How To Use A Parting Tool On A Wood Lathe

This burr must be kept sharp to be effective.

How to use a parting tool on a wood lathe. Using My New Parting Tool. They truly are designed for parting so in the end you will use the parting tool to separate your finely tuned piece from any type of remaining. With any parting tool start by placing the tool rest parallel to the workpiece and slightly below its centerline.

Turn the outside of the bowl to your desired shape. These parting tools are generally thin blades of HSS but there are also carbide insert parting tools available for the task or you can grind a cutoff tool out of HSS. Used primarily for parting off pieces of wood.

Then I used the disk sander to round off the corners and the wood end of the parting tool. As you do this practice looking at the horizon rather than directly at the cutting edge. Turn the outside of the bowl to your desired shape.

I was working on a handle for a gouge blade. That is look across the top of the spindle where you can see the curve in profile. Took it over to the 1 belt sander cleaned up the blade a little more and fine tuned the wood edges.

It can be more robust that mounting it on the topslide. Lay your lathe tools on the tool rest positioned at an angle. Took it over to the 1 belt sander cleaned up the blade a little more and fine tuned the wood edges.

Loosen the tool post align the edge of the toolholder flush with the 1-2-3 block and re-tighten the tool post. Generally holding the tool at about a 30º angle from the tool rest is effective. The tool meets the wood just below the centerline of the blank.