I spent the morning out at Boyce Thompson Arboretum on a tree identification walk. We hit about 30 different trees that woodturners in the Phoenix metro area may come across including Carob, African Sumac, Palo Verde, Desert Ironwood, Olive, and many of the various Mesquite and Acacia varieties.
Tonight I decided to make a handful of jam chuck blanks as I noticed I was running low the other night. Here the blank has been mounted between centers, turned down to a cylinder, a tenon cut on one end for the chuck, and the other and has been faced.
Now a 1 1/8" hole has been drilled through the piece. This is 1/8" smaller than the 1 1/4" threads that will be cut.
1 1/4" Beall tap in place. The tailstock with a 60 degree live center is used to support the tap as the threads are cut. The spindle has been locked to prevent the blank from rotating.
Tapping is almost complete. Once all of the cutter head is inside the blank you can disengage the tailstock and continue cutting the threads.
The threads have been completed and the blank has been threaded directly on the spindle so I can clean up the tenon and turn a small recess on the back face to better fit my lathe.
Finished jam chuck. The recess on the back is to fit over a small collar that's on the spindle on my lathe.
These 5 should last me a year or more as each one can be used multiple times. I use them most often as jam chucks for lidded boxes and other small stuff where a vacuum chuck may not provide sufficient hold.
The top 2 are Ficus, the bottom 3 are Box Elder.
No comments:
Post a Comment