Avocado Hollow Form

[Andy Hoyt]

Last winter I sucker punched Pat Salter into an exchange. I sent him one of my infamous mushy yucky worm infested chunks of hickory and he sent me a gorgeous lump of avocado. Click here (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=32185) to see what it used to look like.

Ultimately, I decided to go with a hollow form and began hacking away at it in April. I borrowed a friends Sorby Hollowbastard and began to coerce the guts out of it. At that time it was about 11" tall and this meant that I had to open up both ends to empty the interior of its contents. After that was done I epoxied a plug into the bottom that I determined would be invisible in the final form. Yeah, Right!

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So into the DNA bath it went. At that time I vowed that I would not touch the piece again until I'd acquired a proper hollering rig which finally happened in late June. I'd been monitoring the weight closely all this time and was satisfied that she was dry. The exterior had only moved a tiny bit and it was a snap to true it up.

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And then (after practicing on a number of pieces of junkwood with the new hollering rig) I revisited the inside. Trust me when I say that if you spring for a rig yourself one of these days get a laser attachment for it at the same time. Sure wish I had. Talk about nerve wracking!

So anyway it's done.

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To be continued.

[Andy Hoyt]

So. The interior is all hollowed to about 3/16 to a 1/4 inch in thickness and I'm pooped and frazzled, so I called it done. It had wiggled around on me a bit during the hollowing so I said, "Jeez, I'd better retrue the exterior." Out comes the skew and everything is peachy as I take a snoodge off.

Then right down at the bottom I discovered a new method for inducing catches and, yes, bad words were said - loudly and repeatedly. So much for my invisible plug.

In the end it measures 9" tall and 7" across. The walls are roughly 1/8" thick - with some parts thicker and some parts thinner. What did Dr. Evil say? Oh yeas, "Laserrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

The collar is a piece of dunno wood that despite my wife's best effort just would not accept her leather dye as an ebonizer.

Okay sports fans - Can you find all the boo boos?

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Thanks again to Pat Salter. This was an amazing and most pleasurable wood to turn. No guacamole odor, nicely sized curls, no end grain issues, and sands like a dream. Gotta get me some more of this stuff.

[Frank Chaffee]

Loverly Andy, simply loverly.

Frank

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Andy....Mind you I wear tri-focals.....I would say the collar appears to not be centered and there appears to be an out of place bulge just up from the bottom..........But if that was mine.....I'd display it with pride! Well done for your first HF!.......I like the way the "ebonizer" worked on the collar...(just my opinion). Were you on Moxie while you did that HF?:D

Nicely done first HF!

BTW....You could buy a better brand of sour cream.....

[Corey Hallagan]

That is just great Andy. A beautiful hollow form. I don't think I have ever seen avocado before.

Corey

[Dick Parr]

Great job Andy, looks wonderful. Pretty wood and a nice style.;)

[Lee DeRaud]

Dunno what all the fuss is about: the guy at the restaurant hollows them out with a spoon. :D :cool:

Great piece, Andy!

[Barry Stratton]

That came out great! Love the hot air balloon shape:D

[Henry C. Gernhardt, III]

Andy, you do yourself discredit. You are quite talented, and this piece shows it off well. Great work!

BTW: I can't wait to see what you and your wife can do together with an HF!

[Cecil Arnold]

Looks mighty fine to me Andy.

[Scott Donley]

Really looking good Andy, and I HATE Avocado !

[Tom Sherman]

Andy I thought I noticed the same things as Ken however I gotta tell you that I hate Avacodo fruit also but the wood is awsome and you have done a great job with it.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Andy ya did good. I like the form and finish. That piece is a beauty.

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Beautiful job Andy, I can only imagine what you went through. I just put my first real test of a HF in the DNA today. I have two questions: First, do you somehow sand the inside or do you just rely on hopefully smooth cutting. If you do sand, will you talk about how you do it? Second, you mention the following:

The collar is a piece of dunno wood that despite my wife's best effort just would not accept her leather dye as an ebonizer.
I'm not sure I understand the term ebonizer and what type of leather dye it is you are referring to? I just cut my collar today and thought I would have to leave it as light wood. Thanks.:)

[John Miliunas]

Looks absolutely beautiful, Andy!!! :) The only "boo-boo" I can figure is that it's over there and not here!!! :D The only remaining question I have for you is: How the heck you gonna' get the ice-cream in or outtta' that beaut??? :confused: :D :cool:

[Lee DeRaud]

How the heck you gonna' get the ice-cream in or outtta' that beaut??? :confused: :D :cool:It's a lot bigger than it looks: that hole in the top is about the size of a standard scoop. :p

[Curt Fuller]

Avocados grow on trees??? I did not know that.

