Oneway Spur Drive

[hockenbery]

I got one a while back. I find its best to cut a slot in the wood for the blade to lock into, otherwise it tends to wallow a bit.

I give it a good whack with a wooden mallet to set it.
Many pieces can be mounted with the big bite driven into the wood - set big bite in the Chuck, hold in place with the tailstock, tighten the tailstock, and turn.
if the big bit comes out I put it in the Chuck and put the blank on it using the hole it fell out of and tighten the tailstock.

i drive in 4 spur drives with a mallet to.
Wiggling and tightening is less secure, no grain orientation control, and takes a whole lot longer than a mallet whack.

In lining up the grain I want the big bite perpendicular to the grain and 4 Spurs at 45 degrees to the grain.

 

[Larry Copas]

The left one fits the 100 and the right one fits the 120. Made out of tool steel that I heat treated to stay sharp and also for toughness. They don't have to be driven into the wood. I've turned lots of big rough stuff with these and never had a problem. I think the best system as it so much faster to just put the spur in the chuck, turn a tendon, remove spur, and finish turning. No taking chucks on and off.

I made the spurs after going to a David Ellsworth demo some years ago and watched him use the Stubby drive center that Emiliano posted about. David uses it with only two spurs for good reason. I wanted one bad, but it was out of production at the time. I could have cloned it, but I also looked at the Big Bite and liked the concept as a better system. That was the reason I made my drive centers.