Home made Articulated Arm

[Ed Morgano]

I've been wanting one of these since I read about them several months ago. I've seen the fancy ones and I don't want to start any touble here but I just didn't want to spend 500.00 for one of these arms. So, I decided to make one. Because I have a wooden wood lathe, I thought it would be ashame to build a metal accessory.....so, here is my version.

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Between the inserts and the 25.00 I spent at the hardware store, I have less than 100.00 invested. The pictures show a Persimon bowl that I started about 5 or 6 months ago. It dulled my tools so bad that I just plane gave up on it after getting the center hollowed out about 1/2". Between sharpening and turning, I spent about an hour getting that much hollowed out. Anyway, in order to test the new arm and cutter, I got the bowl back out to give it a try. It took me about 10 minutes to hollow it out as pictured so I'm am totally pleased with the results. C&C welcome.

[bob svoboda]

Looks like a great set-up, Ed. I like things made out of wood! Very creative.

[Tim Thiebaut]

I think that is appropriate and goes well with your lathe...it is one of the coolest lathes I have ever seen, you did a good job on this. Did that cutter head try to catch at all on you or does the bar stop all of that? I have that cutter on a EWT Ci3 and get catchs pretty easy with it.

[Ed Morgano]

I think that is appropriate and goes well with your lathe...it is one of the coolest lathes I have ever seen, you did a good job on this. Did that cutter head try to catch at all on you or does the bar stop all of that? I have that cutter on a EWT Ci3 and get catchs pretty easy with it.

Tim,
The Persimmon is a beast to turn...at least for me. When I was trying it with my spindle gouge, it caught and kicked like crazy. That was one of the reasons I put it away. With the articulated arm, it cut smoot as can be. I was thrilled. It would grab as it went around the corner, but the bar was stable and the lathe kept turning so I would have to say that it was great. I felt a lot safer with this than with my newly aquired Sorby 3/8" Bowl gouge.

[Roger Chandler]

I am like..........totally impressed! The lathe and the articulated hollowing rig...........terrific!

[David E Keller]

Very cool, Ed! I'm glad to see you used metal for the boring bars, and the crank adjustment for the rest is pretty inventive.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Tim,
The Persimmon is a beast to turn...at least for me. When I was trying it with my spindle gouge, it caught and kicked like crazy. That was one of the reasons I put it away. With the articulated arm, it cut smoot as can be. I was thrilled. It would grab as it went around the corner, but the bar was stable and the lathe kept turning so I would have to say that it was great. I felt a lot safer with this than with my newly aquired Sorby 3/8" Bowl gouge.

Yup...I need a rig like this no doubt about it...I had a catch a couple days ago, it ripped the piece right off the lathe and sent it flying..., split the base in 2 pieces, one piece stayed in the chuck, I was able to glue it back together...but my heart is still kind of in high gear because of the scare it gave me.

[Jake Helmboldt]

Ed, are you gonna turn a wooden scroll chuck too? :D

That lathe is absolutely crazy! Talk about one of a kind.

[Steve Vaughan]

That is a very cool lathe and a very cool hollowing system! I like that!

[John Hart]

You are so cool Ed. :)

[Baxter Smith]

Great job Ed. Sure fits the lathe!

[charlie knighton]

very impressive, Ed, hollowing tool and your lathe

i have heard that wooden ways, the tools cut better, something about the give in wood compared to steel ,jwih

[Steve Schlumpf]

Looks pretty good to me! Let us know how well you like it after using t for a while. Neat thing about it - seeing as how you made it - any mods you want to do you can make yourself! Have fun with it!

[Ed Morgano]

Looks pretty good to me! Let us know how well you like it after using t for a while. Neat thing about it - seeing as how you made it - any mods you want to do you can make yourself! Have fun with it!

Steve,
I wanted to follow up on this to let everyone know how it has worked for me. The cup insert that I started off using was fine for up to about 5" inside diameter but after that it would start trying to take too much material and digging in. I changed to a straight 1/4" scraper and that worked better. Pictured bellow is what I finally ended up with and that is working great. I've hollowed out 1 12" bowl and 2 13" bowls with no problem. I used a solid carbide endmill that was dull. I broke the end off and sharpened the end up to what is shown. So far, I haven't had to resharpen it and it shows no signs of getting dull.
Today I finally stopped and put the bearings in. I had been using the arm with just 5/16" holes through with flat washers for spacers between the arms. It worked fine that way but it had a little drag and a slight amount of play. I had already ordered some skate bearings but never got around to installing them. The bearings were 8mm ID ( .314) and 22 mm OD (.866). I had a 7/8" forstner bit (.875) that I sanded .010" off a little at a time till it drilled a hole that was tight for the bearings. Then I pressed two bearings in each end of the solid arms. After re-assembling the unit, it had no drag and no play. I am totally pleased with the results.

