Overview
Like most people, I enjoy saving money whenever possible. Years ago, I routinely wasted away the center area on bowls during turning. If the square blank was highly figured, I would always cut the corners off to use for other projects like pens or bottle stoppers. All of the wood in the center of the bowl was turned away as waste when hollowing the center of the bowl.
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Wasting Away The Bowl Centers
Every time I hollowed the center of a beautiful bowl, I knew there had to be a better way. Some of my 12" x 12" x 4" thick figured blanks could easily cost 0.00 or more. When you turn a standard bowl with a thin wall, approximately 90% - 95% of the original blank is turned away as waste. One day, after a long production run I was looking at the huge piles of high figured shavings on the floor and all I could see was one hundred dollar bills. The very next day I ordered a bowl center saver system and immediately began using it to save the centers on my bowls.
In the last eleven years, I have cored several thousand bowls with my center saver. Instead of turning away the center of the bowl as waste, I now turn smaller bowls from the saved cores. The center saver allows me to get the maximum amount of useable material out of every single blank. Even if you have an endless supply of high figured timber, a center saving system is a must have tool for your studio. It's faster to remove the center on a bowl with a center saver, than to waste it away with your bowl gouge. Not only will you save wood by using a center saver, but you will save time when cleaning the shavings on the floor at the end of the day.
Alternative Uses For The Saved Cores
If you don't care for turning the smaller cores, take them to your next woodturning club meeting. You may be able to sell some to other members with smaller lathes, helping you to offset the cost of your center saver tool. You could also resaw the cores into project blanks for pens, bottle stoppers, inlay material, boxes, small hollow forms, or other project blanks. Having the core removed in a solid mass gives you lots of options that you would not have otherwise.
Center Saving Yields Lots of Bowls
With most bowl savers, you can expect to save one bowl for every inch of wood thickness in the blank. For example, if you have a bowl blank that measures 12" x 12" x 4" thick, you could easily save four bowls out of the blank, instead of just one if hollowed in the traditional way. If you sell your work, that's a tremendous savings and it gives you three more bowls to sell, instead of just the larger outer bowl. In my studio, the sales from the smaller bowls more than pay for the entire bowl blank, which is an added bonus.
My primary center saver system has three different versions, a mini center saver, a standard center saver and a jumbo center saver. The mini system includes three different curved blades and one straight blade in the set. It is designed to core bowls less than 10" in diameter. The standard system is larger than the mini set and includes three different curved blades and one straight blade. It is designed to core bowls up to 12" in diameter, on lathes with a 12" to 16" swing capacity or larger. The jumbo system includes two different curved blades and one straight blade. It is designed to core bowls up to 16" in diameter; on large lathes with a 16" to 24" swing capacity.
This system includes straight blades that are very useful as a large parting tool, or for slicing platter and bowl blanks from larger blanks on the lathe. The blades work much like a scraper and can create curved and straight profiles, depending on how the system is set up. The manufacturer recommends using the system on 12" swing and larger lathes, with 1HP or larger motors for best results.
Using A Center Saver On Smaller Lathes
If you're turning on a smaller lathe with a 3/4 or 1 HP motor, you can still utilize a center saver to remove the centers of your bowls. A few years ago, I developed an innovative Fluid Pulsed technique for using a center saver system on smaller, low horsepower lathes. This technique allow users with smaller motors to enjoy all the benefits of coring, while maximizing the torque and speed available from the motor. My fluid pulsed technique has been well received by woodturners all over the world and it has become a standard protocol when using this system on smaller lathes.
If you're wasting away the centers of your bowls now, consider getting a center saver system. You will save time, money and frustration in your studio and you'll spend a lot less time sweeping up mountains of wood shavings. If you turn more than a few bowls every year, your savings in wood and time can add up very quickly. Most of the time our tools cost us money, but center savers can actually help you to save money, by allowing you to preserve wood that would otherwise be turned away as waste.
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Dec 02, 2011 05:40:51
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