Cole Jaws Donut

[Rick H]

There were some questions awhile back about the pins on the cole jaws not holding very well. So to solve this I thought why not incorporate a donut chuck onto the cole jaws. This thing works great. Start by clamping the bowl in the cole jaws, but it can be a light clamp because it is just to hold the bowl in position and keep it from spinning. Then put the donut on, I used some 2 1/2" bolts that are small enought to go through the cole jaw holes, then wing nuts on the back. I have found that with the 1/4" BB plywood donut I can use 2 - 4 bolts to hold the donut on. Everything is secure and ready to turn without the fear of the bowl flying away. I put the pattern on my web page under Cole Jaw Jigs as a PDF file.
You may also notice the blue pins. This is just short peices if 1/2" air hose over the regular pins. There is a range that the jaws will not fit certain bowl sizes. This makes the pins bigger to fill in that gap, I use the pins with or without the air hose as needed.

 

[john lucas]

Excellent idea Rick. I did sort of the same thing for an odd natural edge piece except I turned put a rounded block in the center with rubber on it to support the piece. I turned a tenon that fit in the middle of the chuck so the support piece would stay centered. the Bowl rests on this and the Doughnut holds it in position. If I can still find it I'll take a photo. I have the Doughnuts but I haven't used the center part in a long time.

 

[odie]

Ditto on great idea, Rick......

Suggest you put this in the "tips and tricks" forums. That way it'll stay for awhile before dropping off the end of the earth!

OOC

 

[waltben]

There's also the very un-elegant use of duct tape. Works great and it's not all that hard to remove any left over adhesive. Obviously you don't want to put any where you're going to turn though.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Great idea, Rick. Especially timely, with the recent discussion about troubles of cutting "a little way up the sides." (Considered pointless)

I've progressed from the plywood disk with mating groove and tape, missed the Cole jaws, made a couple Longworths (still use tape), and jam chuck for a NE. For the jam chuck, I used a newsprint core with one end turned to mate with the inside slope. The newsprint core could be added to your donut, I think. The inside of the newsprint core is pretty much a standard diameter, so centering it on a disk shouldn't be difficult.

Newsprint cores may be an endangered species, so best grab some while you can. A variety of end slopes can be turned from a single tube cut into short lengths, with cushioning to accommodate in-between slopes.

I second the motion of putting it in the Tips and Tricks.

Joe

 

[Matt Owen]

Nice idea, Rick. I've had trouble with stuff popping of the Cole jaws as well, and this would easily prevent that from happening again.

On a side note, I had the same problem you do with the Cole jaws not covering certain ranges. I contacted Tim Geist, and he told me to mail him the jaws so he could add extra holes. Now any size bowl will fit that is within the max. and min. range, and all it cost me was shipping to his place. The turnaround time was very quick, as well. I think it was only about a week. Tim is a great guy to work with.

Matt

 

[loberg]

I'm making the same thing from a plywood round found at a local hardware store. But I was going to use two with one having a nut chuck. The only change I would recommend is stapling a grip cloth to the plywood. This is the mat used for working with wood on a work bench, routing and such. You have saved me the time of building two donuts.

 

[hughie]

A good piece of lateral thinking. It gets my vote.




Joe, as to cores etc, check out your local packaging [candy,nuts etc ] company or maker of plastic bags etc. The rewind [plastic wrap] comes on cores still and is generally thrown away.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Thanks for the alternate, hughie. I was halfway joking about the endangered species of newsprint cores. There are probably more newspaper printers than packaging manufacturers, even now. In a pinch (or not), pvc pipe fittings also make nice turning accessories.

Joe

 

[GeorgeH]

Every once in a while I see something that makes me think, "why didn't I come up with that?" This is one of those times. Excellent idea.