tenon removal from piece

[Edward Ford]

Hello fellow turners,

I have been turning bowls and forms for about a year now. I would like to step up my game. My question to the more experienced turners is this:
What is the best way to remove the tenon on the bottom of a bowl or form. I have a set of cole jaws, but I find they do not hold well and it takes a long time to set up. Thanks, Ed

[Paul Atkins]

I really hope you don't mean tendon - ouch. I don't want any of my tendons removed. I don't use a chuck for bowls, so I don't have tenons on the bottoms of my bowls. I usually finish the bottom first. Sorry I am not much help here.

[alex carey]

vacuum chuck.

[Mike Minto]

ed, i either use my vacuum chuck (if i plan in advance and keep my work on the scroll chuck so i can properly center it) or my cole jaws (which i'm not a big fan of). i've started to use blue tape or some other means to augment the cole jaws to hold bowls on, though. there's no real quick way that i know of. also, i use a bowl gouge and slow rpm's. mike

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ed - Welcome to the Creek!

You have lots of options when it comes to removing the tenon, depending on how much you want to spend.

Jam chuck - using the tailstock to hold the turning, remove as much of the tenon as possible and then remove the remaining bit of tenon with a chisel and sand.

Donut Chuck - very easy to make your own and does a very good job of holding regular shaped bowls and most hollow forms.

Vacuum Chuck - while it may seem expensive at first, you can make your own for about the same price as a good quality 4-jaw chuck.

Should be lots of info available - just do a search. Let us know if you have any questions.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ed welcome to SMC. On bowls and hollow forms I use either a vacuum chuck or a donut chuck. It does take a minute to setup a donut chuck but it works really well and holds well. On on side of the donut chuck I made sizes from 4" bowls to 14" bowls. I leave the bowl in the chuck and take it off the headstock. I have a adaptor that fits in the tailstock to screw the chuck on and that way when you bring to bowl up to the donut chuck it is perfectly centered. Tighten down the donut chuck, release and remove the chuck to finish the bottom. I use the same procedure to mount a bowl or HF on my vacuum chuck. Questions well just ask away.

[Edward Ford]

Thank You For The info. I will look into the vac chucks. Sorry for the spelling error. Tenons not tendons !!!!!!!!

[Mark Hubl]

Donut chucks are pretty easy to make and work well. Do some web searches for instructions, several folks have them posted on their sites. Here is a thread that has some pics.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=120314

[Bob Espy]

I don't use a tenon but perfer a mortise for turning on the chuck. Then reverse to bowl using the cole jaws and apply a slight bit of pressure with the tail stock while finishing the bottom. Remove the tail stock and then just touch up where the tail stock divit is.

[Ron McKinley]

is easy to adjust. Use the tailstock with it until you have to remove it to get the last little part. If you don't want to make one there is a fellow on this board that makes them for a very reasonable price. Maybe he will check in............Ron

[Scott Hackler]

I use a jam chuck and I find it really easy. I always turn with a tenon (except for the monster bowls, they get a recessed dovetail). I finshed the sanding process completely, in and out... and reverse it on the jame cuck and turn off all but 1/4" or so of the tenon. I sand the freshly turned bottom and using a chisel and my power sanding setup, I remove any traces of the tenon. Works great, but does require a little practice.

The only real difficulty is centering it on the jam with the live center. If you didnt have a clear center point, it will wobble a bit. Also, "just a little bit more off the tenon" is code for too much and be prepared for it to fly off the live center and screw up the work you just did.

PROS:
easy and cheap

CONS:

cant really do HF's, vases or anything but a bowl or platter

[ROY DICK]

Ed,
Which ever way to chose from the above info; a sharp chisle and light cuts will serve you well.
Welocme to the Creek and hold on to your wallet.
The vortex gets DDddeeeeppppeeerrr.<insert echo>.

Roy

[Wally Dickerman]

Ed, you say that you have a set of Cole jaws and that it takes too long to set it up. How long to change jaws? 5 min., 10 min.? How long did it take to turn the bowl? If you used your tailstock to turn the tenon, then you already have a centering spot when you bring up the tailstock to use with the cole jaws. Using the tailstock will make it very secure. Just turn off the tenon or shape it to form the foot. When finished just cut off the nub that's left and you're finished.

