- Messages
- 36,134
- Location
- ABQ NM
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.