Woodcut pro-forme hollower users?

[Jim Lee]

Hi all,

I just got a Woodcut Pro-forme hollower from Woodworkers Supply as below and it is a beautiful thing. I highly recommend it.
http://woodworker.com/fullpres.asp?PARTNUM=131-552&LARGEVIEW=ON

What I am wondering is if any other users out there have tips or hints on sharpening or using it.
I have found it to work exactly as advertised but am wondering what experience others have had with it.

Thanks very much,

Jim Lee

 

[odie]

Hi all,

I just got a Woodcut Pro-forme hollower from Woodworkers Supply as below and it is a beautiful thing. I highly recommend it.
http://woodworker.com/fullpres.asp?PARTNUM=131-552&LARGEVIEW=ON

What I am wondering is if any other users out there have tips or hints on sharpening or using it.
I have found it to work exactly as advertised but am wondering what experience others have had with it.

Thanks very much,

Jim Lee

Jim Lee........

Can you tell us why your link includes a link at the Woodworker's Supply catalog page to this thread?

It looks to me like they intend to use this thread as a sales tool for the pro-forme hollower.

Sorry, but I'm a little skeptical when commercial interests might be using private discussion as a sales lever.......honest evaluation may be influenced by such knowledge.

ooc

 

[Vaughn]

Jim Lee........

Can you tell us why your link includes a link at the Woodworker's Supply catalog page to this thread?

It looks to me like they intend to use this thread as a sales tool for the pro-forme hollower.

Sorry, but I'm a little skeptical when commercial interests might be using private discussion as a sales lever.......honest evaluation may be influenced by such knowledge.

ooc

Odie, for some reason that appears to be the nature of the Woodworker's Supply website...not something specific to Jim's post. I just now tried posting links to their site from another forum, and got the same results...with any products I tried.

Here's an example, and I assure you I'm not selling pipe clamps...

http://woodworker.com/50-pipe-clamp-fixture-mssu-125-024.asp

My guess is that it's Woodworker's Supply tracking the links to their site (a common practice, I believe), but their web programmers aren't savvy enough to hide the collected data.

 

[odie]

Odie, for some reason that appears to be the nature of the Woodworker's Supply website...not something specific to Jim's post. I just now tried posting links to their site from another forum, and got the same results...with any products I tried.

Here's an example, and I assure you I'm not selling pipe clamps...

http://woodworker.com/50-pipe-clamp-fixture-mssu-125-024.asp

My guess is that it's Woodworker's Supply tracking the links to their site (a common practice, I believe), but their web programmers aren't savvy enough to hide the collected data.

Thanks for the information, Vaughn.

Looks like Jim Lee's link may be unintentionally a sales tool by him, personally......but, I'm thinking the Woodworker's Supply web programmers just might be VERY savvy in seeing the opportunity to use the link as a means to make sales.......this would seem to account for why the link is there......wouldn't you think?

The "red flag" I interpret this practice to be, is knowledge of that link will likely influence some to post here, and others to give recommendations that they wouldn't give without that knowledge.

Like most of us here, I'm interested in hearing about methods and tools used in, and related to woodturning.......but, I want to hear the straight scoop!

ooc

 

[waltben]

To answer the original question - I've had a swan neck version for about five years and use it quite a bit on enclosed forms. I've set the hood to almost closed so it won't catch on even very hard woods and use it in my Jameson captured rig and not free-hand. I've only had to sharpen it a few times and used a round waterstone. I suppose you could use something rotary, but I've not had to sharpen it all that often to try.

 

[Jim Lee]

Pro-forme hollower

Ben,

That was the one thing I was thinking of doing. Narrowing the factory set gap on the long part of the "J" of the blade. For me it seems to take slightly too much of a bite on side grain and tends to pull into the cut more than I would like even using my Jamieson-ian rig. I have just started using it so I was, and am still wondering if I could learn to control it better to prevent it from pulling in too much because I also want to get a decent sized slice/cut. I guess it is a trade off. I am hesitant to change a tool from its factory settings until I have had some hours using it. It sounds like you have. That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

[Michaels]

The only reason the link is visible is due to the web devs capturing the "from" URL, or origin site when you click through. If you navigate to the hollower via their front page you won't see any URL's on the page.

Unless they've had a web team change, woodworkers supply has had a challenging website for years. Several elements are still buggy and I suspect this is just one of many issues they have.

I've heard good things about the system, but have no personal experience.

michael

 

[odie]

The only reason the link is visible is due to the web devs capturing the "from" URL, or origin site when you click through. If you navigate to the hollower via their front page you won't see any URL's on the page.

Unless they've had a web team change, woodworkers supply has had a challenging website for years. Several elements are still buggy and I suspect this is just one of many issues they have.

I've heard good things about the system, but have no personal experience.

michael

Thanks Michael.......

That's good to know.

The internet is being used in so many ways that seem unethical. It's becoming a "knee jerk" reaction to be suspicious when things look/seem different than normal........especially when money might be involved! :mad:

ooc

 

[Bob Boettcher]

Jim,

I have had the straight tool for quite a while, and also narrowed up the gap. I had/have problems with the tip clogging with chips.

More recently, I had purchased the swan neck tool, and hadn't used it much. I was making some coffee mugs, using the tall stainless insert, and was trying everything in my inventory to work the deep hollowing.

I finally got to the swan neck Woodcut, and dove in with it. It was really sharp, and before I knew it, it pulled a very deep cut to the side, nearly going through. That ruined the blank for the travel meg, so a redesign in order there.

Most recently I have made an articulated (snake) hollowing system, so will hog out the waste wood with replaceable tool steel inserts, and finish with a Hunter tool or shear scraper.

