Restoring bowl dovetails

Folks, this is not a new religion I'm preaching, just a report of something I tried and found it works using what I already had on hand, other than the router bit. If you have a system that works for you, keep it. I used to use tenons exclusively, and lost a few bowls that departed the lathe. I have so far not lost any off a dovetail chuck but it probably will happen. Repairing an out of round tenon is surely easier than a dovetail recess so comparing the methods of doing so doesn't really work.

LOVE that pin chuck. No fooling around. Re-turns are on center and capable of being held there by the pin chuck for prefancying the bottom before reversing if you care to after rounding the outside.

Plus, it's there when you reverse to become that third hand and the tailstock your vacuum chuck.

Leave a pillar next time you're roughing and give the pin chuck a shot. Only "special" thing about leaving one is making sure you have a bevel to steady when plunging and pulling center to rim for hogging. Pictures available, though there's nothing earth-shattering there.

I find the tenon loses bowl depth, behaves poorly in wet sapwood (abysmally with crush types), and of course, unless you use smooth jaws, takes an extra step to make things presentable after you have your work sanded up and ready. Fred mentions how to misuse a chuck in either mode by overtightening. Dovetail people normally relearn quickly what wood workers have always known, that a round peg in a round hole will split wood, because it presses evenly all around. Of course that's also the strength of the smooth jaw - doesn't require that you smash wood to get a grip, just a snug fit.

I'm chopping dovetail mortises for a set of KD shelves this morning. In this case through tails, but fox-wedged tenons are a feature in furniture the world around. Same principle as an internal dovetail.

BTW: Please don't feel like I (and the others) are taking pot shots at you.. You opened up a good topic with an idea that you had and we're commenting.. please don't feel flamed or anything..

(picture of jaws on ABPW for clarification) Mac

the trick with any jaw set is learning how to cut the edge so the jaws fit correctly. I usually put the piece onto the jaws and then look closely to see how much of the wood is making contact with the jaws.

When I've had problems with a chunk com> >

When I was using spigot (straight) jaws I rounded oval tenons with a hole saw. I left the guide drill bit in until the saw got started then dropped out the drill bit and cut down the length of the spigot. The original live center hole guided the drill bit for the start. This was done on a drill press so there was no need to set up a jam chuck or cole jaws.

No, they're for both... The jaws in the picture have a more pronounced "lip" than on my Oneway jaws, but same theory.... cut the recess at 90 degrees and expand into it flush.. From what I've seen in the pictures of the Nova line, they have a pretty definite angle and require a dovetail..

I actually used to cut a dovetail recess for a while because George and others recommended it.. only to find out that you don't do that with the Oneway jaws... lol

I think it was Bill Grumbine's DVD where he mentioned using right angle tenons and recesses for the oneway that made me realize my mistake... Mac