A Wooden Lathe (sort of)

Vaughn McMillan

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Back in January 2011, our turning club's secretary put out a request for members to do demos at monthly meetings. I offered to do a demo on captive hollowing tools, since I own two different styles of Monster hollowing rigs, and I figured some of the members might be interested in seeing them and trying them out. My offer was accepted, and my demo was scheduled for this month...yesterday, to be exact.

My initial plan was to use the club’s full-sized Woodtek lathe, but I learned a couple of months ago that they typically don’t have the lathe to the monthly meetings, but instead only bring it out for all-day demos. That scrubbed my plans to actually demonstrate how the tools work, but I figured some of the club members might still like to get to see and handle some of the tools. To do that, I needed a mockup of a lathe.

Using an old lathe stand that I had laying around, a couple of 2x4s, and less than a quarter sheet of plywood, here’s what I came up with:

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The “headstock” is actually a live center with a 1 1/4” thread adaptor that I normally use to mount my chuck onto the tailstock. It will also become part of a jig that I’m planning to make for some other ideas I have in mind, so it’ll serve a purpose beyond being a lathe mockup. The hollow form on the “lathe” is one I knocked out last week. I intentionally left the walls a bit thick, then sawed part of the side away do people could see how the cutting tools reach various parts if the inside of the vessel.

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In the end, the club members seemed to enjoy the “show and tell”, and I had quite a few people come up afterward to ask questions and check out the hollowing rigs more closely.
 

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That is about the best explanation I can imagine. Great job there teach! I was wondering when I saw it first if you powered it up with a drill. That is neat. Could be a great way to snag people at your sales table also. They get to see it isn't magic but pure art getting those HF the way you do! :thumb::thumb:
 
That is very slick Vaughn, with your bad back, I totally understand you doing this, personally I'd have used the chance as an excuse to buy a mini lathe :rolleyes: :D

As always you attention to detail is obvious, I'm sure your club will be impressed by your commitment, some light bulbs will be going off in the audience and some sales will go Monster's way :thumb:

You are firing on all cylinders :D
 
That is about the best explanation I can imagine. Great job there teach! I was wondering when I saw it first if you powered it up with a drill. That is neat. Could be a great way to snag people at your sales table also. They get to see it isn't magic but pure art getting those HF the way you do! :thumb::thumb:


It sure helped me understand how you guys do what you do just my seeing the pictures :thumb::thumb:
 
Dang i wish i was a member of you club. :(

I second all that has been said so far.

You would have thought that the owners of the product would have had a prop like this to haul around and show the how its used concept.

Taking away the clutter of an actual machine brings the focus to the tool.

But then i guess not all tools could stand up to scuitiny like this one can.

Vaughn I applaud you on going to that effort to pass on "the knowledge"
to your club members. I hope they appreciated it.

Ever thought of reping the tool itself. And i agree with Johnathan could add a very interesting show and tell dimension to your market stand. But i can also see some of the :doh: type questions it would bring from general public. Still an opportunity to engage people.
 
Kinda looks like the headstock might wobble a bit. :rolleyes:

Great job on showing how something works without actually using it. :thumb:
 
Thanks guys. It's nothing fancy.

...Could be a great way to snag people at your sales table also. They get to see it isn't magic but pure art getting those HF the way you do! :thumb::thumb:

Great idea, but it'd take up way too much space in a 10 x 10 booth space. Also, it won't fit in my SUV, especially with all my other stuff (tent, tables, shelves, and merchandise). ;)

That is very slick Vaughn, with your bad back, I totally understand you doing this, personally I'd have used the chance as an excuse to buy a mini lathe :rolleyes: :D ...

The club does have a Jet mini that can be made available at the monthly meetings, but neither of my rigs are scaled to fit on a mini lathe. I know where I could borrow mini-sized hollowing tools (both a D-handle and an articulating arm), but the demo wasn't worth the shipping costs.
 
No vibration problems at all, Neil. The wood soaks them all up. :D In fact, I'm gonna make my next lathe out of foam rubber. :p
 
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