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Rob Cunningham
11-13-2009, 12:34 PM
I'm planning to make a donut chuck sometime soon. MDF seems to be a lot flatter than most plywood Is MDF suitable or is it better to find a flat piece of ply to use? Any pros or cons are appreciated. Thanks
Mike Golka
11-13-2009, 1:10 PM
I have made a couple out of 3/4 MDF and they work just fine. Remember you are not going to be using high RMP when using a doughnut chuck.
Bernie Weishapl
11-13-2009, 6:17 PM
I have made two. One was out of some birch 3/4" plywood scraps and the other from 3/4 MDF. Both are fine. One fits a 1X8 spindle the other 1 1/4X8. As Mike said you aren't turning at high rpm's.
Steve Schlumpf
11-13-2009, 6:19 PM
Rob - I made mine out of ply and haven't had any problems with it yet. Have to believe that either ply or MDF would work well.
ROY DICK
11-13-2009, 9:13 PM
I use cheapo plywood 3/4".
No problems .


Roy
Skip Spaulding
11-13-2009, 9:29 PM
Rob, I doubled up (glued) 2 pieces of MDF for my base and used 1/2" ply for the face. I made a face plate with nut and large washer, mounted to base. It took a lot of MDF away truing up the base. I don't think my welded up face plate was real close to perpendicular in relation to the headstock shaft! It does work great.
Mark P. Brown
11-14-2009, 4:15 AM
I went to the scrap yard and picked up a piece of 3/8 aluminum plate drilled it to fit my 4 jaw chuck then did the drilling for 1/4 X 20 bolts to set rubber corks with the center holes in them 1/2 inch on center. I find the Cole chuck is more versatile than a donut chuck as it leaves more of the base exposed for turning/sanding/finishing. The total cost was less than $25.00 and the aluminum will not warp or crack. It took about 3 hours to build.
Mark
Jake Helmboldt
11-14-2009, 9:10 AM
I went to the scrap yard and picked up a piece of 3/8 aluminum plate drilled it to fit my 4 jaw chuck then did the drilling for 1/4 X 20 bolts to set rubber corks with the center holes in them 1/2 inch on center. I find the Cole chuck is more versatile than a donut chuck as it leaves more of the base exposed for turning/sanding/finishing. The total cost was less than $25.00 and the aluminum will not warp or crack. It took about 3 hours to build.
Mark

Mark, can you post a couple pictures, specifically how it mounts in the chuck and the drilled face?

thanks, JH