Captive hollowing system question

[Curt Fuller]

I'm going to try and build my own captive hollowing system. I know there are several here at SMC that have built their own and have been generous enough to post pictures. I want to do this on my own from scratch but there's one question (so for) that I need an answer for. There are two horizontal bars that 'capture' the hollowing bar and it's outrigger. What is the distance between these horizontal bars?

[Mike Vickery]

It would be just a hair bigger than the material you use for you D handle. The idea is to allow you to slide it from side to side but prevent the handle from twisting.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Curt, please take lots of pics and share them, as this is something that I'm going to do in the near future as well!

Good luck!

[Gary DeWitt]

At a demo at our club, the turner had and used a rig made of baltic birch plywood glued up in a tall block with a slot left open for the tools and had made his tool handles just for this rig out of flat stock, so they would not torque in the rig. Looked like the business end of a canoe paddle. This particular demo was on a jet midi lathe, so I'm not sure it would be a good rig for a larger lathe where the potential torque would be greater on bigger forms, but it's a great idea on a smaller lathe and for those who don't have access to welding.

[Dennis Peacock]

Lyle Jamieson has the plans for the rear rest on his web site. I used his plans and made my back rest from that. Very easy to do. Just remember to use some parafin wax on the wood where the bars will slide so it will be easier to move it around. DAMHIKT!!! :D

[Travis Stinson]

Curt, I routed a groove and epoxied a 1/4" steel rod in the bottom piece of the rear rest that the D handle rides on. It glides very smoothly because of the smaller surface area.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c213/tstin27/1234/DSC03427.jpg

[Mark Cothren]

Ditto Dennis and Travis... I used Dennis' as a pattern to build mine, and copied Travis' 1/4" feature. Mine is built from plywood scraps.

[Bill Grumbine]

Curt, I routed a groove and epoxied a 1/4" steel rod in the bottom piece of the rear rest that the D handle rides on. It glides very smoothly because of the smaller surface area.

Travis, I would need a groove and a rod on the bottom of the top bar the way my hollowing usually goes! :eek:

Curt, a lot of the measurements are subjective - you can make them to fit whatever it is you have on hand. My hollowing system was made by Randy Privett of monster-wood-tool.com, so I can't give you a whole lot of advice on building your own, except to say that I have seen a lot of wooden arrestors, or rear supports, and they seem to work just fine. I watched one demonstrator who had his fit so loose that the whole thing flopped around like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but it worked well for him, and he is fairly well known for his work.

Good luck with it.

Bill

[Keith Burns]

Curt, I copied Travis' and it works great. The only thing different I did was to put a 3/8" rod in both the Top and Bottom.

[Andy Hoyt]

My protoype was built from plywood scraps. I've just recently rebuilt it with 3/4" angle iron for the top and bottom rails. Why? Because I had some lying around. The gap is about a sixteenth bigger than the diameter of the d-handle. So far so good.

[Jim Becker]

Mine is very similar to Travis' unit pictured above. The slot is just big enough to allow the hollowing handle to slide nicely after rubbing an old candle inside as a lubricant plus a "skosh" more room for good measure. One thing I did was make it so I could offset the whole guide farther to the side to give more range of vessel sizes and shapes.

[John Morand]

I bought stainless steel bars at the local scrap yard and built a very heavy rig. I used 1.75 inches and 32 inches wide as the spacing on the slider bar. I position about 10 inches back from the banjo.
John.
It has been my experience that a tool catch throws the work off the chuck before it rotates me onto the ceiling.
John