About
This tool system has been developped by JC Charpignon from 2003, when he started to use the Crown set for chinese balls.
Many trials have been made before achieving the first acceptable piece. Tools had to be ground to get correct clearance and sharpening, it was necessary to use a homemade jig to adjust the tools in the tool holder, and the accuracy was not very good.
The idea was to propose to friend wood turners a simple and low cost equipment ready to use able to give the capacity to any to achieve quickly a good quality result.
Tools are laser cut from 3mm ground plates of alloy tool steel with an accuracy of 1/100mm.
Each tool is ground to get necessary clearance ant bevel angles before hardening and tempering using an electric and temperature controlled furnace..
These tools are introduced in the tool holder and tightened by a grub screw; the cutting could start in a few seconds with perfect accuracy. With a small practice, it becomes possible to achieve a seven shells Chinese ball in less than two hours.
It could be interesting to get the plywood threaded chuck if you cannot do it yourself. Ply wood is perfectly stable with humidity is changing; it is cheap and light in comparison with metal chucks.
The threaded ring avoids the use of any tool and the washer between ring and chuck keep the centering when the sphere is tightened in the semi-spherical cavity.
The result is quick operation with the best level of accuracy, leaving you concentrate on achieving the best quality.