Start Bowl Between Centers ?

[Sonny Kemp]

I turn mostly bowls and currently start most between centers.I turn bottom and shape outside and make my recess and reverse to hollow inside and switch to my chuck.My concern is all that screwing my chuck on and off is going to wear out the threads on the spindle.Is that a real concern or not?I much prefer Reed Grays method of drilling my first recess but my drill press is too small and will drill only to center of 12inch blank so I start between centers.Does anyone use oneways center that mounts in chuck instead of the taper in headstock? Thanks

[Roger Chandler]

I would not worry about your spindle threads........I don't know which lathe you use, but most any lathe will be built to install/remove chucks without issues.

[Dennis Ford]

Keep a little grease or never seize on the threads and you won't have trouble with them.

[Thom Sturgill]

Starting between centers has the advantage of letting you adjust the blank once you start and reveal the grain. Lets you improve the orientation. I absolutely would not worry about the chuck wearing out the spindle threads. Many of us have multiple chucks (I own six or seven) and change chucks rather than changing jaws.

[Josh Sargent]

another option could be to see if your chuck has a spur center for it. Then you could leave the chuck on, insert your spur center into it, and turn between centers, without having to remove the chuck. Though, as I've seen, your options for a spur chuck style are limited, as opposed to just having a separate center and swapping it on and off with the chuck to use it.

Just to throw that into the conversation. I will leave it to the far more experienced and smart turners than I to say if it's a "good" option or not.

[Ryan Mooney]

Not really worried about taking the chuck on and off.

I assume you're taking about:
https://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p...ite-Chuck-Spur
its pretty nice, and does grab hold quite well. Mostly useful for bigger stuff, its kind of a beast for anything smaller (and imho kind of gets in the road in those cases). Seems to be pretty good for softer wetter stuff that my regular centers tend to chew up. Make sure to put it in NOT in line with the grain so it doesn't split the wood, I usually shoot for about 45 off if the grain line for bite vs splitting.

My supernova also came with a spur center:
http://www.woodcraft.com/product/111...ve-center.aspx
Seems to also work fairly well. The chuck can get in the road a bit and it doesn't have as much bite as the oneway or most of my MT centers (sometimes that's a plus, other times less so).

The SN2 chuck also came with a screw center - nice for some uses but you want to make sure the surface is flat and the hole aligned for the best gription.
http://www.novatoolsusa.com/NOVA-Woo...crew-10006.htm