Shank extensions revisited

jeff · Post by **jeff** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:23 am

I wanted to hear what materials you all have used for shank extensions. I have personally worked with purpleheart and zebrawood, and have plans to used Gaboon Ebony and a few others. We all have different tastes and different shaped and finished stummels demand different materials for the extensions. So here are the questions:

1. What is your favorite material to work with and why?

2. What material do you you use in a ring to separate it from the stummel (if any; e.g. vulcanite, ivory, etc.)?

3. What material have you found to be the most difficult or nearly impossible to work with?

Thanks and I look forward to hearing what you all think about these questions.

Jeff

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:05 pm

I've decided that I really like the look of an ivory ring on stems, so I've been using that quite a bit.

I have a pipe on the bench that will get a cocobolo shank when I get some steel tubing in to mount it upon - this is going to be a rather long shank extension. I love cocobolo, and I have about 3 pens made from the stuff.

I really like the look of ironwood, but boy do I hate turning that stuff. It certainly lives up to it's name. However, it finishes to an incredibly high gloss.

What else... hmm. There's some really nice articial stone that might make instreresting shank extensions, but I haven't played with any of it.

geigerpipes · Post by **geigerpipes** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:20 pm

My favorit shank extension above all is ebony, as i got a part from a freind with the surface wood left on it. The surface wood is in a golden light coulor and it gives great contrast to the dark of the ebony..
like here
http://www.geigerpipes.com/images/snail ... ackcup.jpg

other favourites are pokenholts, mauser birch,mammoth
as spaceres i use
vucanite ,vulcan fiber sheets ,or brass and silver plates

love

Gatorade · Post by **Gatorade** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 9:05 pm

I've used ebony, purpleheart and bocote. Of those ebony is the best to work with because it machines to well and finishes to a high gloss. The others get grain tearout... however, when its finished the bocote has depth and becomes kinda reflective.

pipemaker · Post by **pipemaker** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 11:47 pm

My favorite trim material is French Boxwood. It is hard, durable, finely grained and easily workable.

Next would be Canarywood.

I like the look of Zebrawood, but I have difficulty working it, tearout is the main problem.

I have tried many Rosewoods, but due to their oily nature, find it difficult to get a satisfactory bond.

For thin spacer rings, I prefer acrylic.

Mike

ToddJohnson · Post by **ToddJohnson** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 10:39 am

pipemaker wrote:My favorite trim material is French Boxwood. It is hard, durable, finely grained and easily workable.

Hey Mike,

Ditto on the boxwood. It's the absolute best for turning, drilling and carving. I had a question regarding "tear out" which I've heard several people mention in reference to shank extensions. I know what it is of course (I've been a woodworker all my life), but I'm curious as to how it relates to shank extensions. Are you getting tear out from drilling straight through a piece, when you use the cut off tool on the lathe, what? If it is the latter I have a little trick that is very helpful. It will eliminate tear out entirely, even in the most porous and striated woods. Let me know how you guys are doing it and maybe I can be of some help.

Best,

Todd

Gatorade · Post by **Gatorade** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 9:59 pm

Todd,
The tearout happens when I'm turning it to size with my lathe (taig) and then after it's fitted to the stem and I'm doing the final shaping with a file.

I'd love to hear about how to prevent it--I'm using brand new cutters but it still does it.

While I've got your attention here--when you cut a stem tenon, is the joint between the tenon and shoulder 90 degrees or is it slightly tapered? If it's slightly tapered how do you do it?

There's so many things I don't know about this stuff. I'm looking forward to getting back to the states the end of this year so I can go to some shows to meet and talk with you guys.

pipemaker · Post by **pipemaker** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 11:36 pm

I also would be interested in learning any technique that will help prevent or eliminate tearout.

The problem usually occurs on the lathe when turning cross grain or when facing endgrain.

I have had limited success when dampening certain woods, but the results are far from ideal.

Thanks,

Mike

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 12:30 am

I've been working with wood for a *long* time - ever since I was about 5 years old. The one thing that I've found holds fairly true is that you can't use metalworking tools on wood. Use tools made for wood on wood.

The reason is because metalworking tools are designed to *chip* the material away, not cut. Woodworking tools are designed to cut and shave material away. The two materials are very different, and behave quite differently.

