Internal Light on Boring Bar/Cutter

[Clemens]

The late Frank Sudol had a light taped adjacent to the cutter on his boring bars. This was used to transmit light through the walls of birch hollow forms, thereby determining the wall thickness. Using the method he could get down to a consistent 1/16". He used an automotive bulb because it handled vibration well. He used a 12 volt power supply to transform 120 v. AC current, and taped the wires to the boring bar.

This was about 8 or 10 years ago. I'd like to know if anyone has set up a similar system and if they could give me some advise and suggestions. I don't know any more about Frank's set up than mentioned above, and I'm not particularly skilled in electricity. What kind of bulb and power supply should I use? What should I watch out for? In other words, help! Many thanks. I really appreciate it.

Dale Clemens

 

[Nick_Hoffman]

This should be easy now, go look for a bright led flashlight and make wire extensions for the bulb, try to find one with a button on the side not like the Minimag lite's. You might want to solder the wire to the wire bulb leads so the are solid. If you want to make it look clean you could get heat shrink tubing to insulate the wires, and connect them to the gouge also. You could use a thicker piece of solid wire for directing the bulb.

 

[john lucas]

LED's might work but I'll bet the tail light bulbs are brighter. I'll have to run a test. I have a tail light system that I built. You simply by a 12 volt bulb. The smaller push in bulbs work well. Buy a socket for it. Buy a 12volt transformer from some place like Radio shack. Connect all the pieces together. I ran a cord down the shaft of the cutter and all the way to the back of the boring bar system. I put a plug there that connects to the 12 volt side of the transformer wires. This works great. I don't use it often because I don't do that much hollowing with light woods. It doesn't work with woods like Walnut.

 

[Mark Warden]

Hi Dale like Nick said todays LED lights are very small and bright and last a pretty long time on just batteries.You can also try something like this http://www.mightybright.com/Book_Lights/79/ProductDetail.html depending on your opening you could get away with very little modification.

 

[Mark Wollschlager]

J Paul Fennell has a light source attached to an armored bunch of fiber optic cables.
You can attach the fiber to the tool or hold it in line with the tool shaft.
It is cool , the one down side to over driving a tail light bulb inside of a hollow form.
It was bright enough to illuminate a hollow form in an unlighted but semi sunlit room for a demo at our club.
It would have been spectacular in the evening.
Not a cheap solution, but effective.
As I recall it was about 250, an expensive tail light is $2.50🙄

Mark

 

[Dave Peebles]

Hi Dale,

I have one of Franks boring bars. It is pretty simple, just use an automotive taillight bulb and a small 12volt battery charger for the power. Frank had it all figured out. It works great!!

Best wishes,

Dave

 

[Nick_Hoffman]

You can get led lights that are very bright and will run for great periods of time on c/d size batteries or one of the many low voltage power supplies we all have laying around from cell phones, toys ect. You will need to find the correct resistor to use these with an led bulb/bulbs.

 

[Bob Chapman]

This all sounds very interesting. Will a system like this work with dry wood or does it have to be green (wet)? In other words, does dry wood transmit the light well enough?

Bob

 

[hockenbery]

Bob,
the light systems work best with light colored green wood. Johannes Michelson is a master at using light with his hats.

The water in the wet wood has has a fiber optic quality that transmits the light around the fibers. the dry wood tends to absorb the light.

When I demo at the state fair I do lots small goblets 4-6" tall. I hollow the cup and point a light into the opening then turn the wall from the outside to an even thickness just by matching the color to a bright yellow. I use mostly green wood.
This is a quick test to see if the wood you want to hollow will pass light at an acceptable level

I had lots of success with light using green cherry, maple, camphor, holly, locust....
Doesn't work so well on Florida Rosewood, elm or eucalyptus.

It there is a mix of heartwood and sapwood I get less light where there is more heartwood so I have to go to a darker color for the same wall thickness. Also as I come around the bottom of the goblet bowl it is a short way through the end grain and most woods tend to pass more light.

If you goal is piercing the internal light is a great method to achieve an even thin wall.

Happy turning
Al

 

[Clemens]

Thanks a million

Thank you all for your suggestions and ideas. I now have a number of ways to experiment with. Today I bought a tail light bulb and socket. I'll first try my battery charger for a power supply...and go from there. I have some semi-green holly that I'm hoping will work turned end grain. If I'm successful I'll post photos. Thanks a million.
Dale

 

[Bob Chapman]

Thanks Al, you've confirmed what I thought. I've done probably 95% of my turning on dry timber and I think it may be getting time to experiment a little more with green wood.

Bob

 

[Wipedout]

Stuart Mortimer has a great DVD on turning green wood and using a light.

I took a class from him and it was pretty amazing how thin I could get it using a light inside the turning