Which tools do you use for hollow forms?

[David Warkentin]

I would like to make some hollow forms and am wondering what tools to get. What are you folks using? Not so sure I want to buy a captured tool yet. I may make one sometime but was really wondering which handheld tools people are using.

[Richard Madden]

I started with the Don Pencil Scorpion/Stinger set-up. Later, I made an articulated arm hollower that uses the Pencil Boring bars.

[Michael James]

Talk to Jeff Nicol here. He'll get you hooked in no time...er, hooked up!
mj

[Dennis Dupont]

I make my own tools with just about anything that looks like a hard, non-brittle steel. I have used small pry bars from HF, but the steel is too soft (constantly running to the sharpener. I have used metal lathe tips that I set in an Oland tool and those work very well. Some of my best tools are made from Allen wrenches. I especially like the kind that come in a set with a loop on one side (made so a bolt holds the set together and the wrenches then fold to the inside). These provide a great round tool for smoothing the inside and also allow for reaching inside the shoulder of a form. For really sharp shoulders I use a standard L shaped Allen wrench.

I have tried several handles. The Oland style (set in a steel boring bar) will go into a long wooden handle (Ellsworth style), but I have also held them without any handle. Another option that I like (although most people tell me it is too heavy) is to insert the rod into a 24" lead pipe with set screws. Of course there are some fairly cheap aluminum handles that are designed to be filled with shot. With either my wooden or pipe style handles, I use an old bicycle inner tube to wrap the end I will hold.

[Scott Hackler]

To get started I would recommend the Benjamin Best hollowing set. They are cheap and work very well for smaller HF (think under 5"). I bought mine just for Christmas ornaments and ended up liking them for my smaller HF. I will admit that there isn't a "swan neck" in the set of three and the tool with the largest bend doesn't get used AT ALL. But the other two are used all the time. There are a lot of captured and articulated hollowers for sale but I find it a lot easier to do the small ones by hand. And you don't have to spend $500-$1200 on a rig....yet!

Along with that, I would suggest starting out with smaller HF's to get the feel and technique down.

A couple hints are:

1)Finish outside to final shape and sanding
2)Drill a hole (while on the lathe) down to the inside depth and for the desired hole size
3)Keep the tool level but cutting very slightly above center
4)refresh the edge on the tool every so often
5)blow out the shavings after 3-4 inside passes
6)get the inside of the shoulder hollowed to finial thickness FIRST and move toward the bottom
7)buy a decent set of calipers and check wall thickness OFTEN

Have fun and remember that everyone cuts through a HF now and then!

[Thom Sturgill]

I've tried a large number of tools and use various ones depending on what I'm hollowing.

I have articulated arm and captured rigs that I built and hardly use, a scorpion, (all use interchangeable boring bars with various tips), various Sorby tools and two sets (regular and small) Ellsworth tools. I like the latter best. The large Ellsworth tools are handled per his example while the smaller fit in my boring bar which I then use as a handle. The degree of agressiveness of the Ellsworth tips seems about right to me, and the tool steel bar seems to control vibration better than mild steel used in most home made tools.

I use the smaller swan neck Sorby (3/8" round bar) that I modified to use a carbide tip quite a bit for roughing mid sized forms and a couple of smaller tools for ornaments similar to the Packard small hollowers and the Drozda hooked scraper.

[Dennis Ford]

I use home made versions of John Jordan / Trent Bosch tools in a Sorby arm brace. The arm brace looked dangerous to me until I tried a friends. It is not dangerous at all IF you keep the tool rest under the straight section of the tool. I also have a captured system and use that for the deeper parts of large hollow forms.

[Rick Vincent]

I use an oland tool also

[Montgomery Scott]

Woodcut Pro-Forme http://www.shop.woodcut-tools.com/section.php?xSec=2&xPage=1&jssCart=8258874b261fcd8a625b6e286423e4a9

I like it because you can change how aggresive a cut you want with the cutter guard.

I've heard good things about the Don Pencil system, but never tried it.

[Jake Helmboldt]

I made an Oland tool and then a similar one with a swan neck. All of about $10 in each at the most. For cutters I have used reground allen keys and 1/4" HSS router bits (again, reground). I recently got a Woodcut Pro-Forme and I do like it. It took a little experimenting to get used to but I doe get better control than with the homemade ones, though it isn't what I would call night and day.

[Josh Bowman]

Often just my Monster articulating arm rig. But if that doesn't work, what ever I can fit into the hole and make a cut with.:D