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Pro-forme hollower inconsistent cutting

J

Jim Lee

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Aug 4, 2009
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Anyone out there using the Pro-forme hollower having problems with inconsistent cutting? Sometime it cuts fine and sometimes for no apparent reason (to me at least) it does not cut. I am moving it as in the instructions that came with it and making sure to clean out the shavings as often as I should. Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Thanks very much.

Jim Lee
 
Hmm, I have a Proforme and works well for me, not sure what the problem is.

But it can be a little hard to find the sweet spot in the beginning. Try opening up the top guard a little at a time. This will increase the cut so go easy on this adjustment.

When its closed down for fine cuts its easy to roll it too far and miss the cutting edge.

Get a piece of scrap and give this a go. Start the with the cutter rolled onto the bronze guard and then watch it as you roll it over and pay real close attention to the position to when it starts to cut, you will probably notice that its real easy to over shoot and stop cutting. Having the lathe on slow speed will assist with this and give time to react if you get a catch
 
Jim Lee said:
Anyone out there using the Pro-forme hollower having problems with inconsistent cutting? Sometime it cuts fine and sometimes for no apparent reason (to me at least) it does not cut. I am moving it as in the instructions that came with it and making sure to clean out the shavings as often as I should. Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Thanks very much.

Jim Lee
Click to expand...

Hi Jim, I don't use the Pro-forme Hollower but I do use the Rolly Munro hollower. I've found that sometimes is is worth it to just slow the lathe down to about 400 - 500 rpm—especially if you are hollowing green wood.

Matt
 
Matthew Clarke said:
Hi Jim, I don't use the Pro-forme Hollower but I do use the Rolly Munro hollower. I've found that sometimes is is worth it to just slow the lathe down to about 400 - 500 rpm—especially if you are hollowing green wood.

Matt
Click to expand...

I don't use that tool either, but any hooded tool needs to be AT or SLIGHTLY above center to cut. I struggled with the Rolly Munro tool for a long time till I figured that out. I bet, if you look, your tool rest is set just a bit too low or high...

Lower revolutions are good too.:cool2:
 
Experience with Pro-Forme hollower

I've only been using mine a short time, but I did find it is a lot easier to hit the cutting angle that works by starting with the bronze cover rubbing on the wood (like Hughie said) than slowly rotating the tool clockwise to bring the cutter into the wood. I also added a very heavy metal handle that seems to really help in dampening the vibrations and staying at the proper angle while cutting (I'm hollowing free hand).

I try to stay more towards the end of the cutter rather than on the side as it tends to grab and self-feed rapidly if the side of the cutter becomes engaged into the wood too far. I'm really enjoying how fast this thing can hollow now that I'm getting the hang of using it.
 
You have to make sure that the hood is as near to a perfect reveal as possible. When you tighten down the hood, you may put a slight twist to it so that you have more opening at the point as compared to the side. Then as the profile to cutter contact changes, you may move into an area where the hood is too tight to the cutter. This is made worse when you have it closed down to a fine cutting adjustment. I also polished the hood on mine with sand paper. It had a fine burr around the lower profile that also might affect the cut.
 
Learning the Pro-forme hollower

Thanks very much for all of your advice. I have been using it all and it is going much better though there still are some times when I cannot understand why no cutting is going on. I am keeping as dead center, vertically, as possible and I think that is helping. I have polished the bronze guide up after getting rid of the tiny lip on the bottom. I have it attached to a 3/4" bronze pipe and only about 6" of the original bar that it came with. I find that to be pretty marginal in terms of heftiness. There is alot of vibration using this tool that I do not feel in other tools. As mentioned it is used primarily in a Jamieson type D captured rig. What I am finding to be the greatest help in getting it to cut when it is misbehaving for no obvious, to me, reason, is to move the cutter forward and backward. Often times if it is not cutting I can get it to cut, judging by the sound it is making because I normally cannot see it, by moving it horizontally back and forth pushing towards the head and then pulling towards the foot which is not very hard to do with the Jamieson rig. Sometimes it also helps to put more pressure on the cutter against the wood but I prefer not to do that becasue if it starts cutting while I am doing that it is way too easy to cut more than I want. I have also tried moving the cutter and guide clockwise starting from 6 o'clock up very slowly and have not noticed that helping it start cutting. What is unusual to me about this cutter is that it does not seem to matter if you see shavings stuffed up between the cutter and the guide. It seems that there are always shavings rammed in there and it will still (most of the time) cut. So the design seems to lend itself to cutting, exhausting wood waste, regardless of appearing to be completely jammed up. Sometimes it will stop cutting for no apparent reason and then I will either clean or even completely remove the brass head and it will still not cut. Very strange.

I am left wondering if the 'stringy-ness' of the particular wood I am working on has much to do with this cut/no cut issue. Have any of you seen great differences in this area between different kinds of wood? The wood I have been working with is what I would classify as relatively soft maple. I have just started working with some harder maple and it seems to be doing better.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee
 
Jim,
When I get stumped by some tool or technique for hollowing, I practice turning a bowl with the same technique. I can see what's going on with the cutter, and check my technique. You didn't mention if you slowed the lathe, or what speed you turn at, unless I missed it. I turn pretty slow compared to the guys that use a 1/4" square bit. Usually around 700 rpm. You can set the hood back a little for a more aggressive cut (this lets the chips clear out better), but still cut quickly since you are taking out a bigger chip. Waste away a shallow end grain bowl form first though and see what's going on.
 
Pro-forme hollower technique

I am turning at my slowest speed which I believe is 500 rpm. I am getting better by practicing with open bowls as suggested. Adjusting the bronze 'hood' is really tricky. I am thinking that there is a happy medium that I need to find between not cutting and catching where it stops my lathe. Also to try to beef up the original little assembly I have cut the small diameter round steel that comes with it down to about 4 inches and attached that securely to a 1/2" black pipe that then goes into my D (Jamieson like) rig. It can stop my puny 3/4 hp lathe on a dime and stay stuck in there until I turn off the lathe. I am at the point where I think I need to get better with setting the bronze guide cap and moving the cutter forward and backward. When it does work it works really well. I cannot imagine using this free hand. It would be flying out of my hand or being bounced around way too much for me to be anything but dangerous with it.

Thanks,
Jim Lee
 
Yeah Jim, I relate using these to using a hand plane. I can set the hand plane and make a great curl in walnut. Then I take that same plane to some hard maple and I need a horse hitched up to it to pull that same thickness curl. Same settings don't work so well when you change wood, and yup, setting the hood is fussy. If I recall correctly, I did change the outside hood profile ever so slightly with a file when I was polishing it up. It was not a "perfect" match to the cutter. I switch back and forth to some other cutters I have, but I still think I can hollow out faster with the Pro-forme.
 
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