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Aside from the purchased vs. shop-made aspect, the Monster arm mounts to the bed of the lathe instead of the tailstock. This does give it more flexibility in how it approaches the turned piece. I move the base around quite a bit when I'm turning a hollow form. If I start getting vibration during a cut, I find that often I can get rid of the problem by simply changing the location of the base, and thus the various angles in the "folds" of the arm.
 
Wayne...if you can go any faster on that tutorial, I'll send you a sandwich. I have a couple of #2 morse tapers from pen turning spindles that went out of round and if you could factor that in...that could save some of us $$ since most of have some of those floating around. And yes...I'm holding my breath :lurk::peek:
 
Ok so what is the advantage of using one?
I am tring to decide if I need/want one and rather to buy or make.
The advantage to using one is that it makes hollowing MUCH easier, both physically and mentally. I wish you weren't on the other side of the continent...otherwise I'd invite you over to try one out and see how you liked it.

As far as the "make vs. buy" decision, that's really up to you and your time/ability/money/patience. ;) I bought mine because I didn't have an easy way to make one, and I'm pretty certain the one Randy makes is better than anything I would have put together. I also had the money at the time to pull the trigger, and liked the idea of helping to support Randy. In my mind, I justified the purchase by telling myself it would pay for itself after selling the first few hollow forms made with it.
 
Why can't we hire the Army to make a laser to do the hollowing and forget the chisel? We don't need no stinking sharp things :rofl:
To the point Chuck, that's what the laser is for, and if used correctly, Stu can explain that part, it can help with thickness as well. I think Stu built his and added the laser 'cause he is all that and a bag of chips...really...he is, :thumb: :bow: and if I had that skill, I'd make videos too!!! He has a link on Youtube about his rig and death beam attachment.
 
Chuck I have the monster and the laser. It is a fine rig and as Vaughn said it is sure easier on the old body. I can turn for several hours with this as with a hand held one maybe a hour before arthur kicks in. I bought mine because of the fact if I made homemade tools I would never get any turning done.
 
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