Shopsmith Forums

Ok, this might be a dumb question, but are the gouges provided by Shopsmith roughing gouges, spindle gouges, or something else?

I have to admit that I'm finding the nomenclature for lathe chisels to be confusing and possibly inconsistent from one person to the next. What exactly are the differences between a spindle gouge, a roughing gouge, and a bowl gouge? Is it all in the sharpening profile, or are the tools completely different shapes or what?

paulrussell wrote:Ok, this might be a dumb question, but are the gouges provided by Shopsmith roughing gouges, spindle gouges, or something else?

I have to admit that I'm finding the nomenclature for lathe chisels to be confusing and possibly inconsistent from one person to the next. What exactly are the differences between a spindle gouge, a roughing gouge, and a bowl gouge? Is it all in the sharpening profile, or are the tools completely different shapes or what?

I am not into turning so I really can not answer your question based on experience or knowledge of the craft. I can, however, do searches.

This might help. http://www.woodturningdesign.com/askdale/14/14.shtml

That was a great question. If you have the standard 5 shopsmith chisels the wide gouge is for roughing and the narrow gouge is basically a spindle gouge. You could use it for shallow bowls but if you are just beginning I would use the round nose scraper for bowl insides. The shopsmith chisels are not the best steal and should be sharpened often. More expensive chisels are made of high speed steal and the gouges typically have deeper flutes, especially bowl gouges. It provides better control. Dusty sent a good attachment that shows that.

Good question - very good answers above!! Took me a while to learn this stuff.

shopsmithpaul wrote:the wide gouge is for roughing and the narrow gouge is basically a spindle gouge.

The wide gouge is for SPINDLE roughing ONLY. Try it on a bowl and you may BREAK it.

I would say that both of the gouges are for spindle turning but the larger gouge is suitable for roughing out stock.
A true bowl gouge has a different diameter, steeper flutes and a thicker body for added strength for reaching further over the tool rest. The bowl gouge is usually ground to a different angle.
A true roughing gouge is not ground to the fingernail shape but is ground at a 45 deg bevel at the cutting edge and the wings are not swept back. They can come in widths up to 2" across. These also have thicker bodies to absorb the impact when first roughing out the turning.
The above statements do not refer to pen turning because the pieces are so small.
DO NOT attempt to use a true roughing gouge for spindle turning and DEFINITELY not for bowl turning. The non swept back wings will definitely catch and you can get a nasty surprise.
Bill V