chuck question

[tinytim1458]

Hi everyone a question to ask.
What homemade chucks have anyone made and how did they make them.
Just all i am doing is spindle turning between two points, have not got enough money to buy my own chuck so i was wondering if anyone could help me to make my own chuck or chucks.
Pictures, pdf or other ways to help me make the chucks would be a great help (ie links to any of your own built chuck pages or other web sites would be great).
I know you guys have great experience so any way you could help me to make my own chucks would be great.
Thanks and all the best.
Tim

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

If you have a faceplate you could screw that to a thick piece of wood then use screws and rubber/wood to hold the piece in place.

If you have a tap with the correct thread for your headstock you could use that to allow some wood to thread onto the headstock to create a faceplate.

 

[János]

Hello,

I use simple homemade chucks for turning small boxes and bowls. You can read about these, and see a few images here:

lathe-tools-selfmade-t46864.html

Have a nice day,

János

 

[Wood spoiler]

A variety of jam chucks etc are discussed in the excellent starters book by Keith Rowley: Woodturning, A Foundation Course

 

[chrisbaker42]

Still waiting for you to tell us what lathe you have and then we know what the headstock is like

 

[Finial]

I give details of a simple insert chuck on my site. It is meant for holding various metal inserts such as pin chucks, mandrels etc, that in turn hold the wood, but it could be used to hold dowel for making very small items. Larger ones could be held by turning a peg on the end to go in the chuck. But it is not for holding bowls, boxes etc if that is what you want. The simplest options for those are probably a screw chuck and wooden cup chuck, both easily made.

 

[tinytim1458]

How do i know when i make a home made chuck of sorts that when i say put the work in after trimming or getting it round on spindle work that i can find a way to make sure the job in central and running true.
Thanks and all the best.
Tim

 

[bikerbob]

Hi Tim

Like you I had little money when I started turning and was forced to improvise. I have made small jam chucks inside and outside from scraps of softwood, I still have lots in the shed drawer, if you make a mistake and cut them too loose jam apiece of paper in to tighten them up. You can mount them on a screw chuck or faceplate or for smaller ones such as lace bobbins turn a taper to fit your lathe (morse taper versions are better made in hardwood).

Another tried and tested method is a "glue chuck", fix a scrap piece of wood onto your faceplate glue a piece of paper to it and glue your work to the paper. Once the work is turned it can be spplit off at the paper line, you can then sand the bottom on the belt sander or better still reverse onto a wooden jam chuck with or without tailstock support and finish the bottom on the lathe.

If that doesn't help move to Suffolk and I'll show you some I made earlier.

Bob

 

[miles_hot]

Tim

The issue of moving from between centres to chuck is common to bought and home made chucks. If you have a search around there was a good thread on it about a month ago. The broad theme of that thread was that a tenon made it easier to ensure concentric mounting - i.e. turn a tenon on the piece and then use the chuck to grab that. Happily that it also the easier method to grab in a home made chuck.

You have already had suggestions of glue and jam chucking - I'll throw in a suggestion of home make compression chuck. In this you make a round space to the approx shape you wan to hold (maybe a dovetail or straight tenon or even a sphere if that's what you're doing) and then cut down through that to make 2 or four "jaws". You then tighten these with a jubilee clip (I would suggest cutting a grove to secure this in place). something like this

There is also a variation on the button jaws which I'm sure I saw discussed on here some time ago but I haven't looked back yet (will edit when I find it) something like this:

 

[loftyhermes]

Since picking up a 3/4 x16 tap from a car boot for 50p I've made these wood chucks to hold lace bobbin blanks on my Record DML24. They are drilled out at various diameters to suit the blanks and just insert the blank and tap the ring along the chuck which has the outside tapered to tighten up on the blank, basically the same idea as the jubilee clip chuck but without the great big lump of metal (the clip tightening screw) whizzing round near my hand