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any harm?

C

cwearing

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Is it OK to give several bangs with a hammer to facilite seating of wood into a 4 prong drive center that is seated in the headstock? Will this cause issues with the bearings?
 
Nope. They're not made to take stress in that direction. Best answer, as I see it, is to get a two-bladed drive center and make a saw kerf. Positive seating first time, especially when the center is prepunched. Making kerfs at 90 degrees is what, when I use my four-blade center, often calls for macroadjustment.
 
Best bet is to remove the drive center. then drive it home with a soft mallet. Put it back in the lathe and then put the wood on. The center will seat right back in the holes you just made and drive the wood quite nicely.
I have a powermatic 3520 so what I do is put the wood in place. The lock the spindle. then I rock the wood as I tighten the handwheel. that seats the drive spur quite nicely and I don't have to beat it with a hammer. My Delta Midi won't do that so I use the mallet system.
 
john lucas said:
Best bet is to remove the drive center. then drive it home with a soft mallet. Put it back in the lathe and then put the wood on. The center will seat right back in the holes you just made and drive the wood quite nicely.
I have a powermatic 3520 so what I do is put the wood in place. The lock the spindle. then I rock the wood as I tighten the handwheel. that seats the drive spur quite nicely and I don't have to beat it with a hammer. My Delta Midi won't do that so I use the mallet system.
Click to expand...
This is exactly how it should be done. You may damage your bearings or your taper in the head and tailstock. It makes removing the tapers tougher and you end up needing a mallet and knockout rod.
 
Drive

The best thing I ever did was to purchase a dedicated drive center exactly like the one in my lathe to mark the ends of my turning stock. I used one for 11 years while turning on a Oneway lathe and I used a hammer to seat it. I never used it in the headstock, only to mark the ends of turning stock.
Every lathe I have ever owned, I've done the same thing. A very small investment to keep your main drive in pristeen condition.
Jim
 
cwearing said:
Is it OK to give several bangs with a hammer to facilite seating of wood into a 4 prong drive center that is seated in the headstock? Will this cause issues with the bearings?
Click to expand...

Each whack that you give it will cause cumulative damage to the bearing assembly -- see the fourth presentation chart about brinelling failure in this link:
Bearing Failure Presentation
Bearings are rugged, but only when handled properly. Bearing failures are usually insidious so sometimes people think that everything must be OK if the bearing doesn't immediately fail following abuse.

You didn't ask about the Morse taper socket in the spindle, but hammering a drive taper into it will damage it also.

I don't try to turn wood on an anvil and neither do I beat on my lathe.
 
Dang All this time I thought the lathe bed made a pretty good anvil. Haven't turned with the anvil but have thought about dropping the anvil on a few turnings. 🙂
 
I drive my 4 prong center into the blank with a wooden carving mallet and then pick up the blank and slide the taper in place and bring up the tail stock.
If rarely falls out. If it does I drive it in again.
I keep the spurs sharp and set them at 45 degrees to the grain so the bite evenly
As I turn I continually tighten the tailstock as the turning forces let the spur and tail centers work deeper into the wood. The slack has to be taken up or the spur becomes a 4 bladed spade bit.

When I teach beginning bowl turning the first project is a carving mallet. The large spindle let's the students get comfortable with the lathe, gouge, and fundamental technique. It is great experience to turn a carving mallet and hill the end so it will stand ready for use.

My rule is to never pound on cast Iron. I don't set a bowl blank on cast iron ways an pound the center in. Cast Iron is an amazing and somewhat fickle material. Most days you can drop a cast iron lathered off a 10 story building and it will just break up the concrete it hits
Another day a ten year old could hit it with a tack hammer and crack it.
I have seen too many cracked castings to take a chance.

Bang on a headstock and you might just crack the casting.

Happy turning,,
Al
 
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I drive the drive center into the wood with a plastic mallet. Never Ever drive the center into the lathe. Besides damaging bearings you can also damage the MT inside the spindle.
To me: Hammer and lathe not good together.
 
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