Centering Jig

[Dave Fritz]

Re-watching Tim Yoder making pendants he mentioned making a centering jig to remount a pentant to the lathe for sanding. Since he's retired and no longer making any more excellent and entertaining videos I thought I'd ask here. How would you make a centering jig to help remount a pendant to the lathe for re-sanding? All my searches show centering jigs for bowl blanks and centering a faceplate. I'm probably not using the correct key words in my search. Thanks for your help.

 

[Earl McLain]

Ruth Niles (the bottle stopper company/lady) sells an offset jig that seems to be used a lot for pendants. You might take a look at that to see if it helps in your design thinking. I've not used Ruth's, but it looks like a functional product.
earl

 

[Dave Fritz]

Yes, I have that if you mean the Joyner Jig. So if I have a pendant that is stuck with double sided tape and I remove it to color it like Tim did, how would I remount it using a centering jig? I just wondered if such a jig is a common one many would have in their shops? I can't find anything about them.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMTqdpIMm3o&ab_channel=WoodturningwithTimYoder
He mentions it at about the 11:25 portion of the video.

 

[John Dillon]

Dave, never tried this but, wondering if you turned a small block of wood between centers. Maybe a small chunk of 2x4, face grain oriented, like a bowl blank. Put a tenon on it then put tenon in chuck.

Face-off other side then use a parting tool, or your choice of tools, to make a shallow recess same diameter, or ever so slightly larger than your pendant.Use double-sided tape to hold your pendant in the recess. Not sure if the shallow recess would allow you enough width on the pendant to sand the face?

Might also advise drilling a hole through the waste blockk/jamb chuck in case you need to put your knock-out bar through the headstock and give your pendant a tap to break it free. Does this sound like it might be a solution to your problem?

 

[Brent@TurnRobust]

Hey Dave, just FYI, Tim Yoder retired from being a producer in Oklahoma public TV, but his woodturning activities are still very much alive and well. He does one 1/2 hour video each month on his YouTube channel, and has an active tool sales biz you can find online.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

I don't know what particular jig Tim is referring to, but there's probably more than one way to go about it.

If it were me I'd want to center the pendant with something mounted to the tail stock, then bring the workpiece up to the tape on the headstock.

My first thought was to use a small Longworth or Cole jaws, but even simpler would be to use a regular 4 jaw chuck. I'd put a plywood spacer in the bottom of the chuck to keep the pendant from sitting too deep. And I'd put some masking tape on the jaws to keep from marring the pendant surface.

Put the piece in the chuck and the chuck on the tailstock, then stick it to the tape. Of course, I've never made a pendant so maybe that won't work.

 

[Tom Gall]

Just watched the video. When he re-mounted the disc to sand back the dye it wasn’t running perfectly true – close is good enough for the surface but not for the edge. If you slow down the speed you can sand the edge if desired.

I’ve used a homemade vacuum chuck for this type of work. Use the bleed valve to have just enough vacuum to hold the piece on the chuck – then use the back of the gouge to slowly and lightly touch the edge to bring the piece to true and then crank up the vacuum. If you go a little past running true the piece will fly off the chuck. DAMHIKT!

I also prefer to turn the front and back of items like this – no flat surfaces.
Another method - you can make a little surface design/embellishment to disguise a center mark or cone. Then use your live center cone/point to re-center your piece. You can use a pressure/friction fit or DS-tape against a conical or tube shaped chuck.

 

[Sandy Jarrell]

Re-watching Tim Yoder making pendants he mentioned making a centering jig to remount a pentant to the lathe for sanding. Since he's retired and no longer making any more excellent and entertaining videos I thought I'd ask here. How would you make a centering jig to help remount a pendant to the lathe for re-sanding? All my searches show centering jigs for bowl blanks and centering a faceplate. I'm probably not using the correct key words in my search. Thanks for your help.

I would just email Tim and ask him.

 

[Dave Fritz]

Thanks Brent, I thought he had retired from turning as well. I did email him and he suggesting something along the lines like Mark suggested.