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this is getting a litte too exciting and a Talon chuck question

Bill Boehme

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It is too bad that the club didn't scratch your itch. The great majority of new members in our club are not interested in long term involvement. Perhaps several meetings and mentoring sessions is sufficient until they feel that they can turn something without destroying it or their shop in the process. Most people are busy and already have a lot of irons in the fire and aren't as eaten up with the turning bug like some of us fools are. Others join just to get a membership card that gives them discounts at a couple woodworking merchants.

The club that you attended recently changed their meeting location from south of Lake Pontchartrain to north of it so I suspect that many of the members had to add about an hour to their drive time. That might explain the quick dispersal after the meeting ended. At the same time it looks like they could have done a better job of welcoming visitors.
 
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As far as mentoring goes, I have as much fun coaching as I do turning. Perhaps, as mentors we need to make sure that we are not being imposed on for doing mentoring sessions. The Willamette Valley Woodturners in Salem has regular 'Sawdust' sessions where a bunch of them will get together for various turning related things from bowl and pen turning to cutting up logs. I don't have a shop big enough for that, though would love to do it.

robo hippy
 
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Hu, you are absolutely right, as is Mahoney. When a wedge is inserted, the wood is pushed away from the tapered side. If the wedge is symmetrical, wood climbs both sides. Trying to push even an extra half mm to the side lifts the nose from the shoulder.

For end grain work, I find the best solution to the radial split problem is to elevate the bottom, so that air has access to both bottom and top. Even drying prevents the first crack from opening.
 

hockenbery

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Hu,
I have visited about 30 chapters in the past 10 years.
Some have have so many good turners it is like going to a mini symposium every meeting.
Others have not a single turner at the advanced level
The one thing they all,have in common is a core membership that wants to learn more about woodturning.

I suggest you call the point of contact for the club and ask about suggestions for new turners.
meetings get rushed as they they try to cram 3 hours of activities into 150 minutes.

There are three clubs all about an hours drive from me.
One has a standing Wednesday night turning session,
One had a day long bowl class with James McClure in march a pen turning session Last Saturday
Another has a bowl turning session planned for the first Saturday in May.

Many clubs are sort of seasonal in their activities.
 
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Hu,
There can be a problem with trying to seat your bowl in the chuck by using the tailstock. If you put pressure on it while tightening your chuck, the piece, if not perfectly centered, won't move to center as you tighten. For really big pieces, I put them on the work bench, and sit the chuck on the piece, then tighten. On smaller pieces, I just push it in by hand, and wiggle a bit as I tighten to 'feel' when it is sitting flat and centered. Rotate by hand to see how close it is, then adjust if necessary. They never remount perfectly. If you have 1/16 inch wobble, that means +/- 1/32, which for an imperfect medium like wood is really pretty good.

robo hippy
 
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Thanks!

Hu,
There can be a problem with trying to seat your bowl in the chuck by using the tailstock. If you put pressure on it while tightening your chuck, the piece, if not perfectly centered, won't move to center as you tighten. For really big pieces, I put them on the work bench, and sit the chuck on the piece, then tighten. On smaller pieces, I just push it in by hand, and wiggle a bit as I tighten to 'feel' when it is sitting flat and centered. Rotate by hand to see how close it is, then adjust if necessary. They never remount perfectly. If you have 1/16 inch wobble, that means +/- 1/32, which for an imperfect medium like wood is really pretty good.

robo hippy


Many thanks about the tip to turn things upside down. It is the little things that experience teaches that takes a long time to learn on my own. Good point about the tailstock too, I may build a big pad with a #2 taper turned on the back for holding. I do feel carefully that it is on the shoulder behind the tenon all the way around before tightening the tailstock. Have also used the trick of removing the chuck and letting gravity do it's job with this little chuck already, I may find I favor doing that. Some of the chucks I worked with machining metal required a little jib crane to remove so I'm not in the habit of pulling chucks often. The little ones weighed close to a hundred pounds and I never liked taking them on and off because of wear and tear on them and the d-locks.

Gotta brag about these wave jaws in one respect. I had the piece in and out of the jaws three or four times before finish turning. Replacing the piece I snug to very light contact, rotate the piece gently back and forth finding the center of the loose spot, tighten a little more and repeat the process. The marks of the jaws aren't evenly spaced, each jaw has two contact points then there was a wider gap between each jaw but by rotating so I was in line with a set of jaw marks I was able to hit jaw marks each time. In practice it takes less time than it does to explain. Next to no runout each time I started turning again and when I went to cut the tenon off there were only the original eight sets of jaw marks, sharp and clean. Pretty pleased with the little chuck!

Hu
 
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second bowl

Not much as such things go but I was piling up big pretty shavings much of the time, felt like a wood turner! Trying to hollow with the long straight tool rest with one end deep inside the bowl I let my thumb get into the bark on one wing. When I jerked I had a major catch and I think this is when I cracked the tenon also. I hit the inside a lick and a prayer shaping and sanding after that. The large chunk of bark was already missing from the chainsaw but I lost another inch and a half chunk that isn't visible in this image when I hit my thumb.

I did take the piece off the chuck and evaluate the crack before deciding to proceed with caution. That catch was probably the major oops on this piece other than putting the faceplate on the wrong side first.

I did take time to trim and balance the piece and I cut an inch and a half slab off of it when it seemed too heavy. That did move the pith where I didn't want it but these pieces are just going on my shelf as "do you remember when" displays. That is a little moss sticking up in the back but there are wood fibers to clean up other places.

Hu
 

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Bill Boehme

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... Gotta brag about these wave jaws in one respect. I had the piece in and out of the jaws three or four times before finish turning. Replacing the piece I snug to very light contact, rotate the piece gently back and forth finding the center of the loose spot, tighten a little more and ...

I speed up the process by using pencil to mark the jaw positions on the wood and I also number them so that the same jaw will be contacting the same points.
 
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