Shereline CNC Lathe - Awl Haft turning

There are lots of details here and not a lot of them were outlined anywhere that I could find. Turning wood on a CNC lathe took a lot of experimenting. The main problem was the bit; there were no guidelines for what I was doing and so after many attempts with a metal cutting bit I realized that the size and shape of the bit was going to have to be my own design and hand ground by me.

This haft is designed especially for the shoe makers hand stitching the Goodyear welt.

I determined that the bit needed a lot of back rake and end relief angle so I hand ground this piece of HSS to this shape. 0.100" wide with 0.050" rad, this is rubust and easy to put into the cutter path software.


After many attempts I determined that the secret to getting the brass end perfectly centered in the wood handle was to put it in 1st!

With the brass pressed in it doesn't matter how off center the wood is because the turning process will align the two pieces.

The brass end fits onto the live center.

The finish pass

The awl is inserted carefully