Still new to turning and haven't figured it out yet (will I ever) so here goes: What methods are best for paring off the bottom of your turned piece where it was once held in the chuck or on the face plate etc. after it is otherwise completed on the lathe??
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paring off the end
- Thread starter gary7
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For most work the best solution is to reverse chuck it and turn the base.
For bowl turn a jam chuck from a block of waste wood. this is a bowl shape piece about a 1/3 to 1/4 the diameter of the bowl.
Put the bowl over the jam chuck with a pad (dense foam, leather, paper towel, etc) between the two wood surfaces and bring the tail stock up to hold the bowl in place. You will need to center the work so keep making slight ajustments in the tailsock position until it is running true.
turn away the face plate block or chuck mount.
The same process is used to true up a roughed out bowl for mounnting on a facelpate or chuck. the roughed out bowl can be reverse chuck directly on the jaws of the chuck since you will turn away any marks. Touching a pencil lightly to the faceplate block will leave a mark on the most off center part.
This reverse chucking method is simple, does not damage the rim and works well with etremely thin pieces too.
The same process is used for hollow forms but the jam chuck pieces need to be different
Happy Turning,
Al
For bowl turn a jam chuck from a block of waste wood. this is a bowl shape piece about a 1/3 to 1/4 the diameter of the bowl.
Put the bowl over the jam chuck with a pad (dense foam, leather, paper towel, etc) between the two wood surfaces and bring the tail stock up to hold the bowl in place. You will need to center the work so keep making slight ajustments in the tailsock position until it is running true.
turn away the face plate block or chuck mount.
The same process is used to true up a roughed out bowl for mounnting on a facelpate or chuck. the roughed out bowl can be reverse chuck directly on the jaws of the chuck since you will turn away any marks. Touching a pencil lightly to the faceplate block will leave a mark on the most off center part.
This reverse chucking method is simple, does not damage the rim and works well with etremely thin pieces too.
The same process is used for hollow forms but the jam chuck pieces need to be different
Happy Turning,
Al
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The only addition I'll make to Al's description is that, once the piece comes off the lathe from reverse chucking it, you'll still have a raised nib of wood where the tailstock rested. You'll need to carve/sand this off and bring it into true with the rest of the base.
Make sure you've cut deep enough on the base that you don't end up with a nice black dot after you've cleaned it up where the spike of the live center was. One way to avoid this is to knock out the center spike on your live center, if your's will let you do this, before chucking it up.
Dietrich
Make sure you've cut deep enough on the base that you don't end up with a nice black dot after you've cleaned it up where the spike of the live center was. One way to avoid this is to knock out the center spike on your live center, if your's will let you do this, before chucking it up.
Dietrich
Finishing the bottom of a bowl
I was doing some surfing of some woodworking sites and found the following --
The article this link pointes to is about making and using wooden faceplates.
Take a look at the section "Bowl Drive Plate" -- it shows a method of finishing the bottom of a turning.
I was doing some surfing of some woodworking sites and found the following --
The article this link pointes to is about making and using wooden faceplates.
Take a look at the section "Bowl Drive Plate" -- it shows a method of finishing the bottom of a turning.
That's a good article Gary. That's basically a jam chuck (compression fitting).
I do the same thing as Dietrich and Al. If you have the tailstock snugged up against the foot/base, then you can turn most of the rough foot away. Then you just have a small nib left over which can either be carved away or if you are really careful you can turn it down to a very small point which can be sanded off.
The tape method works good too. Similar to the picture in the article, just tape the piece to the chuck and turn off the foot. Take light cuts. One has to be careful since even a minor catch will pull the piece off the chuck. I usually use masking tape since it is cheaper and the cuts are pretty light.
I do the same thing as Dietrich and Al. If you have the tailstock snugged up against the foot/base, then you can turn most of the rough foot away. Then you just have a small nib left over which can either be carved away or if you are really careful you can turn it down to a very small point which can be sanded off.
The tape method works good too. Similar to the picture in the article, just tape the piece to the chuck and turn off the foot. Take light cuts. One has to be careful since even a minor catch will pull the piece off the chuck. I usually use masking tape since it is cheaper and the cuts are pretty light.
I think for a beginner it would work to use a parting tool and part off the base. Do this at an angle so the base will set level. I use a 1/8" parting tool, 1/16" parting and a parting tool with an grooved edge that will leave a clean cut. Your base should be approx 1/3 of diameter. Again on the base your outer edge portion will be flat for say a 1/4", then from there you will starting parting at an angle to undercut. Finishing the base with a 1" sanding disc works great. GT
home made compression chuck: Grumbine Version?
Thank you to everyone who has thus far replied to my question. Have done more research and came up with the following as I checked Bill Grumbine’s article on his website with a home made compression chuck. http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/bowljig.html Thank you Bill. New question: Any reason this thing would not work on a tall vessel like a vase or even a goblet? You could cut the outer disc in half. Then, you could add an extra bolt, putting two into each of the two halves of the outer disc. This outer disc would be cut in half permitting you to put around the small goblet if the hole was too small to slip the work piece through. Of course you would also probably need some additional simple brace screwed onto and across the halved disc to keep them together which would be placed on the either side of the disc. Would this work?
Thank you to everyone who has thus far replied to my question. Have done more research and came up with the following as I checked Bill Grumbine’s article on his website with a home made compression chuck. http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/bowljig.html Thank you Bill. New question: Any reason this thing would not work on a tall vessel like a vase or even a goblet? You could cut the outer disc in half. Then, you could add an extra bolt, putting two into each of the two halves of the outer disc. This outer disc would be cut in half permitting you to put around the small goblet if the hole was too small to slip the work piece through. Of course you would also probably need some additional simple brace screwed onto and across the halved disc to keep them together which would be placed on the either side of the disc. Would this work?
Of course compression chucks do not work on natural edge bowls. For goblets you can use the parting technique I described. I have button and cole jaws to work on the bottom of straight edge bowl tops. I also reverse turn using molds I made to fit inside of different bowls even goblets. There is many ways to do bottoms. You need to learn them all. GT