Turning long spindles.

thanks for the info Dale

"RESPITE95" wrote: (clip) Now I slide the pipe on to the center of a

35"inch long stick (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Neat idea. Fred Holder has a Tips Column in his publication, More Woodturning, and I know he is looking for ideas like this to publish. And you have a chance to win a prize.

You were fortunate to have a square size that fits easily and snugly inside a standard pipe size. If your luck doesn't hold up on the next project, you could make a glue-up out of wood, with a square opening, and turn it round to accomodate the steady rest. A hose clamp would make it easy to get on and off.

Thanks for posting this. This is what newsgroups are all about.

or, you could use a bearing with some kind of spacer tho that may be getting close to Rob Goldberg territory

Dale

Your lathe's tailstock casting can be used to make a makeshift steady for long thin spindles that are driven and held by a chuck. Turn up some hardwood bushings that fit into the tailstock. Bore different sized holes in them to fit various sized thin spindles. Remove the tailstock barrel and fit a desired bush into the casting.

Your piece of pipe used to be called a 'turtle' If a thin spindle is too misshapen or large to be driven into plain pipe, or you want to leave a polygonal section, consider making an adjustable turtle. Drill and tap 3 or 4 holes around a short length of iron pipe or steel tube, leaving enough free end-space to ride in your regular steady. Hold the thin spindle in the turtle shell with short adjusting bolts.

Small steadies can be made by drilling and tapping opposing holes in hex nuts. Small spindles can ride on smoothly rounded tips of inserted short bolts. Teflon or bronze bolts are good. Once I used shortened plastic bolts from a discarded toilet seat-- no comments, please, :) I leave it to you to contrive a way to hold the hex nut. Cop-out? :)

To avoid a variety of problems assure that a spindle riding in a steady is truly coaxial with the lathe axis.

With apologies to Ecnerwal; a different way to skin a cat is no vice when taken with fine chocolate and good coffee. Leo & Dale, probably this NG is not "all about" these kinds of tips. :) Arch

Fortiter,

Then there's the old stand-by of reducing a small section or two to cylindrical using a board steady (anything for your spindle to rub against other than your skin) and your parting tool. Run your steady in the resulting sections.

Etc

Your piece of pipe used to be called a 'turtle' If a thin spindle is too misshapen or large to be driven into plain pipe, or you want to leave a polygonal section, consider making an adjustable turtle. Drill and tap 3 or 4 holes around a short length of iron pipe or steel tube, leaving enough free end-space to ride in your regular steady. Hold the thin spindle in the turtle shell with short adjusting bolts.

Small steadies can be made by drilling and tapping opposing holes in hex nuts. Small spindles can ride on smoothly rounded tips of inserted short bolts. Teflon or bronze bolts are good. Once I used shortened plastic bolts from a discarded toilet seat-- no comments, please, :) I leave it to you to contrive a way to hold the hex nut. Cop-out? :)

To avoid a variety of problems assure that a spindle riding in a steady is truly coaxial with the lathe axis.

With apologies to Ecnerwal; a different way to skin a cat is no vice when taken with fine chocolate and good coffee.

Leo & Dale, probably this NG is not "all about" these kinds of tips. :) Arch

as the Dale part of the Leo & Dale act, could you be a bit more splainy about your comment to us

Dale

Fortiter,

Hi Dale, My comment was intended as a silly spoof of my ? tips and to acknowledge, with a grin, better ones by Leo and you. George, Leo, GCS and others understood, but I missed the mark for you and not for the first time for some others. Thanks for your gentle and courteous request for clarification.. That, too, is what rcw is about and the reason for my signature and empty site below. Some are sighing that his posts is the reason for their delete key and plonkings.

There have been many threads abouI the place on rcw, or if there is one at all, for humor, editorials, personal or inside remarks, and other marginal postings. There seems to be no good answer for all.

Many believe that strictly limiting to Q&A's re woodturning is best, and they can point to many misunderstandings that have kindled counterproductive flames. For a half-witted example: I take "splain" to mean explain, ie. 'from plain'. Meaning to most of us to make something clearer, but maybe not to everyone everywhere as 'plain' has many other meanings that could cause them to "miss the point". OK, my posts usually have no point to miss. :)

Many believe, and I'm included. that this unmoderated woodturning ng has a place and serves a need. Further, it should have a personality and it would dry up if limited to turning Q&A's and referrals elsewhere to the arid authority of books and experts.

I sure liked the Leo & Dale act and we all cheer for lots of curtain calls. Thanks for asking me to clarify from a shaky soap(LDD)box. With only 339 posts this morning, I (mis)used the bandwidth.

With a huge grin and best regards, Arch

Fortiter,

Yep. Very good idea. As a side note: for those wanting a picture of what is being done, you can see it in most "how to turn" woodturning books. I seem to remember seeing a couple of modifications to this as well. One was just fitting a large bearing over the square stock and holding the outside of the bearing in a clamp????

- Andrew