Andy that's a beauty and I like the story of how it came to be. And thanks for the tip on hollowing from both ends with the Sorby 'Hollowbastard'. As for ebonizing, india ink works great, so does minwax ebony stain.

[Keith Burns]

Very nice HF you have done Mr. Hoyt, very nice indeed:) :)

[Glenn Hodges]

From what I can see it looks great. I would like a view of the plug.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

OK, so this is the first real HF off you new HFR?

Dude, what is to complain about, a couple bottles of Moxie and a modest heaping of your fav icecream, and all will seem perfect in the world :D

[Vaughn McMillan]

Great job, Andy. I've never seen avacado wood finished, and you did it much justice. It took me a while, but I was able to spot the plug in the bottom. Other than that, I didn't notice any other glitches. (I didn't go back and check Ken's exhaustive trifocal list. Mine's the bifocal viewpoint and I'm stickin' with it. :p )

- Vaughn

[Karl Laustrup]

Well, it kinda looks like an upside down avacado, but it's not near the right color nor is the skin all bumpy. ;) :D

So it had you saying bad words and it sounds like it may have had a pucker factor of about 7 or 8. :eek:

It sure is purty though. I'll give it a big thumbs up. :D :D

Karl

[Mark Cothren]

Nice work Andy! Love that wood! Looks like you got that new hollerin' rig all figgered out.

[Ernie Nyvall]

It's a real beauty Andy. Nice job.

[Mike Ramsey]

Very nice Mr. Hoyt! Very nice indeed!

[Andy Hoyt]

Thanks all. Glad you like it.

Ken - that bulge at the bottom is the result of the catch I had when stupidly trying to true it up. Actually it's not a bulge, but rather the end of the curve from up above. I fixed the catch below that point only, as I was too chicken (because of an uncertain wall thickness) to feather it out further up.

Chris - I left the interior wall as smooth as I could with the hollowing rig and called it good. The next time I'll be using curved hemostats to hold sandpaper to get at the shoulders; as well as a 1" diameter sanding disk mounted on a stick to go deep. The leather dye my wife used on the collar is something she uses all the time on her gourds. I think the issue was that the dunnowood was very oily which prevented the dye from bonding or curing properly. It's what she had available at the time. We dyed it because we wanted a contrasting color for the collar and we were plumb out of real ebony that day.

Glenn - Sorry no pics of the plug itself. But the third and fourth pic in the first post are sequential. And the third pic in the second post shows it fairly well, but ya have to squint. The plug was a piece of scrap I cut off when prepping the blank. Since the HF was turned as centerwork it was a simple matter of turning the plug (also turned as centerwork) to match the hole and gluing it in. No worries about cross grain gluing.

Again - thanks all.

Hey Pat! Where are ya dude?

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Thanks Andy this helps.

[Pat Salter]

Ok, I guess I need to say something......WOW, nice job Andy. I like the shape and also the donno wood addition (gonna try that). I just went to a class at one of our club members home where he talked about the various hollow form tools (and yes, he's a believer in that laser gizmo). I've tried a few hollow forms. No great success's so far.
I agree, avocado is great to turn. I have a friend/neighbor who is also a turner who keeps me in plenty of turning blanks (I have to bring my own chainsaw).
I hadn't tried the dna bath yet, glad it worked. I have only one question? what kind of finish??? I've tried several types and i'm curious what you used.

[Andy Hoyt]

Oops. Busted by the Finnish Cops. Pat, are you of Scandinavian descent?:D

Has three coats of gel poly and was buffed ala Beall with all three compounds.

Glad you like it.

[Chris Barton]

Very nice Andy! I had to log on to my work computer to see your posts. My home computer still doesn't seem to "see" some posts for whatever reasons...

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

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Got me speechless again, Andy!

Bruce

[estevan chaparro]

I have worked with quiet a bit of avacado but have a real problem with movement. The stock is several years old and seemed to be very dry. I have done small hollow things as well as small bowls but all have moved quiet a bit. I am curious as to the "DNA" bath. does that stabilize the wood?

I find avacado very soft and easy to turn. Some have been slightly spalted. I have some I would like to do small lidded boxes out of but am afraid of the movement. Any suggestions?

[Neal Addy]

That's a winner! I still don't see a plug or any boo-boos.

[Mike Turkley]

Darn, thats one fine looking Adocado HF Andy!

Good work, but ya had to put a collar on it didn't ya.

How you going to get the Guacamole dip out now?:D


MikeT