Anyone use a Steb Drive?

[Burt Alcantara]

I'm finding that my drive centers are slipping in my new 3520b. Also, they are chewing thru the green wood blanks. I noticed on the CS site that they have a Steb Drive that fits into a chuck. I like that idea.

StubbyLathe has a huge drive center that fits OVER the spindle and Best Woods sells a chuck specific drive center.

If you have one of these, how well does it work?

Thanks,
Burt

[Cyril Griesbach]

Burt, I use the Sorby Steb drives and like them a lot. I have both the one that goes in the chuck and another with a #2MT.

I think that PSI sell a knock off version of them for a lot less money but I have no experience with them of knowledge of their quality.

[Wilbur Pan]

I have a Stebcenter, the one with the morse taper. But the Stebdrive that goes into the chuck should perform identically.

It grips the wood like a mother, green or dry.

[Gordon Seto]

I have all 3 sizes of the Steb centers and the Stubby. Nothing beats the Stubby on green wood. If the unbalanced large blank causes your MT center to slip, it would mess up the Morse Taper also. As explained in the Bill Grumbine dvd, he uses the jumbo adapter for the chuck.
Another advantage of the Stubby is it can be used as a 4 or 2 prong drive (very good for natural edge turning).

[Bob Hallowell]

I have the psi version that fits in my chuck and it is about the only drive center I use.

[It grips the wood like a mother, green or dry.[/quote]
This brings bad thoughts to my head, and kind makes me sick:eek:

Bob

[Montgomery Scott]

I have the 1-1/4 sorby that I purchased to deal with hard woods like African blackwood, ebony and cocobolo. It's a lot easier, and better IMO, than putting saw cuts for the spur drive. For softer woods, like walnut I prefer a spur drive to avoid the spinning problem.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Don't you guys beat the spur into the wood? I used to have slip problems, until I went to a seminar, where the turner absolutely beat that spur into the wood. I realize that the 3520 is one powerful machine, but the turner did stop the 16" JET he was turning on and made the belt squeal.... I was glad to see pros get catches too.

[Scott Conners]

I love my PSI steb centers, I use them pretty much exclusively.

[Burt Alcantara]

I ordered the 1" PSI center but am keeping an eye on the Stubby 2" configurable along with the others.

Burt

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I'm a little late in here Burt, but what I would use rather than a steb center (not the right driver for bowl blanks) is a small faceplate, take two bolts (about 2 inch long) that fit the holes in the faceplate and 2 nuts for each bolt.
cut off the bolt heads off and sharpen the bolts, then screw one nut on the bolt and stick the bolt through the faceplate, add the other nut and tighten down same with the other bold, NOW you have a bowl blank driver that works.
Center it and hammer it into your blank and mount, a non-slip drive, have fun :D

[Bernie Weishapl]

I use my 1/2" and 1" all the time.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I use my 1/2" and 1" all the time.

Hi Bernie, yes you might, but,.... you are probably a more experienced turner, also what size blanks are we talking about, it makes a big difference if we talk 8 or 9 inch dry wood or a 12" wet blank with the bark still on it, the soft sapwood will very easily get a stebcenter to loose grip, I have and use the stebcenter on my Delta midi, bought it especially to have no chuck or large spur center in my way, but I know with a large wet blank setting it up for a natural edge turning the stebcenter is not going to do the job on the barkside in the sapwood, a faceplate like the one shown will do a very good job of spinning a blank like that, that's just my experience

[Burt Alcantara]

Leo,
Your idea is very interesting. I'll give it a go and see how it works. For the past year I've been turning dry blanks. Don't know why. Just worked out that way. Recently, I came into a huge pile of green wood. I found my drive centers, 4 bladed, aren't up to the task.

Burt

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Not my idea Burt, been around for a while, just regurgitated :eek: :D

[John Shuk]

I use a steb for spindles and like it alot.

[terry richards]

I use the PSI clone of the Steb in the 1" version. Love it.

If you want to stay with the spur, you can put a couple of drops of thin CA glue on the end grain. Let it dry. Then, when you insert the spur blades, they will have stronger grain to bite on, and usually slip less.

[Craig Powers]

what is a 2 in stubby drive? who sells them?
Thanks.

[Gordon Seto]

[/URL]
what is a 2 in stubby drive? who sells them?
Thanks.

[URL]http://stubbylatheusa.com/Convertible_Drive_Center.100.pdf (http://stubbylatheusa.com/Convertible_Drive_Center.100.pdf)

[Craig Powers]

Thanks Gordon. Looks interesting.