Bill Bolen
12-16-2009, 11:14 AM
I posted this on another site for an Irish turning buddy. Thought some jet owner here might also like the info:
Brendan, here are the pic’s of my adapter and 2 chucks. I used lamp rod (3/8”- dia.). I left it overly long because I wanted a bit of friction inside of the spindle to help hold it in place while turning. I ended up putting a wrap of electrical tape around the end so I could smack it with my hand and get a solid seat to the spindle. The bearing is from my local hardware store and bore on the bearing is just under 3/8”. I mounted the lamp rod for turning just like Ron posted in his tutorial. The wooden collar is just a piece of scrap Elm with one end turned to fit the vac hose and the other end has a hole the same size as the exterior of the bearing (bearing is epoxied in place). I did have a failure on my third bowl. Seems I did not leave enough material on the turned end of the lamp rod for peening over (a flaring tool would have been better) . I removed the rod and tuned away a full 1/8” of the threads and peened it over. So far it is holding fine. I think the weight of the vac hose and my pulling the adapter out when finished was too much for the peening on the first attempt. Of the 2 chucks I prefer the disc shaped one over the cupped one. I won’t fool myself thinking this set up is as strong as one using a vac pump. But as an old geezer with a pension to worry about this was a cheap method of vacuum chucking. I have $8 invested and 3 bowls completed. It takes 5 to 10 seconds to get a full vacuum built up and once that happens I cannot pull the bowl away from the chuck using 12 MM thick foam and cannot shift the position of the piece. Using 2MM thick foam I get a strong hold and cannot pull the piece away from the chuck but I can shift it with a good smack of the hand. Hope this helps you out….Bill…
Brendan, here are the pic’s of my adapter and 2 chucks. I used lamp rod (3/8”- dia.). I left it overly long because I wanted a bit of friction inside of the spindle to help hold it in place while turning. I ended up putting a wrap of electrical tape around the end so I could smack it with my hand and get a solid seat to the spindle. The bearing is from my local hardware store and bore on the bearing is just under 3/8”. I mounted the lamp rod for turning just like Ron posted in his tutorial. The wooden collar is just a piece of scrap Elm with one end turned to fit the vac hose and the other end has a hole the same size as the exterior of the bearing (bearing is epoxied in place). I did have a failure on my third bowl. Seems I did not leave enough material on the turned end of the lamp rod for peening over (a flaring tool would have been better) . I removed the rod and tuned away a full 1/8” of the threads and peened it over. So far it is holding fine. I think the weight of the vac hose and my pulling the adapter out when finished was too much for the peening on the first attempt. Of the 2 chucks I prefer the disc shaped one over the cupped one. I won’t fool myself thinking this set up is as strong as one using a vac pump. But as an old geezer with a pension to worry about this was a cheap method of vacuum chucking. I have $8 invested and 3 bowls completed. It takes 5 to 10 seconds to get a full vacuum built up and once that happens I cannot pull the bowl away from the chuck using 12 MM thick foam and cannot shift the position of the piece. Using 2MM thick foam I get a strong hold and cannot pull the piece away from the chuck but I can shift it with a good smack of the hand. Hope this helps you out….Bill…