I'm making a piece which will be donated to my local woodturning club for an upcoming event. I decided to do a hollow torrus and selected a nice chunk of Big Leaf Maple burl.
This was my blank. Roughly 9" X 9" X 3.5" It was part of a much larger (900 pound) burl I purchased just under 2 years ago. This is the first major turning from that wood.
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The blank was place between centers and the basic profile was turned. A recess was turned on one face so that I can expand a chuck into the recess and get access to the other side. A second recess is turned on the other side so that the piece can be flipped over so that I can hollow it from both sides for complete access.
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Once both recesses were turned I was able to finish the outer profile by turning a hole through the middle. Essentially I start by turning a doughnut. Then a groove is turned in the center. I used a small swan neck scraper to turn this groove, it's just over 1" wide and will give me access to the rest of the inside of the form. To do the hollowing I use a Jamieson type captured hollowing rig. The bar is 3/4" solid steel and I use both a 3/16" square HSS articulated tip and a 1" round HSS scraper bit. The piece is periodically removed from the chuck and flipped over to get access to the rest of the inside.
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Most of the hollowing is now done. I'm having a bit of trouble reaching the extreme outside edge of the inside with my current tools but I have a couple more things to try. On the plus side this void will be very useful to get the wall thickness where I want.
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I still have some hollowing to do and then I have to remove the recesses from both sides. To be continued...
Jason
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