One Good Turn: Brian McEvoy Wood Turnings, Edmonton, Canada

Deep Vessel Boring Tools

Designed to be as versatile as possible, these boring bar set ups should suit most any lathe and shop configuration. Though they may look intimidating, in actual fact the simplicity and ease of use could surprise you. Even relatively new turners can achieve amazing results with a basic knowledge and a little practice. This boring bar is not only useful for deep vases but can be very effective when turning deep bowls or even shallow platters. I once turned a number of 16” flat serving platters with mine and found nothing as effective to achieve a perfectly flat bottom. They are also very useful when a relatively small opening, as small as two inches, if desired.

The boring bars themselves are manufactured in two pieces that thread together to form a 1 ½ inch by 6 foot solid mass that weighs close to 50 lbs. This mass is required to reduce vibration when reaching far off the tool rest. Depending on the timber and the moisture content, up to 24 inches depth can be achieved. I usually recommend and use a steady rest when I’m turning over 18 – 20 inches. The cutter holder is bolted solidly into the end and a greater angle cutter holder is available which is very useful if you desire a small opening on a larger diameter vessel. A lot of the South West pottery is designed this way.

The 17% HSS cutters are essentially scrapers and are very simple to sharpen with any bench grinder. For consistent angles a tool rest on the grinder close to the wheel is handy. Just set the angle once to match the angle that is ground into the cutter.

The back floor mounted tool rest is built in five pieces to accommodate ease of shipping and storage. The bottom bar that holds the weight of the boring bar is a conveyer belt roller. The ease and smoothness of operation is hard to imagine. The beauty of this floor mounted stand is its versatility: it can be adjusted for most any height of lathe, and lathe bed length isn’t an issue. Another nice advantage is the fact that you can push the roller stand well away from the lathe to achieve greater angles of attack if you want large diameter vessels with small openings. A disadvantage is that your lathe can’t be up against a wall.

The secondary tool rest is also designed to accommodate most lathes. It should attach to any lathe with a split bed and is adjustable to suit lathes with 14 – 26 inch swings. The wide rest has stoppers welded on the ends to prevent the bar from accidently slipping off. Once you’ve made the adjustment so that the cutter tip is at center, both the secondary tool rest as well as the floor stand shouldn’t have to be adjusted again unless you change lathes with a different swing or off the floor height. If you do upgrade or change your lathe a simple adjustment is all that is necessary.

The light kit is almost essential if you plan on turning thin with translucent timber. The ease of gauging wall thickness will soon be apparent once you’ve tried out the light. It’s also a nice way to see what’s happening inside your vessel. A 12 volt battery charger combined with the automotive socket and bulb also will produce satisfactory results, though I like the higher light intensity achieved using either 18 or 24 volts. The drawback to using the higher voltage is that the bulb life is reduced considerably. I believe the trade off and final results are worth it.

For those of you who may still be a little skeptical as to the ease of use of these boring bar set ups, I’d like to relate a nice success story. A few years back when I was demonstrating at the annual Utah Woodturning Symposium I had a couple of hecklers in the front row, all in fun of course. They turned out to be Les and Judy Roberts from Australia. Les, the woodturner was quite impressed with the boring bar demonstration and said no one that he knew at home was using such a beast and he’d sure like to give it a go. A year or so later Les was instrumental in having me invited to demonstrate at Turnfest down under. The catch was, I needed a 100 lb boring bar set up to demonstrate with. Les had one built and a short time later I was over playing in his shed, as they call it. We managed to turn a number of deep vessels using Hoop Pine, a wonderful Aussie timber similar to Norfolk Pine. This summer Les and Judy gave me the pleasure of traveling over to Canada and spent 10 days hanging around, mostly playing in my shed. I hadn’t mentioned that though Les was a professional turner, he’d had the misfortune of losing his arm in a boating accident a number of years back. His turning skills and eye for form put me to shame. While he was here, he managed to complete a number of birch vessels as deep as 18 inches with the 6 foot boring bar.

