Unguided missile

[Mike Golka]

Went out to the shop yesterday to experiment a little. I threw a captured hollowing rig together and proceeded to attempt a hollow form from a log of maple I had lying around. Every thing was going great:D, the chips were flying and I was so pleased with myself. All of a sudden half the form left the lathe and careened around the shop:eek: while the other half danced merrily on the end of the new rig:o. It would appear that laser guidence is not only good for missiles but also work good on hollowing rigs:rolleyes:. I will
definitely be attaching a laser before any further testing;).

[Pete Jordan]

Coward!

I don't blame you a bit! I have had two cherry platters explode on inclusions this week so I am going to work on little things for a while till I do my laundry!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Mike - the world of hollow forms can really get exciting at times! I am hollowing one at the moment that has so many cracks in it all I hear when hollowing is click- click - click! I have my fingers crossed that it will hold together until I am finished.

I use the laser on my rig and while it does work great you do have to constantly pay attention to where the laser point is in reference to the cutter. Every time you change the angle of attack of your cut - the light is actually offset. Example would be the laser is set to 1/4" in front of the center of a 1/4" wide cutter. When your cutter is at 90* to the hollow form you can cut with relative safety. However with the same setup - cutting on the inside of the shoulder would have the edge of the cutter closest to you cutting the wood but the laser would still be aligned with the center of the cutter (or 1/8" away from the actual cutting edge) - giving you the impression that you had more wood under the cutter than you actually had.

Lots of words to say - always set the laser up for the distance you want (thickness of the hollow form) while making sure you set that distance with respect to the angle you are going to be cutting. When the wood changes direction - so should the laser reference point - or you will have more surprises.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike....that's the one thing I don't enjoy about making funnels on the lathe.....they don't stay there and you can't predict their tradjectory!:rolleyes:

Glad you weren't injured!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Glad you are ok. I know when I made HF's before my HF rigs with lasers I did a lot of measuring when turning. I had one sail and decided I would stop after a couple of cuts and measure. You will like the laser setup for sure.