longworth chuck

How do you finish the bottom, Reyd?

take it off, hold it on a disk sander, above the table so it doesnt push it down, and make lines from the grove for the sliding thingy.(this takes a bit of practice, the shops disk sander has a disk that is very large, and powered by a big motor, the second time it grabed and threw the bowl against a wall, and grabbed my finger into the crack between the disk and the table, sanded my finger nice and deeply:) then I rub on a finish, usualy the same as whatever i used on the top.

That is certainly one way to do the bottom, but it can limit you in the various ways a bottom can be shaped and finished off. Where are you located in Canada? There should be some experienced turners in your neighborhood as well as a Woodturning Club. For a relative newcomer, there is a world of experience that is readily shared by club members.

Reyd Dorakeen wrote:(clip) you will almost certainly get your finger smacked by one of the pegs, isnt that just as likely with a bought metal chuck that has jaws at the outside of a piece? ^^^^^^^^^^^ Metal chucks can be made more compact, so the jaws don't stick out as far (or not at all, on smaller work.) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ (clip) I always just mount it once, and do all the work with it facing one way. is there an advantage to the other way? ^^^^^^^^^^^ As Leif pointed out, reversing the piece gives you the opportunity to refine the foot a lot more. If you start entering competitions, you will find that judges LOVE to nit-pick the foot.

Furthermore, if you always try to turn the entire bowl with one mounting, you will find that the chuck often gets in the way of the gouge while you are doing the lower outside of a bowl. You can avoid this by restricting the shapes of the bowl that you turn, but there is plenty of reason the reverse it.

Im waiting for the first meeting of the local group thing. i can still do most stuff to the bottom, because the jaws work only with a certain sized hole(drill bit came with) the outside is small, and it is possible to get within a centimeter of the space on the inside, and I wouldnt want to go closer, be cause then the jaw would probably break it if i got a catch.

Hello Reyd,

The Longworth Chuck as described at my web site is designed to hold the bowl rim while you turn the foot of the bowl to give it a nice finished look. There are many people who turn bowls with only one mounting and sand the foot when finished turning. That was the old way many years ago. Today, most people make it a point to also turn the foot of their bowls.

I personally mount the wood three times to make a bowl. I start between centers and turn the outside and a foot to be held by my four jaw scroll chuck. I then place it in the chuck and turn the inside. In the event that I do not have chuck jaws to match the size foot that I've turned, I mount a waste block onto a faceplate and turn a jam fit chuck to fit the foot and then turn out the inside of the bowl.

With the inside and outside finished, I reverse chuck one more time to finish the foot. I sometimes use a jam fit chuck that fits the rim of the bowl and use the tailstock with a little piece of wood to ensure the bowl stays in the jam fit chuck. I also sometimes use a Longworth chuck for this purpose. Since I obtained a vacuum chucking system a couple of years ago, I mostly use that to turn the foot of the bowl.

Good luck with your bowl turning.

Fred Holder

hmm. so it wouldn't work well for what i was thinking? I was hoping to turn a foot between centers, and the outside, then mount in that chuck to do the inside/top.

Right, it wouldn't work very well - the Longworth isn't capable of handling much weight. But, the way you turn now - doing as much of the outside as possible and then the inside with one mounting- would work well with the Longworth. After turning as you do, place the finished rim of the bowl into the Longworth and then finish turning the outer shape and base.

There's a local fellow, at least to me, by name of Lloyd Johnson, of Woodturner Pro Software fame, who also sells a Longworth version. Made with a Don Pencil aluminum faceplate and Lexan (?) discs, it is well made and a pleasure to use. I know you're on a fixed budget, but it might be something you'd like to look into:

Also take a look at their PDF data sheet:

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

nice... but thats almost half of the jet lathe im going for. maybe after the lathe. the donut chuck doesnt make much sense to me, where do the bolts go?

Yep I know money's really tight. I really meant that maybe the PDF would give some additional info on making your own as well as some instruction on use. Then in the future you might consider purchasing one if funds allow.

The bolts for the donut run parallel to the lathe bed and are outside the diameter of the bowl rim. I've not had much success with my homemade donut chuck - marking the wood and having a difficult time centering the bowl - but I know others have used them quite successfully.

Just as a quick overview of the donut - you have one disk attached to the faceplate; a second matching diameter disk with a hole cut out of the center; 4 (or 6) bolts tying the hole disk with the faceplate disk. The idea is to nearly complete the turning using other holding methods and then place it between the disks with the unfinished foot extending through the hole. Center it and then tighten the bolts squeezing the bowl between the two disks.

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Hmgh. Wha'd'ya know - had no idea Lloyd was offering an adapter. Guess I should start reading the info in the links I pass along. ;)

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Vernon Lebrant has been using the donut type chuck to turn the bottoms of his very large bowls (up to four feet in diameter) for a number of years. Vernon mounts a backing board on a faceplate and mounts this on the lathe. The board is only about 8 or 10 inches wide and up to three or four feet long. He then cuts a recess to accept the rim of the bowl (this centers the bowl to the rotation). He then uses a second piece made of unbreakable plastic with a hole in the center, which fits over the foot area of the bowl. He uses two bolts, one on each end to hold the affair together. It works very well.

I've used his idea several times on smaller (12") bowls and it worked good for me. I used a 2'x6" board mounted to the faceplate and a piece of 3/8" plywood for the donut. I only used two bolts also.

One has to remember, however, that this is very dangerous if you get careless. It would be like sticking your hand into an airplane propeller.

Fred Holder

Owen, how does this compare in operation to a Cole Chuck?

Terry

I've not used the Cole jaws, but from what I've seen the Longworth holds onto the turning in very much the same way. The difference, I think, is that the Longworth opens/closes on an inward spiral path while the Cole works radially from the center outward.

Maybe someone else can fill us in if I've not grasped with the differences.

_____ American Association of Woodturners Cascade Woodturners Assoc., Portland, Oregon Northwest Woodturners, Tigard, Oregon _____

Also the Cole jawed chuck uses 8 grippers as to the Longworths 4 grippers. Twice the grip = more security..., in my opinion.

James Barley

I bought the Longworth chuck because it has a much larger capacity (12") than the cole jaws. Also, the number of jaws doesn't mean much because the jaws on both the cole and Longworth chucks can't really grip tightly (they're rubber) and are just used for centering the turning. Rubber jaws work OK for platters but not for bowls or vases. You need to use the tailstock or a donut chuck adaptor to secure the turning so it won't go flying off.

Kevin Neelley

Kevin, I'd beg to differ. Twice the rubber grippers. still means "twice" the gripping power, even if is still not the greatest. Good centering and a light grip combined with sharp tools and a light touch are all you need to clean up the base of even a good sized "bowl" Keeping the toolrest close, "where it belongs", to the base of the bowl, stops the bowl from escaping the chuck, should it try. OneWays "Large" version of Cole jaws has allowed me to successfully clean up the bases of bowls up to approx 14-16 inch diameter, the larger ones usually gripped in expansion mode.

James Barley

Boy do I feel stupid.......I've been turning the bottoms of most of my salad bowl using the Oneway Cole jaws for several years. I guess I'm going to have to look for a donut chuck adaptor before I continue..............:-)

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M.J. Orr