My Hollowing Arsenal

[John Sincerbeaux]

I got into wood turning a little over a year ago for one reason, to turn large Hollow Forms.
I have been woodworking most of my life and have been selling boxes in galleries for over ten years. But while in a gallery in Sante Fe about two years ago, I saw a couple of incredible, large hollow forms from an artist, Robert Cherry (I never could find his contact). I was so impressed with this form of woodworking that I knew I wanted to learn to make HF's.
Luckily, I met a few guys in my area that did large HF's and sort of took me under their wing.
I won't go into how I came to choosing the tools or methods I now use. But, I will say that when I buy things, I try to buy the best quality I can afford and the most optimal equipment for the job.
So here is what i have found to best suit my needs:

VB 36 full bed lathe. My lathe was the first lathe to be produced in Germany by Steinert, the new owner of the VB. Steinert has been making very high quality lathes for over a hundred years. I had them paint my lathe in "Steinert" blue and yellow opposed to green. My understanding is all the future VB's will be painted (powder coated) this way.

Trent Bosch stabilizer bored to accept 1" bar.
Custom stainless steel double 1" boring bar.
Custom stainless trap using 1" bars
Custom stainless tool support that holds 40mm tooling.
Custom stainless mount for top of the VB vertical bed support. This gives the lathe a huge degree of utility for hollowing
"Sky Hook" hoist with custom base to be used with custom tool support.
Rolly monro cutter. I rough turn without the shield.
Steve Sinner laser which I just replaced with Trent Bosch Visualizer.
Glaser Hitech 3/4, 5/8, 1/2, 1/4 bowl gouges
TOS super precision 125 mm chuck. Vicmarc jaws.
Stubby 2" drive center.

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[John Sincerbeaux]

Now if someone can explain why my pics download on here upside down??😬

[Mark Greenbaum]

From Down Under?

[charlie knighton]

so how big is it????????????

[robert baccus]

Good equipment but check out the Woodcut boring tip. I've been deep boring for 20 years to 20". Just put on my third cutterblade-they last forever and sharpen in a snap.

[Thom Sturgill]

If you originally used windows file manager to rotate or resize a picture, it just 'remembers' your preferences and does not alter the image. Use a separate app for post processing like the free software GIMP.

[Olaf Vogel]

Now if someone can explain why my pics download on here upside down??

I'm guessing you used an iPad or iPhone?

It "remembers" the camera orientation when you took the pics. Then keeps it.
Seems to be smart when viewing the pics on Macs etc. But really dumb when posting to sites.
Making changes and resaving the pic seems to solve the problem. But its a PITA.

Nice equipment BTW - I'm jealous!
Keep up the good work

Just out of curiosity....the VB36 uses two bars to hold and orient the tailstock. I;ve always been suspicious of such and arrangement.
From my brief metal working days, I've been told that absolute stability is essential for the tailstock, hence a very heavy bed and solid mounting points.

Yet clearly the VB36 arrangement works. Have you had any issues with flex on the tailstock?

[John Sincerbeaux]

I am not aware of any flexing of the tailstock? The bars are extremely heavy. The lathe is bolted to the floor making it extremely stable. BTW, the manufacturer recommends the lathe to be bolted.
What I love most abt the lathe is its stability and whisper quite operation. The massive shaft is its own bearing.

[John Sincerbeaux]

Good equipment but check out the Woodcut boring tip. I've been deep boring for 20 years to 20". Just put on my third cutterblade-they last forever and sharpen in a snap.

Robert, I have always been interested in those. Have you ever tried the monro cutters and if so, how do they compare?

[robert baccus]

The heavy hook on the Woodcut is much more open in the back than the round cutters. It cuts like a 5/8" gouge with no catches,

[robert baccus]

The heavy hook on the Woodcut is much more open for shavings than the round cutters and fast to sharpen. It cuts like a 5/8"gouge with no catches. It is far faster than anything I have seen. When down deep more time is spent extracting curls than cutting. Buy a good long air nozzle and a backscratcher.

[robert baccus]

The heavy hook cutter is much more open than the round type. No buying new cutters and sharpens in seconds. Cuts like a 5/8" gouge with no catches. Adjusted wrong it will even selffeed--really moves the wood.

[robert baccus]

The heavy hook is much more open than the round cutters. Also it likes to cut on the long side cutter when dragged out. Cuts as fast as a 5/8" gouge with no catches. Really moves the wood.