Snake/Articulated Hollowing Tool Question

[Doug W Swanson]

Hey all,

I'm in the process of making an articulated hollowing tool similar to Capt Eddie's Steel Snake.

http://eddiecastelin.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/steelsnake.54183757.pdf

It all seems pretty straight forward but there is one question I have:

Do I need to make the support/base height adjustable? Or can this be a fixed height?

Capt Eddie's version shows the base as being a fixed height. Since I'm making this for one lathe (my Jet 1236), I figured that if I used different cutters I could always adjust the height of the tool rest slightly to compensate where the cutter hits the wood. I can't imagine the height difference between cutters would be more than 1/2" so the base height could be fixed and not cause any problems.

It seems like most of the store bought versions have an adjustable base but they do that to cover different lathe sizes, right?

Any advice is appreciate

[John Spitters]

Doug
Even if you never plan to use this on another lathe you'll still want the end base assembly to be adjustable for hight. It's important to always keep the tool "level", immagine if the end base is at a fixed hight then you replace the cutting bar with a cutting tip that is now higher or above centre, so you lower the tool rest to get the tip on center however as you progress deeper into a form you are now cutting further and further below your center.

John

[Bob Wolfe]

Doug,
+1 of what John says on adjustable height, very important. I often hollow with the base raised higher than the tool tip (so it's angled downward, but still slightly above center). I think it's less grabby to hollow this way. You will have to adjust the height more often though, as the deeper you go, the lower your tip will be cutting. You will have to play around with it and find what works best for you.