hollowing tools question (and my latest piece)

[TimberNut]

Hi Guys,

Saw Rolly Munro demonstrating his articulated hollwer at the Sydney WIW show. Am thinking about buying one.

Any comments or suggestions re good / bad / better options ?

Also, does anyone know who the local distributor in Sydney is?

And I thought I'd put up a picture of my latest piece. I decided to go back to simple form for this piece because the timber was too nice to make it ornate and intricate.
This one is Purple Gidgee.

[rsser]

Nice pieces Ian.

There are reviews of hollowers, inc. the Munro, at

http://www.fholder.com/Woodturning/lyn.html

The short answer, as always, is: depends on what you want to do with one.

I have the original Munro with the straight and the wider gooseneck shafts. Each has a limited 'sweet spot' and my sense is that the new version has a wider sweet spot and so is more versatile.

My version is terrific on end-grain; less so on side-grain.

I find it relatively slow on hardwoods. On green blanks you can have ribbons flying out of a bowl like streamers from a departing cruise ship.

It doesn't clog as long as you keep the cutter sharp and regularly extract the shavings.

I'd add some weight to the handle, like lead shot.

I'm now considering a medium set of Kelton hollowers.

(Edit: as for suppliers, you can't go wrong with http://au.store.yahoo.com/cws-store/index.html)

Hope this helps.

[Jim Carroll]

I find the Munro tools to be the most user friendly of the hollowing tools due to the guard on top as this acts as a bevel for you and eliminates catches.

I caught up with rolly at sydney and had a go on his new mini hollowing tool and with this one he is using a 8mm tct cutter which worked realy great . He is refining it at the moment but should be in production soon.
It will be a great addition for those wanting to do hollow forms with a smaller opening . It will come out like the larger tool with the short link and the articulated link . At the moment he is not sure on the handle , maybe have an adaptor for the original or have asmaller one for this cutter. I found the one he had at the demo worked great.

[dai sensei]

I find the Munro tools to be the most user friendly of the hollowing tools due to the guard on top as this acts as a bevel for you and eliminates catches.

I agree. I bought mine 2 years back and have had no problems. As RSSER says, keep it sharp. I did loose a couple of those little screws that hold the cutter, straight down the DC never to be seen again, but that was probably my fault.