Brian McEvoy

To see a video demonstration of how to assemble the Boring Bar and Stand, click here

	Package #1 Components USD Boring Bar $250.00 5 pc. Adjustable Stand $225.00 Cutter holder Included Cutter (17% tungsten steel) $25.00 Tool Rest $120.00 Retail Price $620.00 Package Price $595.00 Save $25.00	- 6’, 2 piece boring bar - Cutter & cutter holder - Secondary tool rest (fully adjustable) - 5 pc. adjustable floor stand - Powder coated - Shipping weight: 96 lbs
	Package #2 Components USD Boring Bar $250.00 5 pc. Adjustable Stand $225.00 Cutter holder Included Cutter (17% tungsten steel) $25.00 Retail Price $500.00 Package Price $475.00 Save $25.00	- 6’, 2 piece boring bar - Cutter & cutter holder - 5 piece adjustable floor stand - Powder coated - Shipping weight: 86 lbs
	Package #3 Components USD Boring Bar $250.00 Cutter holder Included Cutter (17% tungsten steel) $25.00 Retail Price $275.00 Package Price $250.00 Save $25.00	- 6’, 2 piece boring bar - Cutter & cutter holder - Powder coated - Shipping weight: 49 lbs
	Light Kit Components USD Transformer $40.00 Socket $6.00 Wire and ends $6.00 Switch $7.25 Bulb $0.75 Retail Price $60.00 If Purchased with Package 1,2 or 3 $40.00 Save $20.00	Note: The low voltage light bulbs can be used with a 12 volt battery charger. We recommend using an 18 to 24 volt transformer to provide a brighter light making boring easier. This does shorten bulb life.
	Cutter Holder Kit Components USD Cutter Holder $20.00 Cutter $25.00 Retail Price $45.00 Package Price $40.00 Save $5.00	- Cutter Holder powder coated - HSS cutter - 17% tungsten steel - 1 1/2 x 3/4 x 1/8
	Cutter Holder Kit Extra Long Components USD Cutter Holder $20.00 Cutter Extra Long $30.00 Retail Price $50.00 Package Price $45.00 Save $5.00	- Cutter Holder powder coated - HSS cutter - 17% tungsten steel - 1 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8

	Mastering the Large Captive Boring Bar DVD - 90 minutes of footage $29.99
	Cutter Holder $20.00
	Cutter Holder (Extended reach) $20.00
	Cutter (Extra Long) $30.00 1 3/4" x 3/4" x 1/8"
	Cutter $25.00 1 1/2" x 3/4" x 1/8"
	5pc. adjustable stand $225.00
	2nd tool rest $120.00
	Roller Only $40.00
	Light bulbs (pkg of 10) $7.50 Light bulbs (pkg of 30) $20.00
	Leveling feet $5.00

This wonderful little tool is one of the safest, handiest, and most versatile tools to hit the shelves in quite some time. All three sizes have a #2MT and have three adjustable pins along with three countersunk holes so this drive can be used as a drive or faceplate, and just pops into your lathe. The three adjustable pins account for its versatility and make it ideal for most between-center work such as spindles, large logs, natural edge and regular bowls. For small work that requires attaching a faceplate exactly at the center, just leave the middle pin protruding a small amount to locate the center and then use three #10 or #12 screws to fasten onto your work piece. Now available in three sizes that are black zinc-plated, and can be purchased individually or as a handy set of three. The 2” drive is great for small pieces and ideal for spindle work, the 2.5” is a good all-purpose size, and the 3.5” is a must for larger size logs and natural edge or regular edge bowls. A ‘must have’ item in any turner’s toolkit.

Once I started using this drive most others in my tool box became redundant. This safe and versatile drive centre is ideal for large irregular timber, natural edge burls or large logs. I’ve used it to hold green birch logs 20” x 70” that I had to use a crane to mount on the lathe. The large surface area and three adjustable pins account for the versatility. When turning hard dense timber the pins can be adjusted down to a small point or when turning soft, spalted or thick barked timber they can be independently adjusted so the grip is secure.

- Brian McEvoy

DVDs					USD

Mastering the Large Captive Boring Bar	$29.99
-90 Minutes of footage

Creating Two Piece Hollow Forms		$29.99
-70 Minutes of footage

** NEW**  Embellish your Work		$44.99
-252 Minutes of footage	
-2 Disk Set 4 complete projects	
- Piercing, Airbrushing , Texturing & Woodburning

See the trailers at

www.langercraftworks.com

or by clicking here

Please note - If you order multiple items, shipping charges will be overestimated. You will only be charged the actual shipping costs. We will send you a refund on the difference.