• Congratulations to John K. Jordan winner of the June 2025 Turning Challenge (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Bobby McCarly for "Hemostatmorphodon" being selected as Turning of the Week for July 7, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Eccentric turning chucks

The only experience I have with them is watching, but I own one of the Ruth Niles set ups which is mostly for smaller pieces. Carl Jacobs sells them now. You can do a lot with them, but I think they are more for smaller flat pieces, like 1/4 inch thick or so.

robo hippy
 
Kevin Jenness said:
What sort of work do you want to do with one?
Click to expand...
Absolutely the correct basic question! Followed, perhaps, by "why".

Most -- if not all -- multiaxis / eccentric work can be done without the expense of a commercial chuck. I do a wide variety of multiaxis turning without a special chuck. At club show-and-tell sessions, people often ask "what eccentric chuck did you use?" which assumes that one is essential. Or "what vacuum chuck setup?" I have yet to find the need for any. For example, for spindle work see Barbara Dill's work (and her book). The Duxchuck, and many variations, provide a nearly no-cost alternative for smaller things. For perhaps the ultimate , look at Derek Weidman's work -- he does everything between centers. I've taken two of his classes. I don't do animal sculpture, but I learned how much can be done with very simple equipment and setups. My greatest expenses have been a safety drive and a couple steb centers. Anything further that I need I can make from scrap material. You can make aids to do what you want, rather than adapting what you want to do to the demands of the equipment.
 
Wow, talk about dangerous...... smashed fingers, ouch.

Interesting idea, how about using an offset boring head in the tailstock to do the cuts keeping your fingers away?
 
R Henrickson said:
Absolutely the correct basic question! Followed, perhaps, by "why".

Most -- if not all -- multiaxis / eccentric work can be done without the expense of a commercial chuck. I do a wide variety of multiaxis turning without a special chuck. At club show-and-tell sessions, people often ask "what eccentric chuck did you use?" which assumes that one is essential. Or "what vacuum chuck setup?" I have yet to find the need for any. For example, for spindle work see Barbara Dill's work (and her book). The Duxchuck, and many variations, provide a nearly no-cost alternative for smaller things. For perhaps the ultimate , look at Derek Weidman's work -- he does everything between centers. I've taken two of his classes. I don't do animal sculpture, but I learned how much can be done with very simple equipment and setups. My greatest expenses have been a safety drive and a couple steb centers. Anything further that I need I can make from scrap material. You can make aids to do what you want, rather than adapting what you want to do to the demands of the equipment.
Click to expand...
I agree with this. There is so much you can do between centers if you can work out the geometry. I took a class with JF Escoulen a few weeks back and did several variations of multi-axis just between centers before we switched to the No.1 chuck.

The biggest question, as you said, is what do you want to achieve? Multiple parallel axes? Axes rotated around a point? There's a chuck for each effect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top