RPM too fast?

[Norris Randall]

Greetings, I got an old used Oliver wood lathe a few years past and after a lengthy renovation ended up with a good working lathe. (It is HEAVY not much vibration)
I purchased a super nova chuck and have been turning a few candle sticks, bowls etc. I just checked on a set of Cole jaws and notice the specs. say do not exceed 600 RPMs. I found a post here that said start turning at 500RPMs. I ended up with a 1725 RPM motor on the Oliver and at the lowest setting it looks like I'm starting at approx 766 RPM. I counted the revs and the motor pully turns approx 2 1/4 turns to one (1) turn for the spindle. (Long winded:D ) I'll hurry. Since I have had a couple of pieces break loose over the years,
should I try to figure out a way to start slower? The pieces that broke loose were after I had them "balanced" and just let the gouge grab. :confused: And should I forget the Cole jaws?
Thanks to all for replys.
There times when I would rather be reading SawMill than turning. Like right now, it's getting cold outside and in the shop.

[Tom Jones III]

If by cole jaws you mean something like these, they are only intended for light finishing work. I use mine to grip the rim of the bowl while I put the last touches on the foot of a bowl.

[George Tokarev]

Check places like Grainger for a cone pulley for the motor end first. Might be able to step down in size and speed that way. Worth a shot. Graingers at http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml and search for "sheave" or "cone pulley." Other places might have other sizes. Motor shaft probably 5/8, but check.

Alternative is to add a second shaft for your current cone, driven by a reduction from your motor. That'll allow you to please even the legal department of your chuck manufacturer.

[Norris Randall]

Thank you all for your reply, here is a little more info. One pic shows the spring loaded pully side, another shows the motor side and the third shows the front view. I did not want to alter the original cast iron so I fabricated and alum. plate to mount the motor then had a time getting the pully to stay on the motor shaft. After three attempts making extentions with multiple set screws failed, JB Weld was used to make the extention stay on the motor shaft.
Yes Tom,
I only want to use the Cole jaws for "light finishing " SO.. is 766 rpm too fast? :confused: don't have a concern about the "legal dept":D
I've always agreed with the saying,
"You go to court as a pig and come out as sausage."

[George Tokarev]

Ah, it's a Reeves drive with a variable pulley on the motor. Delete all my suggestions, check for proper lubrication of the outer part of the pulley and easy travel. If the belt bottoms on the motor side and you're still at 780, your only option may be to use the cole jaws as is. I wouldn't, because there's a lot of whirring metal out there. Hated to use mine at the 600 minimum on my old lathe.

Had you considered finishing the bottom while the bowl is mounted with the broad side toward the headstock? Can do easy with an inside dovetail, have to plan a ridge on a "foot" for an outside. Other option is a jam chuck, where you have a tapered plywood plate to fit inside your bowl or a V grooved plywood plate to fit inside/outside and use the artifact center with your tailstock for all but the final nib, which you can trim with a curved knife, as I prefer, or a chisel, then sand.

Bad case of the dumbass today. Comes from planing basswood, I think. Check that compression spring and see if there's not some adjustment in it to open the pulley a bit more. Hoping this food will clear my head a bit so I don't screw up the dovetailing on the drawers.

[Tom Jones III]

I only want to use the Cole jaws for "light finishing " SO.. is 766 rpm too fast? :confused: don't have a concern about the "legal dept":D

Personally, if the bowl wasn't too large and it was gripped very well, etc, if everything was perfect then I would run it at 800 rpm. In fact I thought that my oneway jaws did have a max of 800 rpms so that is what I have been doing!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Norris I got a set of Cole Jaws for my Vicmarc chuck. It is stamped on the jaws do not exceed 800 rpm's. Hope this helps.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Norris, going by the photo that Tom posted of the cole jaws... I have the Oneway Talon chuck with the Mini Jumbo jaws - same as Tom's photo - and it has max rpm stamped on it at 1200. Most of the time that I use the jaws I run it somewhere around 600-800 but have on occasion turned it up to 1200 with no problems.

[Curt Fuller]

It just makes my heart go pitter patter to see that there's another Oliver owner out there. I have essentially the same lathe with the same speed motor. About the only way to slow it down would be to replace the motor with one of those fancy shmancy variable frequency drive setups and use it to control the speed instead of using the reeves drive. But by the time you went through all that rigamarole you might just as well buy a powermatic or something similar.

Myself, I've turned everything from crochet hooks to 13.5" bowls (mine is a model 159a with a 14" swing) and I've never had it throw anything at me because of the speed. You learn to mount out-of-round or out-of-balance pieces with a little more care and caution, make sure you have it cranked down to the slowest speed before hitting the start button, hold your face just right, and stand off to the side and see what happens.

I'm kind of a nostalgic type of guy and it's worth the minor limitations of the older, more mature machine just to know that I working with something that's about my same age. And as you said, there's nothing like the weight and mass of the old iron for vibration dampening.

Glad to meet another Oliverite!

BTW, about the cole jaws. If you're using them to put the final finish on the bottom of a bowl you've probably got it all sanded and just about done by the time you flip it over and put it in the cole jaws. Although the center is turning at the same RPM's as the outside edge of the bowl, the actual speed is relatively slow and using a light touch with a sharp tool shouldn't cause any problems.

[Gordon Seto]

Norris,

Depending on our bowl rim shape, sometimes those buttons do not hold the bowl as secure as we would like. You can use masking tapes to tape the edge of your bowl around the slits between the jaws.

Do use the tailstock as long as possible. When you reach the center to cut the last nip, use a little pressure towards to headstock.

Cole jaw is one the method for reverse turning. It can't work on natural edge. If you still have trouble, may be it is time to invest into other methods.

Gordon

[Norris Randall]

Curt, thanks for your post. If you are interested I'll tell a little more about my Oliver. A friend told me about this lathe that was on the way to the junk yard to sold for scrap. Well I went over right away and we found most of the parts. It was scattered all over the shop. The guy said $25.00

As you already know NO MOTOR. Well when I finally thought I had all the parts it was giving me a little difficulty with the pulley system and besides it was "frozen" . After numerous applications of penetrating oil, "knocker loose" it was still frozen. Time for what could be considered drastic measures. I set the assembly on a 5 gal metal bucket and put it in front of my kerosene (elec blower) heater. When it got too hot to handle the heavy wooden mallet made it move ever so slight but that got it free.

I stopped by my local tool shop and ask my friend if he had ever heard of Oliver. "Yep, I think I've got their toll free number."

"Hello Happy Holidays from Oliver", that's what she said then transfered to one she thought could help me. "Do you have a parts manual for this lathe?" "Yes but let me send you a copy of the shop drawing and that won't cost you..."

Seems Sawdust creates great people. The drawing arrived and it is from a time when draftsmen used the old T square, triangle, drawing board...

With the drawing every thing seemed much easier and after the motor mount delay (already mentioned)and finding the right belt, I got my super nova chuck and have been turning on again- off again; but lately I have really wanted to start using some of the wood that I've accumilated over the years.

Well this seems like a long post and I hope not too boring.

If you ever get to Alabama give me a call, I'd be delighted to meet you.
Oh yeah, your web site is fantastic.