Newbie chuck question

[Tim Beauregard]

Some of you may know that I'm making chess pieces. The chuck I have I think will only grip down to about 2 inch diameter. Well, I have some useable wood that is not that thick...say 1.5 to 1.75 inches in diameter.

What do you do?

I suppose I could mount a face plate with a screw and use that instead. Just screw into the block, turn the piece and part off to the right of the screw tip. But I was wondering if you wrap the wood with something to thicken it, then put it in the chuck and turn it. And if so, what do you wrap with?

Thanks and regards,
Tim B.

[Stephen Hibbs]

you could glue said wood to a larger block and just hold the block, but that's pretty crude and may not hold if the wood isn't flat ended or too skinny.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Tim, You could turn a jam chuck... a large piece of wood that your chuck will hold, turned with a tapered hole in it to fit the blanks you have. You'd still need to use the tail stock. Is there a reason you can't just turn them between centers?

Ernie

[Jim Ketron]

What Chuck do you have?
Most chucks have different jaw sets you can buy that will grip down to 1/4"

[Bernie Weishapl]

Most chucks you can buy pin jaws for them that will hold down to I think a 1/4" as Jim said. I bought a set for mine and they work slick on small items.

[Kenneth George]

I do quite a bit of smaller turnings. For me the answer was investing in a Collet chuck. After you buy 1 you will find all kinds of uses for it like making custom mandrels and such. Woodcraft caries a fairly nice one that is a #2 taper called “Turners Collet Chuck” part # 146110. It comes with many Collets all the way up to 5/8” and at $79.99 that is really quite a deal. If you do purchase one of these you will also want to make a drawbar but that is quick, cheap and easy.

You will find that a Collet chuck will hold your work much better as it grips the whole length of the interior of the Collet.

I would also add if your interested I did a bit of a write up on holding wood for turning some of the small finials I like to make;

http://www.theturnersshop.com/turning/finials/finials1.html

Here I put together my thoughts on the Woodcraft Collet chuck.

http://www.theturnersshop.com/turning/turnerscollet/tcc1.html

The opinions expressed within those pages are just my own.

[Tim Beauregard]

Collective answers:

1. Rooks have a hollowed out top and that is probably easier for me with a piece in the chuck. Also, the pawns and bishops have a ball at the top...again, probably easier with a chuck (since I'm a newbie).

2. I can't remember what chuck I have. Bought it quite a while ago but probably still have the paperwork, so I can do some searching for accesories. A thought came to me...if it has 4 jaws then I may be able to leave the block square and just tack on 4 strips of wood to shim it out to a useable size.

Thanks fellers!

Regards,
Tim B.

[Keith Burns]

I hope my answer makes sense. I would use a face plate with a waste block. Cut a mortise in the waste block to fit you wood and glue them together. This would allow you to turn it without using the tailstock.

[Ron Ainge]

I have used some corian to turn a doughnut out of that will fit inside of the chuck that I have and then cut a piece out of the edge of it so that when I tighten down on the chuck the doughnut will grip whatever I am trying to turn. you can make the doughnut any size you want so tuning object that will not fit your chuck is not a problem. I hope that you can understand what I am trying to explain.

[Lee DeRaud]

Don't know the right answer for the general case, but for chess men, sounds like 'waste-block' is the easiest:
1. the base is always the widest part, and
2. the bottom gets covered with felt so it doesn't matter if it's not finished off perfectly.

But I'm not even sure I want to know how to turn the knights.