In my opinion, a metal lathe, with metal cutting bits, is not the correct tool to cut wood. You can use a Taig, but a toolrest and some wood-turning chisels would go a *looooong* way towards solving tearout.

Of course, that's just my experience.

Gatorade · Post by **Gatorade** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:34 am

Thanks Kurt. I have a tool rest for my taig but I don't have any wood-turning chisels... got any suggestions on what type and where to get them?

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 9:51 am

This is one of those situations where "good enough" simply won't do. The ones I use are made by Crown and have a short handle. I chose the short handle for manuverability - I think they're called "pen turning tool set". The most important thing is that they be *sharp* to avoid tearing up the grain.

These tools I bought from the Rockler store in Columbus, OH. You can get them at Rockler.com, woodturnerscatalog.com, and any number of woodworking stores. Home Depot, Sears, and Lowes don't seem to carry woodturning tools at all, despite carrying Delta lathes....

I mention Crown only because that's a brand I'm familiar with. Any number of other good brands can be used with high confidence as well - Sorby, Hamlet, Henry Taylor, etc. Just don't get scared by teh pices of those tools and decide to get something cheap from Grizzly or Harbor Freight. Those tools are, in a word, crap. They'll present their own set of problems in addition to tearout.

If you don't already one, you'll want a diamond hone or something similar to keep the tools sharp - if they dull, they'll start tearing the grain.

ToddJohnson · Post by **ToddJohnson** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 10:40 am

pipemaker wrote:I also would be interested in learning any technique that will help prevent or eliminate tearout.

The problem usually occurs on the lathe when turning cross grain or when facing endgrain.

I have had limited success when dampening certain woods, but the results are far from ideal.

Thanks,

Mike

Mike and Dave,

First the obvious, which is probably just that to you guys, obvious. Make certain your cutting tool is at exactly the right height. If it is too low, shim it. If it is too high grind it down a bit and sharpen it on a hone. There should be no little minniscule tenon left on your turning stock when you square the face. As far as getting tear out here, this is the only helpful hint I can offer--which might not be that helpful at all. You should drill first before you square up the end, or at least square it up again after you drill. This will keep heat from building up and raising the grain. If you drill and then shave .005 off the face you'll usually just end up polisihing it nicely.

Now, where I assumed you guys were probably getting tear out, and where I've had trouble with it in the past is when using a cut-off-tool to actually cut off the length of material I'll be using. I don't have a way to illustrate this, so it may be difficult to visualize, but I'll give it a shot.

Let's say you want a 1/2" shank extension. You've turned your square stock round, you've drilled the mortise where you'll be connecting it to the shank, you've drilled the smaller mortise for the stem's tenon, and you've squared the face. Now, here is the difficult part. Whenever you go to cut it off with the cut-off-tool you end up getting to within .010 of your mortise and it tears and shreds the wood as you part the piece. You then end up with a ragged faced extension. So try this: You've drilled in exactly 1/2" from the squared face on your turning stock. Line your cut-off-tool up approximately 9/16" from the end of the squared face. Advance the cut-off-tool all the way past the mortise until you have the extension basically spinning on a tenon smaller than the diameter of the mortise you've drilled in the turning stock. To put it more simply, go about 1/16" to the left of your deepest drilled point. You should almost be able to see through the little sliver of wood you've left covering the opening to the mortise you've drilled. Now back your cut-off-tool back out, move it 1/16" to the right and advance it in until you part the turning stock. It will just fall right off with a *perfectly* clean cut, perfectly clean face, and perfectly clean mortise. If this makes zero sense, I'm sorry. I'll try to clarify anything you have specific questions about. I make a *lot* of little shank rings, extensions, etc., and I have found this method extremely helpful and, so far, fool proof . . . literally

Todd

pipemaker · Post by **pipemaker** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 11:06 am

Thanks Todd.

I have been turning on a wood lathe and have gone as far as making my own lathe chisels. I don't think the tools are the problem, and after reading your post, my technique obviously is.

The method you outlined makes perfect sense, and appears to be perfectly suited for hand turning.

This really opens up the possibilities for turning woods that I have previously been unable to work with.

I really appreciate your willingness to share this information with the rest of us.

Regards,

Mike