Thread: WIP: deep hollowing

Thanks for the post Fredo.

The opening is weak with some voids and knots just below it so I won't risk retruing between centres. And the steady isn't big enough to go much further up than half way (which may not be a bad thing - have to see - as the run-out at the shoulder is 50 thou.).

Anyway, time to hog out and take my chances. (If it looks like a millstone and weighs like a millstone, it is a fr*ggin millstone!).

Some minor P that may be of interest in this WIP.

Some of the epoxy fill has fallen out with the initial hollowing and sanding.

The fill was 5 minute epoxy at about 1:1 ground coffee.

May have held better with 24 hour epoxy, or more glue to coffee, or perhaps Turkish ground coffee being finer. Finer grind might have fooled F&E's micrometer ;-}

Anyway, with the northpaw in a splint not much else is happening, 'cept some epoxy fill inside the form and CA strengthening of branchwood bark. The form has also gone a little more out of true.

Added: while the initial hollowing was done with a 5/8" shaft, an earlier test showed it was prone to bending without much of an overhang. So I knocked up a 3/4 shaft to take the Proforme head - but only a straight one as bending one is beyond me.

I also felt that the Proforme was cutting pretty agressively - even with a small gap there's a longish radius.

So waiting in the wings is this lot of hollowers - using traditional HSS tips; in this case, 3/16". It's a square cutter in the straight shaft, but those in the bent ones have spigots for inserting into the shafts. All shafts are 3/4" and the straight one is 20" long. All to go into the VM hollowing support.

What they're sitting on is the worst bit of interlocked-grained and punky wood I've ever seen.

Originally Posted by rsser

Anyway, with the northpaw in a splint not much else is happening, 'cept some epoxy fill inside the form and CA strengthening of branchwood bark.

G'day Ern - sorry to hear about the paw - more time for contemplation I guess!

Not out of action for too long I trust.

Hope it wasn't the stubby that bit you - they can have a fearsome bite as I only know too well.

Thanks Andy. Appreciated.

No, not the Stubby; an old injury that never came right (more on my blog).

Anyway, the snow is falling on the hills so I'll try it out with a XC ski pole. The only glove that'll fit is an old greasy-wool mitten. Sometimes the old ways are the only ways

Ern, what are the new hollowers & where'd you get them from..... not that I need any more.

They're John Jordan's Cliff. Ordered direct from the USoivay.

I was looking at making something with a lighter cutting action than the Proforme and with a thicker shaft.

Anything I could make myself would be crude so in for a penny ...

They are very much like to homemade ones that I sold to Allan & then borrowed back to do that under cut lip on that big bowl last year.
Well... in theory that is... they look tough, the ones I made were just recycled steel.

Yes, they do, now that you mention it.