dowel breakage on Stopper blanks

[Ken Glass]

How many of you use a Dowel chuck to turn stoppers. I cut some blanks out of cherry, Oak and Ipe I had on hand to make a few stoppers for gifts for friends. I chucked the first one and took care to start rounding the blank. "pow!" It broke off at the chuck. Same with the next two also. They were glued a few days ago 1-1/4 " into the blank and dried completely. I took very small cuts , but still they flew off. I used some hardwood dowel material I bought form Ace Hardware. What went wrong? Should I have had a Dowel chuck and Maple dowels or what combination works best for you? I used a keyless chuck 1/2" Mt#2 from Pennstate, but not a dowel chuck.

[Bill Bolen]

I place a cutoff bolt in my jacobs chuck and slide the drilled bottlestopper blanks over that bolt to turn. Never lost one and the threads that get cut by the bolt seem to allow a place for the excess glue to go at assembly time. I use cork or silicone stoppers. Someday I guess I have to go to the stainless steel jobs...Bill...

[Curt Fuller]

You might be tightening the jaws too tight and crushing the wood in the dowel. They just need to be snug. Also, if your blanks are square try cutting the corners at a 45 before you put them on the lathe. And turn at a fairly fast speed, 2000 or so, and use very light cuts until you get them round.

And you might already know this, but if your keyless chuck is drilled and tapped on the morse taper end for a 1/4" 20tpi bolt you should make a draw bar from a piece of threaded 1/4" rod to hold it snug in the spindle of your lathe. If not, you should use the tailstock to keep it from vibrating out.

[Ken Glass]

Turners,
Thanks for the responses. I decide to try cutting off a 3/8" bolt that was 3/8 x 24 and just screw it onto the 3/8" hole I had drilled on a few other Blanks. It worked OK, but I would really like a faster thread to use. I found a 1"x8 Screw Chuck at PSI, but I have a 3520b and it is 1-1/4"x 8. So I would need a 1" male x 1-1/4" female adapter to make it work. There must be a rig that works better than this. Here is a stopper I just finished with the bolt still in it.
I was thinking that maybe the dowels I got from Ace were not Hardwood after all. They split badly when I spun them without putting hardly any pressure on the gouge. I may try getting some fluted Maple dowels and try again.

[Bill Bolen]

Somewhere on this board Domnic Greco (SP) posted his home made bottle stopper chuck. I think the article was also in woodturning desigh issue before last. Looks quick and simple to make and should do a fast job of mounting stoppers. gonna make one myself when things slow down a bit. (if I can find it again)..Bill..

[Robert McGowen]

Try using a 23/64" drill bit and a 3/8" bolt about 2" long. There is no need to cut the bolt down, just put the head of the bolt though the chuck and tighten it down on the shaft of the bolt. It really works great if you are using stoppers with a 3/8" threaded top! They will just screw right onto the stopper with the threads cut into the blank by the bolt.

[Ron McKinley]

Here's the way I turn bottle stoppers: http://www.inlandwoodturners.org/pages/BottleStoppers.pdf
Ron

[Roger Bell]

Hardware store dowels can be notoriously short-grained. If that is the case, placing them even in the best collet chuck is no guarantee that they will not break.

There are better and simpler methods for turning stoppers, but if you do wish to continue with chucking up the dowels already glued into the blanks, I might recommend using tail stock support as long as possible.... until the blank is round at the very least.

[Steve Trauthwein]

Get some 3/8 inch steel rod from the hardware store. Cut a length about four inches. Sharpen the end into a wedge shape that is 3/8 inch long. /\ Grind the center of the wedge to form two prongs, /\/\. I then put my drilled blank on here and tap it a few times to drive it on the prongs. Works like a charm.

Regards, Steve

[Roger Wilson]

Here is a commercial version of the mandrel from Packard Woodworks for $13 (Code: 150124):


http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=150124&Category_Code=


http://www.packardwoodworks.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/150124-img.jpg


Arizona Silhouette sells a screw mandrel (Model: AZSBSM-01) for $9.

[Ken Glass]

Steve and Roger,
That is exactly what I was looking for. I might first try making one, and if all
else fails I can buy the one a Packard Woodworks. Do either of you have any trouble with slippage when you get a little aggressive with a gouge?

[Roger Wilson]

My preference is for a screw mandrel. Here is a link to a Ruth Niles tutorial on making the mandrel for bottle stoppers. She also sells a variety of stainless steel stoppers as well. It's very simple and can be made from a carriage bolt and a wood scrap.


http://www.torne-lignum.com/make_stoppers.html