Lace bobbins

[Bill Bukovec]

Does anyone turn lace bobbins?

I saw a lace bobbin drive in a wood turning catalog. The drive has a 1/2" square hole to drive small spindle blanks

Just curious as I've never heard of this.

[John K Jordan]

Does anyone turn lace bobbins?

I saw a lace bobbin drive in a wood turning catalog. The drive has a 1/2" square hole to drive small spindle blanks

Just curious as I've never heard of this.

These typically have a slight internal taper so if the blank is not perfect the drive can be driven on until tight.

I think a more useful holding method is small jaws on a scroll chuck. I often hold 1/2" and other sized blanks in such jaws on my Nova chucks. Their pin jaws are good for this or better, the mini-spigot jaws. The advantage of these jaws is they easily accommodate a wide variety of square and round spindle blanks. It could hold more securely than the fixed sized drive, important when turning thin spindles.

BTW, I haven't turned any lace bobbins but have turned lots of similar sized thin spindles. I don't know anyone who makes lace by hand!

JKJ