Jam Chucks ?

[George Morris]

What do most Creekers make their jam chucks from ? Ply, or scrap hardwood? George

[Ron Sardo]

Anything I can find..... except plywood.

I use MDF for box lids, and roughed out bowls for turning the bottom of finished bowls ( although, I haven't done this in a while since I have a vacuum chuck.)

[Jim Becker]

Scrap for me. I pretty much never put plywood on the lathe ...

[Don Fuss]

It depends on the situation for me. For smaller bowls (< 5" or so diameter), I generally use scrap 1/2" ply. However, I try to be very precise cutting the circle out and mounting it so it requires as little turning as possible to get to size. Anything larger, I'll use some pine from the borg. I reuse them for other smaller turnings when I have them available.

[Jim Ketron]

Any scrap I have that will fit the bill!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ditto, I use scraps no plywood.

[David Walser]

In Bonnie Klein's book, Classic Woodturning Projects, she recommends making glue blocks out of 1"x pine. That's what I do. I take a piece of 1X4 and a 3" hole saw mounted in my drill press and make a bunch of glue blocks. She uses double stick tape to mount the glue block to a face plate. I use a screw chuck. (To prevent the screw from intruding into the turning, I double up the pine disks by gluing two together with yellow glue. It doubles my wood cost, but I don't have a bunch of double stick tape or extra face plates.)

[Don Orr]

I often use 2x6, 2x8, 2x10, 2x12 dimensional scraps. Watch for large checks and splits though. Got some from my SIL's house construction, my own shop construction, my wife's addition construction. I DO NOT use plywood either, too dangerous. Sometimes you can find useable stuff in the cull racks at the orange borg or local lumberyard for next to nothing.

I use them over and over til they are too small. Good for practice too. If you can get a clean cut in that kind of wood, it usually means your tools are sharp and your tecnique is good!

I usually drill a hole for the screw center in the chuck and mount it that way. Remounts easily and only takes a little truing up to use next time.

[George Morris]

Thanks for all the great info !!George..