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[Tim Thiebaut]

I am still completely impressed by this...!

[John Hart]

Looks great, Ed. There's a guy at work who tells me he has about 200 of those endmills in a drawer at home. He's been telling me that he's going to bring them in for me. I'm really looking forward to it. :)

I still can't get over how cool your lathe is.

[Ed Morgano]

Thanks John. If you get some of those end mills, you can break the end off easy enough in a vise. The hard part is sharpening them. You can do it on a regular wheel ( I have grey wheels) but a diamond wheel makes the job a lot easier. I have a diamond wheel that came on an old Bell Saw Sharpening system. I usually end up hogging off with my grey wheels (with the carbide getting red hot) and then really just putting an edge on with the diamond wheel.

[John Hart]

I have a masonry/tile saw....sort of a mini table saw with a diamond blade. I wonder if I built a jig, if I could use that for sharpening? I sure don't cut tile with it. It just sits around.

[Jamie Donaldson]

Ed - the carbide disc you are using should be angled left to about 45 degrees to reduce catches, and always use a pull cut from center to rim, never t'other direction. And of course all hollowing type cutters should be positioned above the center line of the turning, never below center- that gets way too exciting and makes kindling!

[cal thelen]

That lathe is absolutly awesome! never saw anything like it before. WOW!

[Ed Morgano]

Ed - the carbide disc you are using should be angled left to about 45 degrees to reduce catches, and always use a pull cut from center to rim, never t'other direction. And of course all hollowing type cutters should be positioned above the center line of the turning, never below center- that gets way too exciting and makes kindling!

Jamie,
Thanks for the information. I'll try that the next time I put the carbide disc back in. I had it angled slighty down and did make the cuts from the inside out, but I didn't have it above center. I tried to set it exactly at center so it would cut at the center point. Anyway, it was catching pretty bad after I got out to about 5" or so and I just quit before anything became kindling. I've run a metal lathe for about 40+ years and I really don't like slinging things out of a lathe across the room.

[Ed Morgano]

That lathe is absolutly awesome! never saw anything like it before. WOW!

Thanks Cal. I've designed and built machinery for quite a while....no engineering degree mind you, just something I like to do. After getting on here, there are a lot of things that impress me too and that I've never seen before.... you guys do some amazing work and every time I look at someones work I learn something new....even if it's just that there are people here who's creativity and talent is way beyond anything that I'll be able to do.

[Rick Markham]

You're definitely cool Ed!!!

[Ed Morgano]

You're definitely cool Ed!!!

Thanks Rick.....oh wait, you're the guy with TWO store bought hollowing systems .... hummmmm ..... I think you're the cool one! :D:eek::)

[Chris Burgess]

I am absolutely floored by this Late. That is one of the most beautiful tools I have ever seen. Nothing made of steel could ever compare to the feeling you must get when you turn out a perfectly round piece on a machine you fabricated with your own two hands. Awesome job...... ohh yea the hollower is neat too.......and by neat I mean one of the best homemade ones I have seen. Again awesome job and please keep posting things like this. I am new to the forum and this is motivating and inspiring.

[Alex Pierce]

Love the wooden wood lathe. Nothing quite as satisfying as homemade! Nice looking boring bar too by the way.

[David Reed]

Ed this is lovely and looks quite practical. Decades ago I made my first lathe of steel tube and stuff. This make mine look like scrap (which of course, currently it is, but even when new). Quite impressive workmanship and ingenuity.

[Ed Morgano]

I am absolutely floored by this Late. That is one of the most beautiful tools I have ever seen. Nothing made of steel could ever compare to the feeling you must get when you turn out a perfectly round piece on a machine you fabricated with your own two hands. Awesome job...... ohh yea the hollower is neat too.......and by neat I mean one of the best homemade ones I have seen. Again awesome job and please keep posting things like this. I am new to the forum and this is motivating and inspiring.

Thanks Chris for your kind words. I love doing projects like this.

[Ed Morgano]

Ed this is lovely and looks quite practical. Decades ago I made my first lathe of steel tube and stuff. This make mine look like scrap (which of course, currently it is, but even when new). Quite impressive workmanship and ingenuity.

Thanks David.

[Tim Thiebaut]

I always meant to ask and forgot about it, where did you get that cool name plate on your lathe?

[Ed Morgano]

Love the wooden wood lathe. Nothing quite as satisfying as homemade! Nice looking boring bar too by the way.

Thanks Alex. I do enjoy making things like this and it is satisfying....maybe even more so than actually using them.

[Jim Underwood]

You guys think the lathe is impressive you oughta see the CNC Router he built...

I spent a coupla hours with Ed looking over his shop, the lathe, dust system and the cnc routers. Cool stuff. It was worth the drive up.

Nice to see you posting on here Ed. Hope you're enjoying that shop...