The Woodshop Shed

Bedan (lathe tool)

Furnished content.
(from Lumberjocks.com)


A while back I started using a bedan at the lathe. It seemed like a hugely useful tool, giving a lot of the benefits of the skew, plus it can work as a scraper, parting tool, or a roughing gouge. And it seemed like something pretty easy to make.So I did.I turned a handle from a piece of tubafor ripped in half. And I bought a 6×6x200mm piece of square high speed steel. And I had some brass tubing laying around the shop.Details of the construction:

• After rough-turning the handle, I drove the brass ferrule onto the handle. It was a little loose so I drilled a 7/32 hole in it, aligned that to the grain, and screwed a #3 wood screw in.
• The handle was just a teeny bit off center when I re-chucked it in the lathe. Oops.
• I used a file to round the end of the ferrule, some 60 grit sandpaper to brighten up the brass, and a skew to turn the wood down to the ferrule and finish up the handle.
• The hole in the end of the handle is 1/4 inch in diameter and about an inch and a half deep.
• I filed the corners off the last inch of the HSS before driving the handle onto it until it bottomed out in the hole.
• I ground the tip of the bedan roughly to 45 degrees on the coarse wheel on my grinder. You can tell the end needs sharpening with a fine stone from the turned pine test-piece (last picture).

0 comment(s)