Jim asks about hollow augers...

> me.  To date, there are E. C. Stearns, A. A. Woods,
> Cincinnati Tool and Goodell-Pratt hollow augers taking

And drops a minor gloat...

>  This upcoming fall I'll be taking a chairmaking class
> with Drew Langsner so I am looking for recommendations

And then asks some more specific questions...

> these beasts.  Which works well and which don't?
> What's a good angle for the bevel?

I have a Stearns adjustable that's been repainted, and a Woods (with the
box *and* instructions). I almost universally turn to the Stearns, not
that I do hollow augering a lot and think the Stearns is better, but it
took so d**n long to tune the thing that I can't imagine trying to get a
second one completely tuned.=20

Oh, tool acquisition bonus: you'll need a spoke pointer, Stearns makes a
nice one in several different sizes - but they never have the Stearns
name on them for some reason. You know them by the adjustable depth
setting that is integral with the shank.

I found that I had to put a double bezel on the blade. The blade is
planing the shoulder on end grain, so you might keep that in mind when
choosing angles, but I adapted the angles on the fly and couldn't tell
you what I ended up with. I'm not taking it out the thing to measure
*for anybody*. I try to keep the "mouth" of the "plane" body as small as
possible. I found that it helped to nick off one corner of the blade,
due to the geometry of the hollow auger setup - and posted about it some
time ago. The problem is that the inside edge sticks into the hollow
space when you've got everything else set up the way you want it. This
causes the hollow auger (hereafter referred to as HA) to cut threads
into your sticks, and results in less than clean tenons.

Have fun at Drew's, GAM turned me on to his books, and I'm a huge fan.
Just say, oh forget it, I'm just plain jealous.

Regards,
Bretton

Sweating and Sunburned in Seattle (?!?!?)

-- 
Bretton Wade (aka Noz Moe King) in Bellevue, WA