Woodturners are some of the nicest people in the world! Of course everyone here already knows that, but here's one more story to back it up....
A few months ago Ernie Nyvall sent me a PM asking for the dimensions of my Oliver lathe. He told me his brother-in-law had just bought an Oliver and he wanted to build him some accessories as a surprise. I sent him the measurements he wanted and in return he sent me a big chunk of mesquite as a thank you. What a nice guy! But that's just the start of the story. A couple weeks ago I came home from work and there was another really heavy box on my front porch that the mailman had left, with Ernie's return address again. I thought to myself "Man Ernie, you don't have to keep sending me wood". Well I opened up the box and it wasn't wood at all. It was a custom built captured hollowing system to fit my Oliver. Secondary tool rest, D-handle, 3/4" and 1/2" boring bars with cutters and a 1/2" swan neck bar, the whole schebang! Seems like Ernie was telling a little story about the brother-in-law. Now you also have to know that I've never even met Ernie. I've known him through some woodturning forums, including here, but we live 1500 miles apart and odds are we never will actually meet up. But somewhere he's heard me whine about how I love hollowforms but hate turning them because I have to turn them by hand and I'm too much of a tightwad cheapskate to go out and buy a hollowing system. So just out of the kindness of his heart, and it's a big heart for sure, he built me a system. So if you ever have any doubt about the quality of the people that turn wood this is another example of how great they are. Thank you again Ernie!
Now, here's the first HF I've turned using my new Ernie Nyvall custom hollowing system. I've still got a lot of learning to do. I still managed to bugger up the opening and had to make it bigger than I wanted. This is kind of like re-learning how to turn for me. But it sure is a lot easier on the neck and shoulders than wrastling the guts out of one of these things with regular hand tools. This one is 6" x 9.5" to the top of the finial. I don't really have an exact measuring tool for wall thickness, but it's thinner, lighter, and more consistent than any HF I've ever done before. It's turned from a walnut log, pith in the center, dark wood towards the middle, light wood towards the outside. It has a small box elder burl ring and another box elder piece in the finial. Oiled with danish oil and sprayed with deft semi gloss. Still needs a little rub down in a few days.
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