sorta newbie question on turning small jars/boxes

Hi Mac

I assume you do not have a lathe chuck, and the firewood will be turned not plank wise but lengthwise, I would not use a screw in that case, and turn the chunks into cylinders between centers, then screw a disk to your face plate and turn a flat bottom depression in that will fit your smallest cylinder, glue the piece in and turn your box, part off, cut or scrape out the depression to fit your next cylinder, etc. If you use dry wood you can glue it in with hot glue, whenever I have used hot glue I always used my propane torch to heat the wood then put on the glue.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

mac davis wrote:

ok.. I think from the 2 replies, I need a chuck.. you're right about the length.. right now I'm turning the branches between centers with a spur to get the blanks round... Next I'll cut them roughly to length and then the problem occurs.. (years of Shopsmith use have made me a "plan ahead" kinda guy)

I looked at chucks at HF for reference, and they say "for use with square, rectangular or odd shaped pieces"... is round an odd shape, or am I missing something here?

?itemnumber=31223

Some call them treen...

Beall Tools has a special mandrel for turning small boxes. You drill a 1 1/4" hole in the stock, and then insert the mandrel.

down side is that the inside diameter is fixed. You can get itfrom Woodcraft, etc. But make sure you get the Morse Taper adapterand consider the Treen Mandrel convertor. I think Lee Valley had thebest package, last I checked, because the $15 convertor was included.

I'm still wondering if a chuck would be the way to go..

I wouldn't waste time or money on that chuck. It's basically a metalworking chuck adapted for wood, but the jaws are too narrow to do much good. Look at Craft Supplies USA's site to see what a woodturning chuck should look like, and specifically at the following link

to see the Technatool Nova Midi Chuck, a quality yet reasonably priced chuck for small work. At about $120 it's the least expensive good quality chuck I've seen. Don't waste your money on the HF chuck.

As you will see with all the chucks we normally use, the jaws close to a full circle, and are usually dovetail shaped in cross section. One exception is the Oneway chuck which has serrated jaws.

-Jim Gott- San Jose, CA

the recommendation to use a glue block will solve your immediate problem - and save you a lot of $$ over a chuck. but a decent chuck is a great thing to have - figure on spending a couple of hundred $$

that looks like a great chuck, Jim... but way over my budget... I think the hot glue might be the way to go for now... for $120 I could buy her a lot of jars and lids.. lol

Mac don't touch with a 10 foot pole

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

mac davis wrote:

I wouldn't waste money on the hb chuck either, i did and it will not hold anything. no dovetails inside or outside. save your money and head.

You can also make a split collet chuck for your faceplate. End grain hard wood, four slits, and a groove to accommodate a hose clamp. You can turn it with a slight dovetail inside to help wedge your piece tightly against the shoulder as the clamp is tightened. I used elm, and it was a good interim measure until I could afford my first chuck.

It will limit you to one size spigot, but you can certainly work around that. If you're a belt/suspenders guy, touch it with hot glue. Be advised, you will _never_ be able to perfectly recenter the chuck if you once remove it from the faceplate, though I tried, and tape the loose end of the band to keep it somewhat out of the way.

On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 02:56:52 -0500, Leo Van Der Loo wrote: thanks, leo.. I've pretty much decided that I'll get a lathe someday, but I'll wait until I can afford a One-way or one of the ones at Lee Valley..

I've had good luck with some HF stuff, but usually avoid anything involving precision... Their site was just a quick way to get a few pics of chucks..

hmm... I've been trying to think of a slightly adjustable version of the one suggested here, but couldn't figure out how to adjust the "jaws.... No problem with dedicating a faceplate to it.. I have 3 or 4 and don't do that much turning... I think i'm going to cheat on these and do the rough hollowing on the drill press with a forstner...

Jim & all you others that don't understand the HF 4jaw chuck's reason for being:

HF & I don't appreciate your remarks. It is too! a good chuck. Great for wasting time or making it pass. I've spent many happy hours waiting while the wife shops or at the dentist's office (sure beats his old magazines) thinking of things to do with this chuck from hell. The uses are legion and very high class, from anchoring my canoe to stopping my door, not to mention throwing clay pigeons. I'd never sully it's good name and dis it by trying to use it to hold wood...although I'm allowed to use it as a weight for glue-ups. Works great!

Buying junque at bargain prices is an art only a few of us on rcw are endowed with. I urge all true believers who bought a HF chuck to come forth and tell of their uses for this magnificent POS.

Mac, I hope this clears up any unfortunate misunderstandings that _some people seem to have and to hold. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

I think I'll get one to make a nice contrast to my POS hf biscuit jointer, which is decorating the pegboard in a dark, dusty corner of the gar.. I mean shop....

Forget the $50 to $60 chucks from any source. There may be a good one out there, but the odds of your finding it are not good. Get a decent chuck. The Oneway Talon is top notch. The Super Nova is excellent. Nova's new Midi chuck deserves a look. The only thing about "buying cheap" is that you seldom get your money's worth.

Barry

Barry.. when I'm ready to spend the bucks, it is the 1 way talon that I was looking at.. for me, it has 2 things going for it... several reviews calling it one of the best, and that it fits my shopsmith.. I don't do enough turning to justify a dedicated lathe or the space it takes up..

I was going to use the idea of a turned backing plate with a hole for the stock & hot glue... I turned a 14 or 16" piece of the walnut to as close as I could get to a "perfect" spindle.. about 1 7/8 diameter once it was running true..

next step was to run it through the CMS to get box turning lengths that the hot glue could handle..

I found out that on most of the pieces, I didn't need the glue... they went in with help from my B.F.H. (not really, I used a rubber mallet)

I did a couple of them last night... it's a challenge for my limited turning skills, as every "clunk" causes the piece to change it's seating in the "jam chuck" and get out of true...

The boxes were pretty easy, but the tops were a PITA..

Since these boxes are for the wife, and my neighbor has a lot of these walnut branches, I'm hoping (with a printout of the shopsmith lathe chuck page accidentally left out *g*), that santa might bring a lathe chuck this year..