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hollow` forms vs holler forms

M

Max Taylor

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It has been my experience that you have to turn a few 'holler' forms before you get to the hollow forms. You know the kind' you are hollowing away and for some unknown reason you get a catch, the tool comes thru the side or the workpiece explodes off the lathe, and you let out a 'holler. Anyone else had the pleasure of having this happen to them? Just wondering, dustpan
 
I'd like to see if there is anyone who doesn't have a holler piece. I have had spindles that were holler pieces.
 
I think all of us have had a few pieces where the inside diameter will exceed the outside diameter, and not by design. I have a few "oops" sitting on the shelf above my lathe to remind not to do that again, but it doesn't always work 😱
 
Oops!

A quite new turner said to me recently when discussing Hollowforms, "It's okay for you, you don't make mistakes any more..." I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. It's odd how other turners always think that the piece - in this case hollowforms - you place on the table at a club meeting was a quick, painless job. And no matter how often you tell them that for every nine you produce there is one that you ranted at, jumped on, beat to mulch with a sledge, and then burnt...and then scattered the ashes to the wind.

But then the same could be said for other forms...I still haven't got over a lapse yesterday that cost me a lovely natural-edged vase in Acacia...

Typing this I am beginning to think that perhaps I need a rest!! Only today I had a real job NOT to lose a natural edged vase in Yew...I kept it in the end but it was a battle of wills, and I'm not 100% happy with it as a result...

Thinking about it...wouldn't it be better to lose it rather than have it there to remind you of it's faults?

Where's that sledge?
 
I actually don't think it would be better to lose them. I am new to this and I look at all of them as my creations and despite their faults, they are mine. Hopefully the Gods think this way too. Haha. Otherwise I may be in a bit of trouble.
 
Mistakes happen and you have to learn to expect them every once in a while. I've had natural edge piece that lost all their bark with slip. Had piece shred apart too thin and others catch, fly off the lathe, and explode on the floor.

You pick up another piece and try again, being more careful of the mistake you just made. 😉
 
Losers/Keepers

The most difficult thing to teach art students was that their pieces were NOT their babies and NOT the precious products of their sweat and creative juices their mothers tried to tell them they were. However, until they learned that, their progress was restricted; once accepted, the true art, the thinking and doing, began to emerge.

I've not kept count of the bowls and stuff I've broken; they didn't matter except to teach me. I have a 12" shallow ash dish nailed to one of the beams in my shop. It's about a 1/16" thick and transmits light even without any finish or oil soaked into it. While trimming the foot ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FINAL CUT, I had a small dig and the piece, spinning at 1,200 rpm, disintegrated into about 8-10 pieces with a most satisfying " WHAP-BANG!" leaving the glue block sitting in the chuck. I gathered up what I could find, CA'd it back together, and then inscribed it in wide felt marker with "Chutzpah Ain't Hubris Just Do It!" It serves to remind me and others who visit that no progress is made without some risk.

When we become so very attached to our personal masterpieces, we'll do turning in only safe directions and the result will be stilted and boring.

Lets remember, this stuff grows on trees. 😀
 
It's just practice for the next piece

I've heard that from various woodturners, and just recently from a potter.

Last year I was making inside-out ornaments for Christmas presents. The design I wanted turned out to be more difficult than I had expected. The first "proto-type" piece turned out good, so I started making the "real" pieces. The next 16 attempts ended up in the trash can. It took 24 attempts to get the 6 ornaments that I needed. Fortunately I was doing this months in advance because the elapsed time from proto-type to final ornaments was about a month. It gave me lots of pratice and I learned some things along the way.
 
Brian Hahn said:
Last year I was making inside-out ornaments for Christmas presents. ... It took 24 attempts to get the 6 ornaments that I needed. Fortunately I was doing this months in advance because the elapsed time from proto-type to final ornaments was about a month. It gave me lots of pratice and I learned some things along the way.
Click to expand...

Experience similar, and perhaps a lesson. When I start turning ornaments I usually blow through or turn a few bricks at the start of the series. The sense seems to return as I go along. Take a break of a few days or interpose turning types and I'm as bad as before.

Yes I've heard the ones about retraining Polacks after a ten-minute break.

Point is, success breeds success and practice seems even to improve proprioception, so if you're making one hollow whatever, maybe it's better to plan two or three, with the good wood second ... or third.
 
I agree, Michael,

I recently turned a large set of plates,side plates, bowls, Etc. for personal domestic use. I found the first couple plates were not quite what I wanted, and were too different from each other (although realistically the difference was small) for my liking. By plate number three & four the muscle memory had set and I was away. The result is consistent size, pattern, form, and an incredible increase in the speed at which each item is turned.

Not being a batch turner as a rule, these lessons were very useful, and, of course, transfer to everything you do. So your "turn three and make two and three from good wood" is a great idea for a system.

One of the older members in my club used to make a lot of Windsor chairs and always claimed he turned six legs for every chair...and then chose the best four...and further more, that he wasn't after machine-turned accuracy and consistency because you cannot look properly at four legs all at once, so slight differences were tolerable...

I should add that he is/was such a fine turner that you couldn't tell his legs apart anyway, so maybe it was all bluff for the newcomers 🙂
 
I talked to some of the artists who were in the 2005 AAW special "Oz" exhibition last year. One of them told me he made 3 versions of his submitted piece before making a 4th and final piece that met his personal criteria. Practice makes for a better piece!
 
MichaelMouse said:
...............Point is, success breeds success and practice seems even to improve proprioception, so if you're making one hollow whatever, maybe it's better to plan two or three, with the good wood second ... or third.
Click to expand...

A friend cuts perfectly looking bowls, etc., in half from time to time to make sure he's still, "doin' it right."
 
I got a reminder that it happens tonight. Had a gree piece of walnut about 10lbs come off the lathe at a good speed. Thankfully it was in rough out process and nothing that wont be fixed. 🙂
 
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