It ain't pretty...

[Kathy Marshall]

But with a little more tweaking, I think it will get the job done.
With my venture into carving on turnings, I started looking around for a carving stand to make things a little easier. The only one I found (I didn't look all that hard) was the one made by Trent Bosch. Trent's stand looks like it's very well made with a full range of motion and an easy locking system, but after forking over a big chunk of cash on my Foredom system I wasn't prepared to fork over another big chunk of cash.
So the gears started spinning as I tried to think of something I could make very cheap, which would also get the job done (at least better than trying to carve with the chuck on the lathe spindle).
And this is what I came up with. It uses a ball and coupler from a hitch (got these free at work from the scrap pile), 2 1 x 8 tpi bolts, a 5/16 piece of threaded rod and a t-handle. Cost for the bolts, rod and t-handle was about $11.00.
It's got decent range of motion with full rotation and a twist of the knob locks it in the desired position. One of the bolts is welded to the top of the coupler (which is the bottom in this use) and fits into the banjo. The shank from the hitch ball was cut off and the other bolt welded on for the chuck to be mounted on. This bolt is about 2" too long. They were out of the shorter lengths, so I went with what they had.
I'll take it back to work next week and cut out the section of the bolt that's showing and then weld the end of the bolt back on. I thought about just cutting the bolt down by about 2", but there's the risk of damaging the threads and this way I know the threads will remain intact. I'll also get out the grinder and try taking the sides of the coupler down a little and also narrow down the neck of the ball, and that will give me a little more range of motion which is limited by where the ball neck contacts the coupler sides.

Like the title says, "it ain't pretty", but you can't beat the price .
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Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques are welcome.

[Jon Prouty]

Way to go Kathy! Very slick and I love the thrifty-ness of your solution! You should make a few to sell!

After asking you about your Foredom, I ended up finding a Foredom and a Ryobi carver on CL and I've been thinking about a carving stand the last day so your post is timely!

Been looking at burrs too - my foredom didn't come with any so I gotta shop for some. Seems Woodcraft doesn't have Typhoon or Saburr versions so I'll be ordering some online. Have you found any of the burrs to be more useful than others? Thanks!

Jon

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

Kathy,
You are right. It ain't pretty. But it will work and it is ingenious. If the ball stays tight enough to take the pushing you will do it will work as well as any other carving vise and better than some I've seen. Good job.
faust

[Bernie Weishapl]

It may not be purdy but it sure looks like it works well. Great idea.

[ray hampton]

If it works ,then it are purdy

[Rick Markham]

That looks like the perfect tool to me, who cares what it looks like! Pretty clever design there. It's times like these that remind me I need to learn to weld.

[Mike Cruz]

You know what they say about necessity and invention... Great job, Kathy!

[Michelle Rich]

Pretty is as pretty does. If it works, it's gorgeous!! I made a carving holder too ,years ago & will post it too as a cheap alternative to the very expensive ones. Not as clever as yours, but cheap & it works. Thanks for posting this.

[neil mackay]

An excellent bit of lateral thinking, well done! Simple, effective and low cost what more could you ask for?
I did something simlar and necked the daimeter between the ball and the bolt head down to around 3/4" and got heaps of more moverment.

[Scott Lux]

I've seen a bowling ball used as the base for a carving vise too. All very clever ideas.