Hollowing Noise???

Carole in VA asked: Is it normal for the hollowing process to sometimes be very loud, or am I all of a sudden doing something wrong? This one small Box Elder vessel I am working on is driving me nuts…I need ear protection from the screeching! The tool (Stinger) seems to be cutting well, but, good grief, it's loud.

Dick Hines: My Kelton rig gets right loud when hollowing dry wood. At present I am working on a dry piece of big leaf maple burl and I don't think I will be dosing off while working on it. If you think about it when you a hollowing out a piece of wood you are making a loud speaker. The noise is amplified inside the walls of the form. And you are scraping and not as getting a clean cut as when you are using a skew or gouge.

Bill Grumbine: Call me a sissy pants, but I clap on my hearing protectors when I get out the hollowing tools. Of course, if you persist long enough, the noise won't seem so bothersome…

Russ Fairfield: Spray a little water on the wood, just enough to dampen the surface, and the noise will be less.

Mark Kauder: You will find that placing the bowl steady opposite where your tool pressure is (backside of the lathe if cutting on the outside—frontside if cutting on the inside) will cut the noise/vibration. However, with hollowing, I really like a fully captured vessel. As such, I have two Oneway Bowl steadies that I stack so that I have one on each side, capturing the piece. I think you will find that you can cut more aggressively, safely, when you have the bowl captured. I just bought the two Oneways, rather than make a new one for my Vega (already made one for my Jet Mini, because it was cheaper than buying a ready-made one) and I did not have the time to make my own.