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First HF

Brent Dowell

Brent Dowell

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Reno NV
So, After my shopping trip yesterday, just had to give all the toys a try.

This is a small HF, About 3"x3". Started off as a chunk of a redwood 4x4 post.

Used the multi tip to hollow it out and do a little shear scraping on the inside and outside.

Used the new angle drill and sanding disk to sand it off.

Pretty fun stuff!

hf_001.jpg
 
Dag, nab, it Brent! What is it with you? You find a piece of wood lying on the ground, buy a new tool, learn it in 15 seconds, and turn a perfect hollow form.

Very, very nice!
 
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I know I replied to this earlier, but I must have closed the tab before hitting Submit. :doh:

You did great, especially for a first time. And redwood may be soft, but it's not necessarily easy to turn cleanly. The curve looks very smooth and consistent, and it looks like the new sanding toys paid off by erasing any tool (and sanding) marks. :thumb:
 
Amazingly enough, the shear scraper tip on the multi tool worked pretty good. Made it easy to ever so gently tweak the surface.

I had some serious issues with tear out when I was trying to part off the bottom, and some tear out on the hole. So basically the bottom is narrower than I was shooting for, and the hole is a bit wider.

I did a test using my old method of sanding, and it left some serious lattitudinal scratches. The sanding disk and drill did a great job of cleaning them up.

Redwood is kind of funny. Even though it is very dry and pretty soft, once its turned the different rings of wood seem to move in different ways. Hard to explain, but the lighter areas seem to 'collapse' a bit. Gives it an interesting texture.

The sander worked pretty well too remove any scratches.

The only downside is I handed it to my wife and she said 'What is it?'. I told her it was a hollow form and she said, 'What am I supposed to do with it? Put it on a shelf and dust it?' :rofl:

Thanks Guys!
 
She's actually a pretty darn good shot herself....

I'm sure I've had her mentally drawing a bead on my head a time or two... :eek:
 
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Hey Brent, I noticed you went for the midi hollowing tool. Was not getting the bigger one a cost issue or was there another factor? Are you using it with a regular tool rest? I'm hoping to get in to HF next week so have to line up what to get. Many thanks!
 
Cost wasn't really an issue. I think the larger one is only a little bit more.

I've only got a Jet Mini lathe, so I figured I'll most likely be doing smaller projects. So, I figured I'd get the midi sized one, to make it a little easier to do the small things (smaller entry hole).

The tool is actually pretty cool and versatile. I'm using it with a regular tool rest. The tool has a flat side and a curved side. When hollowing, you use it with the flat side down. When using as a shear scraper, you can use the rounded side down so you can get it as a nice 'shearing' angle.

Here's a link to a video on it. http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=4248&mode=videos#tabs

It's pretty much exactly what I wanted. A little tool that can do some basic hollowing.
 
What about bent vs straight shaft? Do you think that moving to a bigger lathe would influence your decision? I ask because I csan see a DVR in the future...2-3 years
 
I decided to keep it simple and go with the straight shaft for now.

I could see the bent shaft being for wider work, but if I start going that big, I might splurge for one of the articulated hollowing rigs at that point.

Certainly when I decide to upgrade my lathe, I'll go with some sort of captured or articulated rig...

Really just wanted to get something basic to get my feet wet so to speak, and get a fee for how things work before I start to go bigger.

Kind of like learning to use a stick shift before I splurge on an automatic :D
 
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