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Chucking help.

Glenn Lefley

Glenn Lefley

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Jul 10, 2017
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So I’ve did everything to my stronghold chuck people have suggested. Taking apart, back together, everything tight, aligns nice, etc.

Now I need some more help. Would like to make a sort of wall hanging only would like to put two rods through bottom and mount to a base. It’s a piece of malle Burl and need chucking advice. Would like to finish both sides. So no faceplate to attach to lathe. I do have a vacuum attachment on my lathe with a 5 inch drum, but have not set up or ever used.

How would I go about mounting on lathe to finish both sides. There are some cracks through wood so don’t know how vacuum would hold if went that route. Also I have never put a waste block on a piece.

What would you suggest for a sequence of holding this piece. It is 16 inch at the largest by 1 7/8 thick.
 
Hi Glenn,
I actually just finished one that is maple burl with an offset bowl in it.I used a face plate with screws that had the tips ground down to start. I know you do not want to use a face plate but I think that shape lends itself to some added danger. For me I had to turn at very low rpm.I had thought about a glue block but felt it was to dangerous to be comfortable with it. Beautiful piece of wood you have there.
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You could screw a wood round onto a face plate and turn it true and then hot glue the wood face plate onto your wood billet. With a large surface area of hot glue it should provide sufficient mounting for the piece. You can use a heat gun to heat it up after turning the piece to remove the face plate. Use a razor blade to clean the left over hot glue from your wood piece and a light sanding to remove any remnants of glue.
 
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Mike Johnson said:
You could screw a wood round onto a face plate and turn it true and then hot glue the wood face plate onto your wood billet. With a large surface area of hot glue it should provide sufficient mounting for the piece. You can use a heat gun to heat it up after turning the piece to remove the face plate. Use a razor blade to clean the left over hot glue from your wood piece and a light sanding to remove any remnants of glue.
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I thought of that but have hard time with hot glue in my mind. Is it really strong enough and the surface of the mallee would get glue in it being hard to remove.
 
I’m know people in the past have mentioned external holding , like a large plywood round on a face plate and then strapping to hold around outside to finish Center. I quess in my mind I need advice on all the different steps to chuck and hold this without any screw penetrations in the wood. Up for any out of the box solutions.
 
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Glenn Lefley said:
What would you suggest for a sequence of holding this piece. It is 16 inch at the largest by 1 7/8 thick.
Click to expand...

Holding options and Sequencing are dictated by the design. And how far off center you plan to go and how many centers you will turn from.

First step is to sketch out a design which will tell you how many centers and where they are relative to the center of mass.
A backing board is useful if you are making a sculptured surface with lots of offset arcs cut into the surface or through holes in various places.
You can position the piece on the board for each center and hold it in place with steel bands screwed to the backing board and add counter weights to the backing board.

One method of attack is rough turn it into a piece that is more or less balanced.
Your blank is fairly symmetrical so if you keep it centered is should respond to most holding methods used for bowls. a winged bowl like Glens piece you could
- screw chuck into the bowl opening. Near the center of one side.o
- Shape the back, make the tenon, turn the bottom of the wing. Routgh the top of the so that the wing is about a 1/2” thick, A this point is will be pretty well balanced with most of the weight inside the to be bowl
- put it in the chuck, finish the wing, hollow the bowl
- reverse chuck at low speed and turn away the tenon.


If you use a chuck you can turn designs on the top of the tenon then when reverse chucking you just turn the edge of the tenon into the design.
 
Another possible option would be a large diameter cole chuck that would hold the other edge and allow you to flip the round over and finish both sides. You can make a poor mans cole chuck with a face plate and turn a large diameter plywood face plate and use rubber stoppers around the outer edge to secure your wood piece. If you have cole jaws that attach to your bowl chuck you can make extensions to reach out 16" to 18" if needed.
 
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