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 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?

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.

Great piece, Andy!

[Barry Stratton]

That came out great! Love the hot air balloon shape

[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!!! The only remaining question I have for you is: How the heck you gonna' get the ice-cream in or outtta' that beaut???