Thread: Lathes

Originally Posted by Silents

Ok, help a guy out as I'm obviously new to this. What is a chuck, drill chuck...? And someone mentioned appropriate sized jaws?

I'm lost, thanks for all the help here guys.

Chucks are the tools that hold your material. Jaw chucks are vice grip style chucks. These chucks are very similar to a drill chuck in the sense that they both hold an item centered and turn the item. Both have chuck keys and holes. Both should be made of quality hard steel.

Google image the term Jaw Chuck or Lathe Chuck. You will see the many types and sizes that are available.

Guys, I live in NYC and am limited in choices by the size of my apartment and the local amount of used lathes for sale. People here look at me like I'm out of my mind when I ask about lathes in a hardware store. I've searched Craig's List and the only ones for sale are well over $1500.

Originally Posted by Silents

Ok, help a guy out as I'm obviously new to this. What is a chuck, drill chuck...? And someone mentioned appropriate sized jaws?

I'm lost, thanks for all the help here guys.

You need chucks to hold your workpieces,depending on what your turning they come in differant configurations.

Lots of great stuff and info here: Oneway Manufacturing

Also just a hint, much like this hobby there are several Turning Forums out there

I learned a ton by asking questions here

The Woodturning Forum - Woodturner's Resource - Index

BTW Youtube is your friend there a so many vids it is crazy

Here are some photos that show what we are talking about. #1-Some of my brushes
2 - Sandpaper strips, 3-Misc. tooling, 4-Chisels, 5-more misc., 6-setup with chuck and live center, 7-drill chuck in tailstock - used with Forsner bit to drill hole for brush, 8-Lathe -cheap Harbor Freight -the last one lasted 4 years, 9-closeup of chuck.

Wood turning comes with an immense number of bits and bobs that's for sure. There are also a few ways to do most tasks. To turn brush handles I would probably want a medium sized set of jaws to turn most of the outside and the space to glue the knot, then I'd flip it around and hold the piece with a smaller set of jaws on the inside of the knot recess while I turn the bottom of the handle. I'm sure there are numerous other schemes but that one seems the least prone to worrying about marring your work with the jaws.

I keep meaning to look up the small jaws for my chuck so I can give this a shot. I mainly turn bowls.

Since I have a metal lathe also,what I do is turn,bore,sand, polish all, on the wood lathe.
Than chuck the brush handle in the south bend and use a cutoff bit,If nice and sharp you get a near finished,perfectally square flat bottom.
I have hardwood dowels I turned for the various size bores that afford a tight fit,force the handle onto the dowel,sand and polish the bottom.
Many ways to do it.

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

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I have hardwood dowels I turned for the various size bores that afford a tight fit,force the handle onto the dowel,sand and polish the bottom.
Many ways to do it.

I have used the dowel system myself Gerritt showed me how at one of the Yakima meets.. It is very safe and very solid... I have a set of small jaws that work also by expanding from inside the hole, but sometimes I think the dowels are safer...

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I have used the dowel system myself Gerritt showed me how at one of the Yakima meets.. It is very safe and very solid... I have a set of small jaws that work also by expanding from inside the hole, but sometimes I think the dowels are safer...

Agreed,you get a pretty firm fit with a dowel,you can also use deepwell sockets,sometimes with a little tape wrapped around the end (sorry for using the T word