Bob

 

[Vaughn]

The only reason the link is visible is due to the web devs capturing the "from" URL, or origin site when you click through. If you navigate to the hollower via their front page you won't see any URL's on the page.

Unless they've had a web team change, woodworkers supply has had a challenging website for years. Several elements are still buggy and I suspect this is just one of many issues they have.

I've heard good things about the system, but have no personal experience.

michael

Thanks...you said what I was trying to say. "Challenging website" was very polite way of putting things. My guess is that the site developers are good woodworkers.

Odie, if you look at the URL that's being added to the WS page, you'll see it's not even a link...just the URL in text form. No real way that could be used as a sales tool, since it's only being seen by folks who click on the link that got them there. (Either Ben's or mine.) The average Joe who sees that page via any other route would not see the URL.

 

[hughie]

I have a Proforme for several years now and it gets allot of use in hollow forms.
As to sharpening I use a diamond file and just run around the outside of the cutter.

As I do a fair bit of green turning/roughing I use a bigger gap 1mm+ and up to 1.5mm. The only draw back here with this setting on green timber it will tend to auto feed or draw the tool into the timber. But once your aware of this tendency its no longer is a problem.

Great tool, I intend to get a second one in the near future and set them up one open or coarse for wet timber and a fine setting for dry and finishing.

 

[Jim Lee]

woodcut pro-forme clogging issues

Thanks Hughie. Are you having any problems with clogging between the blade and the guide on top? I have. Bob reports the same problems. The only possible fix that I can think of is to use washers to raise the guide high enough so that there is more vertical clearance above the blade. Have you had any problems with clogging?

I am working with all green wood. The only problem I see with opening up the gap horizontally is the issue of it autofeeding on sidegrain. I am hoping that with experience I can overcome that. It works perfectly on end grain...no autofeeding problems there.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

[hughie]

Hi Jim,

I use mine for hogging out green timber as well. Woodcut recommend 1.5mm gap for green timber ( 0.059"). I find the auto feeding is relative to your rpm and not that hard to control. A bit startling first time around though.

I have packed mine up about 1mm (0.040") as it does tend to clog. If you lift the bronze guard up and lessen the cutting gap it works better for the clogging problem. But you have sacrificed material removal speed, for me I prefer to have the speed where possible. As I often get a great deal of green timber and try and rough as much as possible.

All in all I like the Proforme and is serves me well. I still have gouges. Oland type, cup cutters and the rest of range etc and they get used.

 

[Wipedout]

Jim Lee........

Can you tell us why your link includes a link at the Woodworker's Supply catalog page to this thread?

It looks to me like they intend to use this thread as a sales tool for the pro-forme hollower.

Sorry, but I'm a little skeptical when commercial interests might be using private discussion as a sales lever.......honest evaluation may be influenced by such knowledge.

ooc

Odie

Obviously in this day and age you have a good reason to be skeptical

A look at the source code on the page shows they are capturing breadcrumbs - basically seeing where things are linked from - it probably is going into a report so they can see where the traffic to there website comes from.

It is a very common practice to capture this information as well as what search terms were used etc - it may not even be intentional by Woodworkers supply - I help a world famous turner with his site and the hosting company offers that free as part of the hosting service. I didn't even need to do anything in the website design to utilize it - it shows the top referring sites, search terms used, countries visitors are coming from etc.

Problem with Woodworkers supply site is this breadcrumb info should be invisible but its not - span id = 'breadcrumbs' is the coding in the site

Robert

 

[Jim Carroll]

In use I have the cutter exposed to about 3/4 of a mill for rough cuts.

Try not to lift the guard any higher as this gives an more open cut and more chance for catches.

The clogging will self clear when you push the cutter into the wood even green timber, the exception to this is fibrousy types which will clog anything.

Start with vases so you can learn to see what the cutter will do then adjust the cutter in for finer cuts to the point of 1/4 mill for a burnishing cut

Also by doing vases you learn to hear what the cutter is doing so when you do a hollow form you can tell when the walls are getting thinner by the sound.

Hold the tool in your arm and tucked into your body and learn to sway with the tool, put your left hand on top of the tool on the toolrest just for stability. Your right arm will give you control and you will find this easier than using jigs etc.

For sharpening I use a diamond lap on the outside and a round diamond file on the inside.

If damaged you can resharpen on your Tormek grinder using the torlock table.

 

[Jim Lee]

Pro-forme hollower clogging issues follow up

Thanks very much all Pro-forme users who have responded. I now seem to be having a real problem with what I think is clogging. It is hard for me to tell because as soon as I start cutting it always looks clogged between the cutter and the guide. Then again I have experimented with removing the guide completely and it sometimes still does not cut. I must be doing something wrong because I have raised the guide with a two washers so there is substantially more of a gap there but it still appears to be clogged...even though it will often cut. My main problem is that whatever I am doing is making it cut inconsistently. It will cut very nicely, then not cut in the same piece for no apparent reason. I am keeping it at my lowest rpm (about 500) and am making sure that the cutter is at 9 o'clock and right on the centerline. I have also experiemented by putting the cutter down to 8 o'clock and points between 8 and 9. When it cuts it cut really well. No catches or other excitement but the problem is that I don't know when it is going to cut. Sometimes it will cut here but not there. I do not know for sure the kind of wood that I am cutting but my best guess is that it is one of the lighter Maples. I guess I would call it fiberous but I don't have alot of different woods to compare it to. It cuts very easily with my gouges.

I am following the instructions that came with it by moving the tool horizontally with my Jamieson-ian rig. Tomorrow I will be trying using another type of wood and free hand.

Thanks very much for all the help.

Jim Lee