# Center saver for large bowls



## jimmyjames (Apr 14, 2013)

Ive looked at the mcnaughton center saver and the large kit only goes up to 18" diameter, are there other center saver kits out there for bigger bowls? I see all over the net people doing 30"+ blanks and coring them into many bowls, but the mcnaughton isnt big enough for that.


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## jimmyjames (Apr 14, 2013)

never mind... i just answered my own question, the large set can do a core up to 24", so the actual od. of the largest bowl could be 26-28"


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## DKMD (Apr 14, 2013)

Yep... What you said. I've never even seen a two footer cored, but I'd guess it would have to be pretty deep to make a nested set. If you took a 25" blank and core it using the 10% rule, you'd have about 19" left behind. Repeat the process, and you'd still be left with 14". Next time around, you're looking at about 11" left. Using just those three cores, you'd use up at least 7 or 8" of depth before you even got to the 11"... And that's assuming you're pretty slick with the rig.

I don't know if there's a formula for determining ideal depth of the blank relative for the width, but I'd guess 40% would be a decent starting point. In other words, a 25" blank would likely need to be about 10" deep. Trees like that don't really grow around here.:cray:

By the way, anything over 24" should have a diving board and a slide.


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## jimmyjames (Apr 14, 2013)

The thing with the McNaughton there's a lot of variables in placement and positioning of the cutter and which cutter to use. The design of the one way looks more thought out, plus the cost of the McNaughton complete kit at $700 is pretty expensive, I could build a one way design with carbide tips and a bunch of different sizes for way less then the cost of the McNaughton. Plus with the one way design you could do deeper bowls, the McNaughton design looks like it makes more of a shallower bowl.  With building my own I would have to look through the kennametal carbide insert catalog and find an insert the right size to use, they have have a bunch of 1/4" inserts that would work but I think a 5/16" insert would be better so 1/4" stock could be used for the "cutter arm"


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## DKMD (Apr 14, 2013)

Just measured my McN blades... The tip is kind of a diamond shape that's 3/8" at the widest point... The blade steel is just a hair under 1/4". The thing with the McNasty... A lot of people hate them and end up selling them, so I wouldn't be surprised if you could lay hands on a lightly used set.

I think you'll find that you can core a whole lot more shapes with the McN than the Oneway or Woodcut style devices. However, most seem to agree that the McN is the hardest of the bunch to learn

If you build a coring rig, I hope you'll post some pics of the process.

Edit: Just to clarify, the measurements I gave are for the standard blades... The jumbos are thicker, but I don't know if the tip is different or not. Likewise, the small and micro blades are thinner.


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## jimmyjames (Apr 14, 2013)

DKMD said:


> Just measured my McN blades... The tip is kind of a diamond shape that's 3/8" at the widest point... The blade steel is just a hair under 1/4". The thing with the McNasty... A lot of people hate them and end up selling them, so I wouldn't be surprised if you could lay hands on a lightly used set.
> 
> I think you'll find that you can core a whole lot more shapes with the McN than the Oneway or Woodcut style devices. However, most seem to agree that the McN is the hardest of the bunch to learn
> 
> ...



I will definitely post pictures of the build when I get around to it, I have to build the lathe first before the coring rig though which is probably going to take a while :wacko1:


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