Following on from the hollower thread..........

Having had a bash at a small lidded box at the weekend (out of my mistakenly bought 50mm sq spindles) with some limited success I have a question for you more experienced bunch.

I see on Youtube some (respected?) turners using spindle gouges to hollow out boxes.

My confusion is that I thought using spindle gouges for hollowing was a no no ? Surely it should be a bowl gouge or a maybe a scraper ?

Or have I just managed to confuse myself ?

Opinions / advice gratefully received.

If you are making a small hole in say a vase then by pushing a spindle gouge tip first into the centre of what would be your entry point then the spindle gouge will do the same as a drill bit whereas a bowl gouge is for general hollowing out of a bowl!!!!

Not by any means an expert, Phil, but I tried hollowing with a spindle gouge and got a number of edge 'catches' - the last of which wrenched the piece out of the chuck and broke the base off in the process. So I switched to a scraper on the second attempt and had no problem. Again, must admit I'm no expert but looking at the bits that most of these hollowing tools come with a fair proportion of them are scrapers in exotic shapes to shape curves.

I must admit that Woody did patiently explain the difference between a spindle gouge and a bowl gouge to me, but he must have forgotten that I wear my 'plonker society' badge with pride - not a whole lot stuck! Sorry Woody - bad student, not bad teacher.

:pray:

Terry said:

If you are making a small hole in say a vase then by pushing a spindle gouge tip first into the centre of what would be your entry point then the spindle gouge will do the same as a drill bit whereas a bowl gouge is for general hollowing out of a bowl!!!!

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That's what's confusing me, they use the spindle gouge to do the hollowing out as well as the initial penetration.

Phill, i use a finger nailed profile gouge for boxes with very good results, unlike bowls you start from the inside coming out on boxes ...

PhillH said:

That's what's confusing me, they use the spindle gouge to do the hollowing out as well as the initial penetration.

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Yes I believe you can Phill although it is something that I have never tried. It is quite common among the older turners to use it like a drill bit except you don't twist the gouge but you must keep pulling it out to clear the shavings!!!!

You can use a spindle gouge to make boxes and small bowls the only reason for a bowl gouge is it has a wall on both sides of the blade is to give added strength to the blade a spindle gouge works extremely well just needs a bit of practice also some grind the wings back work from the middle by drilling a hole first by just pushing the tool into the wood then work your way towards the edge in the same manner I showed you Phill when you done your bowl at mine.
But in saying all that you have two bowl gouges so why would you want to use a spindle gouge the only reason I can think of is small tools for a small job but you can get short bowl gouges happy turning Phill

I think I will leave this well alone.
As I would be flying around the garage, spindle gouge in hand shouting out loud ' More super glue '

Woody said:

You can use a spindle gouge to make boxes and small bowls the only reason for a bowl gouge is it has a wall on both sides of the blade is to give added strength to the blade a spindle gouge works extremely well just needs a bit of practice also some grind the wings back work from the middle by drilling a hole first by just pushing the tool into the wood then work your way towards the edge in the same manner I showed you Phill when you done your bowl at mine.
But in saying all that you have two bowl gouges so why would you want to use a spindle gouge the only reason I can think of is small tools for a small job but you can get short bowl gouges happy turning Phill

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Thanks guys, starts to make sense now.

With the pieces I was doing they were about 40mm internal dia, so my 3/8 bowl gouge is way too big.

I have a 1/4 spindle gouge and 1/4 round nose scraper so was using those which seem to be OK.

I did use the technique as you describe Woody, but then got to thinking if what I was doing was "wrong".

Will add a small square scraper to Santas list then

You can use spindle gouges for hollowing end grain. (i.e. with the grain of the timber parallel to the lathe bed)

Here is a Yank showing you how:

End grain hollowing with a 1/2" spindle gouge - YouTube