operate a wooden lathe correctly
The wooden lathe is widely used in the manufacture of furniture and decor elements. The device differs in the dimensional grid, thanks to which the dimensions of the machine are determined depending on the purpose. You can choose a machine for a small project or choose a massive device for grinding balusters that are used in the manufacture of wooden railings or furniture elements.
When choosing a machine, you should pay attention to the length of the frame, which allows you to determine the maximum length of the bar that can be used when turning the workpiece. The diameter of the turning above the bed indicates the permissible value of the diameter of the wooden bar. The horsepower value determines the power of the motor, thanks to which the maximum permissible weight of the product is selected without loading the machine and the cutter. The engine speed should be taken into account when determining the tasks for the machine. At low speed, the processing of a product having a continuous shape can be performed. Machines with a large number of full revolutions will polish the product in a matter of minutes at the final stage of processing.
Lathes vary in size from amateur models that are suitable for use on a workbench to industrial ones weighing hundreds of kilograms.
The weight of the machine determines the mobility of the device. Models made of steel frame and cast-iron frame are characterized by a sufficiently strong structure and a strong platform for work, but require a stationary position. For high-quality and efficient operation of the machine, it is important to choose the right wood cutters, which should be easy to operate and effective for a specific task.
