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Going to attempt my first outboard turning. I have the adaptor to fit my chuck to the outboard side of the headstock.
How do i prep the blank so that it can go onto the chuck? I'm going to start small probably ~13 inches. by 4 inches thick. My first thought is to use a forstner bit and drill press to make a recess in the blank. Am i on the right track or headed for disaster?
Thanks
I would rather see you use a faceplate and screws. Much safer than a recess, especially if you are fairly new to turning.
I start every single piece w a face plate. Just feels better to me
I didn't think a faceplate was the same thread pattern (1x8 RH thread) as the outboard side of the headstock. I thought outboard was 1x8 LH thread
I think that you should check to see if it does fit, face-plate turning is much safer then using a mortise will be.
Len
There are spindle adapters for different sizes...you can upsize or downsize. I’m not familiar with your partiicular lathe, but you should be able to get the proper size. Check Best Wood Tools, or other suppliers.
I most often start with a face plate, turn to round and ballance, semi shape whatever i'm turning, turn a recess [tennon], then reverse it onto a chuck.
Not familiar with that lathe. I do start just about every bowl with a drilled recess. Use a bit that is as close as possible to the size of your chuck jaws when totally closed. I do drill the recess deeper than the one I turn when I reverse the bowl, up to 1/2 inch deep. Some times I do this on uneven blanks so part of the bowl blank can sit on the face of the chuck jaws. On bigger bowls, 12+ inch diameter and 3 to 4 inches thick, I use the tailstock for support. It is a very secure mount.
robo hippy
If your lathe is set up so that you have access to both ends of the spindle and are just attaching a chuck or a faceplate on the left side of the headstock/spindle (rather than the normal right side), then you quite likely have a left hand thread. You should be able to figure this out visually.
If you put a regular (Right Hand thread) faceplate or chuck on an adapter on the left end of your spindle, it'll try to unthread the faceplate or chuck. That could be exciting.
BTW, I googled 1 x 8 LH threads and see that Grizzly has a closeout on its Steelex chuck insert that works with a few of their chucks. It is a closeout.
The chucks I use are threaded for set screws to prevent a chuck from unthreading. It would not be difficult to drill and thread a chuck to add such locking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brice Rogers
JKJ
John, I was thinking of that too. When you are doing roughing (in reverse), do you have any second thoughts or reservations of relying on the grub screw ? For a person with your level of skill, I suspect that you seldom get catches and the grub screw is 100% adequate. But I'm wondering about a beginning turner getting a decent catch.
I've got a Nova chuck with an insert and it already has a grub screw. But I also have two chucks without inserts (direct thread type) and their backs are flat and they are not conducive to drill and thread. But I'd imagine that most faceplates would be easy to modify.
BTW, when I did a google search, I saw that there are some companies that sell a 1 x 8 tpi faceplate (including Delta at one time) that is both right and left hand threads. I had to read and re-read the details as it was surprising. Apparently they have cross-threaded in order to accommodate both types of threads. It would be interesting to see how much "meat" is left.
My experience was the set screw held well. But I don't often turn large, heavy blanks and when I do with a chuck it is not roughing in reverse. (I've never turned outboard on a non-reversing lathe.) I do sometimes turn in reverse inboard to access the inside of a bowl without contortions. In that case, I don't even use the set screw but tighten the chuck with a wrist flick as I always do, enough that it's often difficult to remove even with a wrench. But as you say, with some experience heavy catches are rare or don't happen. All that I can remember in some years are due not to technique but to sloppiness - not paying attention and accidentally running a tool tip into the work. Those can mess up the piece but are not huge, forceful events.
For a heavy blank for a beginner I would definitely recommend using a faceplate with lots of screws. (Actually, for a beginner I'd strongly recommend delaying turning big bowls completely until fine tool control is gained by spindle turning, then catches should be non-existent. But that's another topic and not a popular one with most turners.)
I see Nova sells a dual LH/RH insert, at least for 1"x8tpi spindles: https://www.amazon.com/ITNS-1-Inch-T.../dp/B0064JJ7MS
JKJ
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brice Rogers