Jim Underwood
04-30-2009, 7:56 PM
In the end, the solution was rather simple... although it took me til the last two shafts to implement it.
I muddled through my order for these batons, by just cutting slow and tedious, using my fingers for the steady. I meant to make that string steady (I even bought some waxed linen), but didn't actually do it as I felt pressed for time. I finally did slow the speed down and that helped with vibration (and the burning fingers) but didn't totally cure the problem. I broke several blanks (2 or 3) before I finally realized I could just turn a taper on one end and jam it in the headstock spindle to stabilize the blank. (I didn't have enough room on my Jet mini to use a chuck.) Once I had the shaft turned down to 3/16 to 1/8 of an inch all the way from the tailstock to the headstock, I was able to take it back out of the taper, place back between centers, and turn a small tenon on the headstock end. Then I could place the tailstock end in the cup center, and still have room to turn the rest of the length needed for the shaft.
Once I figured this out, it only took me 30 minutes instead of two hours to turn the shaft. I was even able to turn some Hickory down that small.
It makes sense, because turning between two centers is really the most unstable way to turn a really thin spindle.
By the way, you guys came up with some really good solutions, and I'll be referring to that thread again when I'm up against a similar problem. Thanks!
I muddled through my order for these batons, by just cutting slow and tedious, using my fingers for the steady. I meant to make that string steady (I even bought some waxed linen), but didn't actually do it as I felt pressed for time. I finally did slow the speed down and that helped with vibration (and the burning fingers) but didn't totally cure the problem. I broke several blanks (2 or 3) before I finally realized I could just turn a taper on one end and jam it in the headstock spindle to stabilize the blank. (I didn't have enough room on my Jet mini to use a chuck.) Once I had the shaft turned down to 3/16 to 1/8 of an inch all the way from the tailstock to the headstock, I was able to take it back out of the taper, place back between centers, and turn a small tenon on the headstock end. Then I could place the tailstock end in the cup center, and still have room to turn the rest of the length needed for the shaft.
Once I figured this out, it only took me 30 minutes instead of two hours to turn the shaft. I was even able to turn some Hickory down that small.
It makes sense, because turning between two centers is really the most unstable way to turn a really thin spindle.
By the way, you guys came up with some really good solutions, and I'll be referring to that thread again when I'm up against a similar problem. Thanks!