Home Made hollowing rig project question

Dan Mosley

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I have a friend thats a retired finish carpenter and has been wanting to help me build a hollowing rig for deeper turnings and all I would have to do is buy the metal and parts. I think he is just bored and wants a project ....LOL........
I have hesitated on posting the questions because Im happy with what I have and was unsure if I wanted to tackle this project. I have also posted this on the aaw to solicit as many opinons as I can.

I have hollowing rig from Monster tools that works great for all my vessels that i currently turn (I have a Jet 1642, 2hp, 16" swing lathe) and haven't really had the need for a bigger setup. However, I have someone that wants a large vessel/vase now (for a decent amount of money) so I thought I may give this a try but ran into a few questions that I was unable to find answers to. So I thought I would turn to you turners that have these setup for some advice........

The first decision was to make either a "D" arm type hollowing rig or a articulated one. After quit a bit of reading I thought the D arm would be the better one to make because it seemed to be eaiser to make and alot of turners seem to use this setup for hollowing deeper vessels.

It was easy to put the drawing down on paper but the dimensions is what I am missing now. I see alot of home made rigs on the web but the dimensions were always missing......
I have it layed out with the idea of using 1" solid bar stock for the frame (most can be bought as scrap so I thought why not make it strong. It would have a 1/2" hole drilled in the front of the 1" bar so I can put adapters on to go down to 3/4" or whatever I needed.

But, then one turner on the web commented that you can make the frame out of hollow square steel because the stability is in the bar itself which should be solid - so make the rest of the frame light weight. Thoughts??
Questions::::: Should the frame be solid or hollow ?
Any idea on the dimensions I should use or a website or page that shows the layout with dimensions ?
Just wanting to get this right on the first go around = thank you ahead of time for any help and thoughts you may have......
 
Solid frame, what are you nuts :eek: :D

I made one, and it uses a hollow handle, I could not imagine trying to move around a solid handle one, that would be some serious weight to control.

>> HF Captured Rig in 4 Hours <<

Link to the thread I did.

I like my set up, maybe not perfect, but it works for me :wave:
 
Tom - I just got the steel i needed the other day to build one with some additional pc's of 3/4 and 1" solid round for boring bars etc.....
I have searched everywhere I could think of on the web for ideas on building one and got several tips (see my post on AAW also for links to other sites that can help you).........

Stu on here has a post and I think he has made one of the best ones ive seen yet - very sturdy and should meet all my needs including anything in the future. I am using his as a guide with some modifications of my own. Its a fun project but slow going because of work. I managed to get all the steel I needed from a loal steel buss. in "cut-offs". They let me go pick out whatever I wanted from the cut off area and it was much cheaper because they do charge for cutting (usually sell in 20' lengths or they cut them for a fee).
Anyway, I have started but no pictures yet - I had to decide on measurements myself. Ill keep you posted if your interested on any aspect of it - just let me know. I have a Jet 16" lathe so my measurements revolve around it but you can redesign it to your own specs easy enough.
 
Solid frame, what are you nuts :eek: :D

I made one, and it uses a hollow handle, I could not imagine trying to move around a solid handle one, that would be some serious weight to control...

Mine has a solid handle. ;) The rear captive rest is square tube steel, but the D handle is solid.

pi_266.gif
 
Vaughn you did a great job on that hollowing rig - you even put some extra parts in a baggie....................LOL

Thought about that to but it has been alot of fun designing and playing around to build one.
 
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