Wally

[Jason Clark2]

I think I tried most of the methods out there: jam chuck, cole jaws, donut chuck, etc. I got my vacuum setup up and running about 6 months ago and i'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

I'll be the first to admit that it won't work in all cases (large voids, some hollow forms, etc) but for 90% of what I do it will be my primary method for finishing the bottom.

Jason

[Mike Minto]

one thing i do to speed up the TEDIOUS chore of changing jaws on my scroll chuck has been to take the correct allen wrench for the screws which hold the jaws in, cut off the short 'elbow' of the wrench, and mount it in my cordless drill. using the clutch judiciously, i can change a set of jaws fairly quickly. mike

[curtis rosche]

i use a vacuum chuck, but some of my peices i just finish the tenon to make it into a foot

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Same as Mike with the Cole jaws. I use my small impact Bosch drill and I can be very gentle with the slotted screws. Basically as soon as the screw hits home I abruptly stop drilling. I used to go nuts trying to do all the screws by hand.

[Richard Madison]

Friction chuck, jam chuck, doughnut chuck as needed, in that order of preference.

[Ernie Kuhn]

Ed,
See my post from a few moments ago about extending the grip of your Cole Jaws if that's what you want to use.
Ernie

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Edward you got several good answers for different ways to remove the tenon, I will add some for those occasions that a bowl is to be returned in a way that doesn't fit the norm for reasons like warping to one side or were you would like to keep the shape the bowl has gotten by drying.

Here's two pictures that show a bowl that's held in my mega-jumbo jaws, the bowl had dried in a warped to one side way, to be able to do what I wanted I had to use wedges to prop one side up, I raised the buttons with blocking and longer bolds, you can see the centering of the recess is very close here, I turned the recess true and then straightened the top and returned the bowl.

129023

129024

The next Applewood platter I was going to make handle openings inside the rim and keep the oval shape of the platter it had dried into, again I raised a couple of buttons and placed them in the slots where needed so the bowl was going to be centered as good as possible, then shaped the bottom the way I wanted and leave the top as it was already.

129025

129026

This next bowl I have returned on the inside already, and am returning the outside and removing the (seldom used by me) tenon while held by the Mega-jumbo jaws, you do need to take very fine cuts and be able to turn without getting catches, but it can be done this way,------- carefully ;)

129027

[Roger Wilson]

...What is the best way to remove the tenon on the bottom of a bowl or form...

Here is a link to a pdf by John Lucas that details the different methods for reverse chucking. It's good. Make sure you download it to your own harddrive as links go bad over time.

http://www.ptwoodturners.org/Tips%20and%20Handouts/Methods%20and%20Jigs%20for%20Reverse%20Turning%20B owls.pdf

[Dick Sowa]

I think you have already gotten the best advice, and I can't add anything that others haven't...but I can tell about my preferences.

I haven't gone the vacuum chuck direction, primarily because of cost. I made a donut chuck for the cost of a cheap faceplate, some scrap plywood, and it works like a champ.

Occasionally I will also use a jamb chuck...with liberal applications of blue painters tape, or even duct tape. :)

[scott schmidt grasshopper]

I too made a donut chuck and it works pretty well but I found for smaller items the time invested was not worth the work. sooo
started using a 4.5 inch angle grinder with 50 grit sand paper,, eehaw place the bowl on a rag to cushion the egde then take light cuts to remove the extra wood keep the angle flat so you dont gouge too deep.after you get close you can sand with you hook and loop sander the rest of the undercut/dimple ( I recess my centers). very fast this way if you dont want to orniment the bottom. good luck, and dont forget the dust control this baby is smokin'

[Mike Lipke]

Google these 4 words: Straka chuck Alan Lacer. He has a great downloadable article with photos of how to make a Straka, or Donut chuck.
Use mine all the time on items that cannot go on a vacuum chuck.