Turn a cylinder with a hole in it?

[Dan Stuewe]

If you get the monthly free download from Wood magazine, you'll know the project I'm asking about (this month's "Turned Teleidoscope"). If you don't know what the project is, I'll try to explain it. Basically you glue up a turning blank out of three pieces of 3/4" wood that are edge-glued to form a triangular tube (the edges are beveled at 30deg to create the glue surfaces).

With me so far?

So the triangular tube is mounted on the lathe with a kind of jam chuck on the drive side (turn a tenon on a scrap piece that is attached to a faceplate). My problem is the plans do not discuss the tail stock side. In the drawings they show the live center simply pushed into the hole. The live center looks a cone shaped live center. All I have right now is the cup center with the pointy insert that came with my JET 1236. Can I use my current live center some how? Is the cone shaped center the way to go? Is there another technique I can look into?

BTW, if you haven't seen this item, they did a great job with it. It looks like a great gift or high-end craft sale item!

Thanks for any help,

[Randy Miller]

Basically, you want to set the tailstock into a hollow item?

If that's the case, I would take a 3/4 inch piece of scrap ply, turn it into circle and "cap" the hollow end. Use this cap to receive the live center. You shouldn't have to glue it, in fact you could build it just like a jam chuck, but I don't think you would need that much accuracy.

The other alternative is make the cap out of a cone (just like your jam chuck) and just hold it in place with the tailstock.

Hope this helps!
Randy

[keith zimmerman]

You could turn a short cylinder, then cut a triangle on one end that fits into the Teleidoscope, then place it into the tailstock end of the cylinder and use your existing live center to hold it.

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Dan

A slight variation on Randy's idea would be to turn a cone that fits over your live center. If you get a good fit, you can keep it and use it for numerous applications.

Bill