Making the swan neck tool.
Another in your arsenal of hollowing tools.
"It brings a whole new meaning to 'necking'."
| I recently tried a few methods of making a swan neck hollowing tool. A while ago I had made one of 3/8" diameter, but I wanted one of 1/2" diameter to reduce chatter in vessels over 5" in depth. I began with a piece of 1/2" cold rolled steel and prepared a sketch of the desired tool. The first couple of inches I wanted straight to facilitate the drilling of a hole for the cutting tip. I also planned to have the tip in line with the center line of the handle. |
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| The sketch was transferred to a block of maple and cut out on the bandsaw. |
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| I dropped it into my bench vise and squeezed it into the form. The vise was easily repaired. There is a lot of pressure required for a cold bend like this. |
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| As I had a six ton hydraulic jack on hand I decided to try it with a home made press. So far the budget was really nothing except the length of rod. I splurged on a length of 3/4" all thread and some nuts and washers. I had some square steel tubing on hand but I could have used galvanized pipe and later used it for pipe clamps or for tool handles. The make up of the press is pretty self explanatory from the pictures. |
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| In goes the steel and the jack is slowly raised for the first bend. |
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| Some careful positioning and the second bend is accomplished. |
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| Then I checked it with my sketch and realized a bit of tweaking was needed. I decided to bend it a bit at the point where the arrow directs. |
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| I fiddled a bit with the blocks first to make them easier to handle and was ready to go. |
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| Now that looks much better. |
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© 2006 copyright Darrell Feltmate, Around the Woods, Wood Turning Techniques