I am new to woodturning. I just bought a new 37" lathe with a 12" swing. It came with face plates and center points but with no chucks. I have been looking around the internet for a good chuck but they are all real expensive. For my first bowl that I turned I used a jamfit chuck to secure the bowl for hollowing. What are your tips for securing wood for hollowing without chucks and does anyone know where I can buy chucks that don't cost a fortune? I am looking for collet, spigot, whatever. Just anything that can secure my work for me.
Welcome to the world of wood turning and the madhouse that is this forum.
For turning larger bowls you could use the face plate, I usually cover the bottom of the bowl with adhesive felt from a fabric shop as a finishing touch and you could use this to hide the screw holes.
A chuck really is worth the money, and once you've bought one you will wonder why you hesitated in getting one.
As for sources, this forum is mainly Australian users so you might like to check out the rec.crafts.woodturning newsgroup as someone there will know of a source in US or Canada.
I will be getting a good chuck when I can afford it. But I just shelled out alot of cash for the lathe and tools so that is not an option right not. Good tip on using the felt for covering the bottom of the bowl when using a faceplate. I wonder if a good brown crafting paper would do the same.
The first bowl I turned was pretty small and the jamfit chuck worked fine. I have a second bowl on the lathe right now that has been worked on the outside and is just about ready for hollowing.
It's good to have you on the forum, I for one enjoy chatting to turners from other countries and you will find the guys here a great & helpful bunch of characters.
One of the great features of this forum is the search feature which allows you to seach the forum and see older posts on various topics.
The fun part of turning is when you start playing with big timber - I played today with a 10 inch piece of Marri which is an Aussie hard wood. I used a face plate to turn the outside and then used a chuck to work the inside.
Like you I am on a limited budget so I know about doing what you can with what you've got.
One thing I would suggest is that you bide your time and wait till you can get a decent chuck rather than a cheapie. I got a cheap chinese chuck as a package with my lathe, it's been a good starter chuck but after only 6 months it's giving me problems because of the cheap metal of the chuck.
You can try hotmelt glue on a carrier or a sandwich of carrier, wood glue, and brown paper; then split off carefully when finished and clean up. You can make your own vacuum chuck to ease the problem of cleaning up the foot - do a google for designs on the web. I have one that runs off a domestic vacuum cleaner that works fine.
Jam chucks run the risk of giving way if you have a catch; so for larger bowls run up your endstock and leave a stub in the centre for as long as you can.
If you've bought a garden variety set of tools you will find that the sharpening done on them is very much a token effort.
I joined a wood turning club here in Perth, the first night there the instructor not only sharpened my tools so they worked 100 times better but he showed me how to do it.
The learning aside, it's great to hang out and see what other people are doing.
Books. That's what you need. Books. Look at the pictures, read the text, and you'll find there are hundreds of ways to attach wood without a "chuck". As far as woodturning goes, the clamping type of chucks are relatively new. Don't get me wrong, they are great, and I use a simple old three jaw chuck a lot. But a vacuum chuck is great, as is a jam chuck (here's a freebie tip for all you newbies :cool: ...drill a small hole in the rear area of a jam chuck, and when a piece is stuck too good, use a small blast of air from a compressor to pop it out....saves a lot of thin turnings!!!), (another freebie :cool: ....if the jam fit is a tad too loose, you can put a bit of tissue paper around the outside and lightly moisten it to make it..the tissue....expand and create a snug fit). Hot glue works very well. Double sided tapes have a lot of followers. At some point you'll find that attaching your work to the lathe is often the greatest challenge of a turning project, especially for those one off repair jobs. If you plan to sell your services I suggest you consider a shop set up fee up front for special jigs and save that money to buy more chucks and so forth. A lot of jobs have about 5 minutes of turning after a half hour or more to fabricate a good jig to hold the wood, be sure you get paid for that time. I suggest you hold on to your custom jigs because you will use them again, sometimes with just a little modification. If you are truly a new turner, classes are a great idea. Good luck.
The world of woodturners http://www.thewows.com the wows is by invitation.
I like this forum a lot due to the humer the Ozzies have and there seems to be more turners in Australia than the us. Feel free to e-mail me.
A chuck is nice. I have a Oneway and it is an excellent chuck, but I seldom use it for bowls. Chucks are a waste of time for bowls in my opinion although that is not shared by many. Try roughing between centers and using a glue block for finish turning. See my web site for more info on how I do it.
I and millions of other people wouldn't agree with your blunt statement: "Chucks are a waste of time for bowls".
There are other ways of doing bowls, but I really think that chucks have their place in bowl turning. I would think having to wait for glue to dry as in your suggestion would definately waste more time, unless ofcourse you are using hot melt. I use the between centres roughing and glue block sometimes as well, but I use a chuck more often.
Anyway to each his own, just make sure it is safe.
I agree that many people use chucks to turn bowls. Personally I find them to be a wast of time, at least for most bowls. They leave a recess or tenon that must be handled in some fashion. Unless it is removed or decorated it is obviouly "the place where the chuck went." I have a series of glue bocks ready so a few seconds of hot melt glue and on they go. It works well for me on bowls up to 18" and I have friends that use it up to 36". Safe and time tested. So are chucks but I tend to have mine set up on the other lathe for other stuff. Unless you are going to core the blank, why bother to use a chuck for roughing? Just put it between centers and go?