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Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998

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Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

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Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#1

Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

Dick Coers

I'm working my way through a DVD by Jeff Salter on his cable spiraling system. (review to be sent to Ellis soon) There's a nice mention of his laser hollowing guide that is just as clever as his spiraling cable system. I've not seen this before and thought it might be of interest to others. It's a system that lets you dial a new location of the laser to compensate for bringing the laser perpendicular to the cutter location. It's really clever, but I have not seen it in person. I have never met Jeff and haven't seen this in person, so no idea how it works under vibration. Anyone have one of these?


http://jeffsturnedwood.com/EasyTracker.html

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#2

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide

john lucas

Yea it is wonderful. I sketched it a few years ago and intended to build it but just haven't had the need. Now that TV monitor method is out if I get that running I may not use the laser anymore.

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#3

Lyle Jamieson

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide

Lyle Jamieson

John, do you use dedicated cutter position tips on your boring bars??

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#4

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide

Jeff Willaford

Jeff is from an aerospace background and has done some great work with turnings and with his rig for spiral turnings. I got to meet him a few years ago at the North Carolina Symposium. Saw him again when he was demoing for one of the lathe manufacturers at the AAW Hartford symposium. Nice guy but that's just my opinion.

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#5

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide

john lucas

No. I don't do a lot of hollowing and I built the bars before I really knew what I was doing so each one is a different length. I keep thinking I'll redo them someday but you know you get started on the project, get frustrate a little by having to constantly adjust the laser and then next thing you know your done and move on to the next project and the hollowing problems are forgotten. Maybe if I see you at the TAW symposium you can tell me what to do about it. I am probably going to be hollowing more this year since several of my projects require it.

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#6

Re: I have one

mike foster

I have one of the few that Jeff had made and sold. I believe he did a short production run, but never took it that extra step to actually market and sell them on a larger scale. I saw a post on his rig soon after he made it and contacted him to get one. It is really a slick system and works much better than a laser pointer alone. I use it some still, but have gone on to using my iPhone and a video system that Alan Zenrich devised. It is a fairly simple setup, and does not cost a ton like some that are on the market, but works even better than Jeff Salter's rig. No guessing about where the cutter is and no need to re-angulate the cutter/laser as the wall angles change. I have not been doing a lot of HF's lately, but the video system is now my go to when I am doing a HF.

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide *LINK*

#7

Lyle Jamieson

Re: Jeff Salter's Easy Tracker laser guide

Lyle Jamieson

I asked about the cutter because I use a swivel tip cutter assembly to have an infinite range of positions to do any shape I want. When you move the swivel, or in your case switch the boring bars, you need to move the laser. And it needs to be moved often to make the measurement perpendicular to the wall. Look at my laser system. Lasers need to be set easy, quick and accurate. Most of the copy-cat systems out there have lasers that are a pain to set. I set mine in 3 seconds and with great accuracy. The TV monitor or an Easy tracker will have to be moved every time the cutter moves. (I can not see in the photos how it can be moved to side-by side and in and out to adapt to different boring bars) Unless you use ONLY one boring bar with a dedicated position cutter you will go nuts setting the camera and drawing a new arc line on the screen.