Spindle support questions

[Brian Holcombe]

Morning gents, I have a project I'm working toward and I'm at the planning stage for the legs. The overall length is about 26-27" and these legs have a cut tenon on them.

I'm debating process currently and a bit unsure of how to proceed. The legs are blanked square section currently, I will cut mortises in them at this stage. After which I need to begin turning them into the appropriate shapes.

I will be using the duplicator feature to rough out the turning then refining from there by hand to remove marks left by the duplicator. I'm OK with that process.

Where I'm stuck is that I would like to cut a tenon on the end of the leg and the best way to do that seems up in the air. I found a tenon cutter which will bring it to an exact size quickly:

https://www.fine-tools.com/zapfenschneider.html

However this requires a support system for the leg while the tenon is cut. Alternatively I can create a square cutter for the duplicator and use that to make an exact size tenon.

I'm open to suggestions/experience in handling this situation. I'd like to avoid buying more things, but that is the usual direction these things go. :D

I have a four jaw Talon chuck, oneway live center with various adapters, drill chuck and chuck spur.

[Reed Gray]

Turning between centers should be no problem. If your tenon is a through one where you make it long and then cut to size then add a spline, then you may not want live center marks on it, or leave it extra long. With the foot end, since it is on the bottom, not a problem if you are using a glide/pad on the bottom and it is not seen. The tenon cutter should work if you make sure it is square to the leg. When you mount it onto the lathe, it seems that you never get the spindle like that perfectly centered when you put it on the lathe, but not sure if that makes any difference. It isn't difficult to turn the tenon to size on the lathe either. You could also turn the tenon close to size, and then finish it with the tenon cutter. I would think that the cutter would follow the tenon pretty closely. Not sure if you could use the tenon cutter while it is on the lathe though.

robo hippy

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Reed, these are for blind tenons. Appreciate your comments.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Instead of cutting a tenon, could you use a 1/2" diameter lag bolt with the head cut off? The lag bolt would be held by the drill chuck. I have found that that using these modified lag bolts as the holding end are more accurate. They do not crush in the chucks and they can easily be removed and put back in without losing point of reference.

[Ryan Mooney]

What Reed said; turn between centers and use a parting tool (or straight edged skew) to take the tenon to size (calipers in the off hand to cross check diameter). I don't think the tennon cutter will be measurably faster for this use case and after a half dozen or so practice pieces you'll be close to as accurate size wise, more accurate offset wise, and a lot quicker :)

For more rustic work where the centering is less important, I could see the tennon cutters being useful (but suspect that you'll not be doing that sort of work :cool:).

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Marvin, but I don't quite understand.

Thanks Ryan, that is starting to sound like the best approach.