I have always found it a pain to clear the shavings from my HFs when hollowing them. I've tried all kinds of things from large spindle gouges to scoop them out, shop vac at the opening, unscrewing the chuck and shaking them out. Several methods are effective, but none of them were convenient.
I've been thinking about something like this for a while and finally got around to making one. Took me about 15-20 min including R&D. Not sure if there is something commercially available that does the same thing, but this thing cost me nothing but a little time and some scrap materials I had on hand.
I started with a piece of scrap pecan that was already the right size - just lucky on that. Saved me a couple minutes roughing out. I cut a shallow tenon on one end so that I could hold it in the chuck. Trued up one end and cut a recess that was a snug fit for the end of my shop vac hose.
I then cut a small hole in the center that was a tight fit for a piece of scrap 1/2" PVC pipe. I would have used 3/4", but didn't have any on hand.
At this point I thought I was done. I fired up the vac and tried it out on a HF. Worked well, but was afraid the restricted suction would do bad things to the vac motor. Drilled some relief holes and now it sounds a lot less labored. 3/4" pipe would probably have less problems in this area.
Then I discovered I had trouble getting shavings near the rim. Fired up the burner on the stove and carefully heated the end of the PVC until it was soft enough to bend easily. Shaped the end and allowed to cool. Cut a nice angle on the end and now it works like a champ.
Hope this may helps some of ya'll out there.
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