Help hollowing a vase

[L2wis]

I'm finished for tonight but once I finished turning the outside shape I couldn't get anywhere on the hollowing. My bench was juddering, the vase almost instantly started being knocked off centre. I don't know what was going on!

Maybe a faceplate mounting would have been better choice?

Putting it onto a faceplate won't be a problem once I've got a smaller one.

I was using a spindle gouge when attempting hollowing and the wood is ash.

 

[CHJ]

For starters you should not have waisted the base before hollowing, you need to leave as much support and rigidity at the fixing point as long as possible.

 

[L2wis]

Ah okay, next time I will leave all the chuck end in tact. Do you have any other pointers?

 

[L2wis]

If I get some forstner bits soon perhapse I should just hollow it out with one on the tailstock?

 

[CHJ]

Ash is a tough wood to tackle end grain hollowing on as a first/early piece.
Best bet is to drill out as much as possible as deep as possible, but I guess you have not progressed enough down the expensives slope to have acquired any large sized saw tooth cutters.
With a larger central hole to work from you are presenting the tools on to something more akin to side grain than endgrain within the bowl of the vase.

Edit: yes on the cutters, but good ones are not cheap.

 

[L2wis]

I'm not to worried about hollowing the bottom bit (although it would be nice if I could). My intentions were to just hollow out enough room to fit a handful of flowers in. I noticed on another thread recommendations of the screwfix £30 and the more expensive record power ones so I'll hopefully be getting one or the other.

Is green wood harder to hollow than dried?

Thanks for your help!

 

[CHJ]

.....Is green wood harder to hollow than dried?
..

No, in most cases a factor of 10 easier.

 

[Silverbirch]

Hi lewis,
With the longish neck and restricted opening you are only going to be able to bore and widen the neck section, with a central hole down through to the base. If you don`t have a suitable drill, you can use your spindle gouge to bore a hole by pushing firmly straight down at a slowish speed, twisting as you go.You can then open it out a bit with the same gouge, pulling from the centre outwards.
Next time, I would true up the piece and mount it on your faceplate before you start any shaping. If you shape it first, it will not run true when you remount it, and you`ll have to reshape it again.

Ian

 

[monkeybiter]

I start the hollowing with the cheap but good Screwfix forstners, then use whatever gouge seems most suitable dependent on the profile/hole size. I rarely stick to just one hollowing tool.

Having said that I just muddle along learning as I go, don't really know what I'm doing.

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Hi Lewis,
How exactly are you mounting this in the chuck? a photo of that end would be useful.
For the initial drilling, a blacksmiths drill might be a better option to a forstner/sawtooth bit if you are planning to start with a hole of around 20-25mm.

 

[L2wis]

I'll take a picture of the bottom, I kinda got it squeezed by the chuck in two places so I thought it was going to be in there really firmly.

Even the lightest touches were rejected by the piece and translated into catches. I really should have got a video or what was going on.

I wondered about the green thing because I thought maybe it would pull and catch easier.

I've got not any special swan neck chisels so not worries about truly hollowing it.

I wasn't using the slowest speed available when attempting to hollow, I was using the middle speed. I only have 3 speeds on my record dml 24.

 

[L2wis]

Here is the base where it was mounted in the chuck.

The vase has developed quite a few splits over night too :-(