Fixing for Offcenter turning
Odie, The chucks are all quite different, and expensive. None does it all. You can do a lot without any special chucks, in fact most everything. I would recommend exploring these alternatives first. As Barbara emphasizes in her recent articles get familiar with the outcomes. And I add learn needed tool control. Here are some references that I think will be of interest:
Between Centers:
- Practice some of the shapes in Barbara Dill's article and get a feel for what results you get with different axes
- Nice article
HERE
- A nice project is to use the techniques above to turn a "Magic" Wand.
HERE is a slide show of some I have done. I would keep them under 14" unless you use a long nose chuck to stabilize a longer wand. Start simple and maybe 3/8" minimum diameter. Slice with the axis, no pressure across the axis.
Using conventional Chucks
- There are lots of easy ways to "offset" the new axis parallel to the lathe axis:
HERE is Ken Grunke's fixture
- And Axminister has an insert that does something similar described
HERE
- Or make your own fixture that allows the axis to be "angled" from the lathe axis or "offset." See my slide show
HERE (excuse crummy pictures)
- And
HERE is how I use the fixture to make multi axis bottle stoppers. I am trying to turn this slide show into a proposed Journal article. Would appreciate feedback.
- You can make a square or rectangular tenon on the end of a endgrain blank that fits within two sturdy long nose jaws and create quite a range of offsets and angles. That is how I did some of my multi-axis goblets. Vicmarc jaws are by far the best for this, and the ones for the 5-1/2" chuck best of all.
- You can use a faceplate on an end grain log, relocating it, and/or cutting a new angle on the end for a new axis once you have finished the preceding axis. That is how I did my multi-axis goblet for the Winter 2007 contest. It goes pretty fast. Figuring out what the result will be is the trick. That is why I recommend getting your feet wet between centers.
- You can make a fixture like the one in the photo attached for a conventional chuck. This was made based on a suggestion of mine by John Williams. It is best for doing only offset axes, but a little angling will work.
-
HERE is another great idea to make your own two jaw chuck by David Reed Smith
Use the tailstock as much as you can. But for modest size blanks, and as you near the headstock you can generally do without with good tool control.
Commercial Chucks:
- There are 3 flavors of Escoulen chucks
HERE is a vido of his newest.
- Robert Sorby has a new chuck see
HERE for description and a really nice video link. I bought this chuck but haven't used it yet. My fixtures are familiar to me and work great!