Help! I can't find a drive centre to fit.

[Keegis]

Hi all, I'm very new to the woodturning business and have just bought my first second-hand lathe. It's quite an old Clarke 20" lathe, it's nothing special but will do while I'm learning the ropes. My only problem is when I got it it didn't have a drive centre and it's not a standard fitting. I've contacted Machine Mart (where it originally came from) who say that the lathe and all the accessories are now discontinued. I've had a look online and even spoken to a couple of dealers but can't find one anywhere. I've got a faceplate I can use for turning bowls and larger pieces of wood but nothing for smaller than about 7cm in diameter. I wondered about using a Jacobs Chuck and fitting a drive centre into that but I'm really not sure what will work and what won't and I don't want to end up damaging my lathe or myself. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Katy

 

[flh801978]

Does your lathe have a screw fitting that a drive centre screwed onto? Or does it have a hole down the centre of the spindle?

Ian

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I suspect that's her problem - it's a screw on centre. You could make up small face plates with square recesses in for holding square timbers - taper them slightly (like a bobbin drive) and always mark the position when you take something that you wish or might wish to remount. That's not a bad habit to get into for the time it takes, anyway. Not ideal, but it would give you a bit more versatility.

 

[graduate_owner]

Easy for me to say, but I don't think Clarke is a good lathe to start on (Clarke generally is quite poor stuff). I remember reading a post about someone having learnt some woodturning at school, and was given a Clarke lathe by a relative. His woodturning abilities went backwards as he developed bad habits to compensate for the inadequacies of the lathe. So it might be worth considering getting a used lathe of decent make rather than spend out on the Clarke. Makes such as Record ( or the older versions made by Coronet) are actually quite affordable - there is an old Record on ebay now for £70 or best offer, includes a few chisels too. At least you would get standard fittings for it without any problems. You sometimes see Myford ML8s going cheap too, they are nicely made lathes (I have one).

K

 

[graduate_owner]

To continue - my first attempt at turning was using a Black and Decker lathe attachment for an electric drill. It can only be described as awful, and nearly put me off turning permanently. I wouldn't wish one of those on anyone. The Clarke will be far better than that, no doubt, but I'm just thinking it might not give you a realistic, enjoyable introduction to turning.

K

 

[bourbon]

Why the 'It's not expensive and a well known name so it must be crap' nonsense? If Clarke were that bad, they would have gone to the wall years ago. It's a STARTER lathe. your Idea of a ' bad habit' maybe someone else's idea of a good way to work. (as long as it's safe obviously). I really must go into my workshop and clear Every Power tool I have in there because they were cheap therefore crap.

 

[Keegis]

It has a very small hole through the spindle but not big enough for an y of the drive centres I've seen. I realise Clarke isn't very well respected in the world of woodturning but it was affordable and its very basic, I'm quite happy with the lathe itself. Once I've got to grips with the basics I'll probably get a better one, but for now I can't really afford anything else. I'm fine for turning bigger pieces but I'd love to be able to do a few smaller pieces too and just wondered if there was an easy answer out there. Because I'm quite new to it (and don't have a great deal of spare cash!) I didn't want to spend a lot on things I can't use. It's a 3/4" x 16TPI Headstock which appears to be not too common.
I'm really enjoying learning what to do and what not to do and just experimenting with it all. I've managed to get a 4 jaw bowl turning chuck which I find incredibly difficult to use because the Jaws move independently from eachother so it's really hard to centre the bowl on it. I don't know if that might come to some use?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's a metal turning chuck - don't use it, IT IS dangerous. Irrc that thread is common.

 

[KimG]

The problem with cheaper tools is that they may perform well enough when they are not stressed, i.e. the workload is light. But they fail to perform when put to the test of a tougher task. Woodturning by it's nature tends to be brought to this point sooner rather than later because that is the nature of the hobby, you start off with small stuff, but as soon as you get the hang of it you want to pop a chunk in the lathe and have a crack at something a bit more serious. It's then that the light weight, and usually flimsy construction are shown to be inadequate to the task, and at a point when it is still fairly new. To progress then, you need to purchase a better unit, thus rendering the initial purchase a false economy. While you can indeed get away with much buying cheaper and flimsier tools, they do not (on the whole) take well to being used as professional standard bits of kit.

 

[Robbo3]

As Phil says 3/4" x 16 TPI is one of the commonest threads.

He often posts the recommended book for beginners
Woodturning: A Foundation Course by Keith Rowley (from 78p + p&p)
- http://www.waterstonesmarketplace.com/b ... x=0&hs.y=0

If your chuck is like this one, then as you have found it's difficult to centre the work. You can use it with wood but you should bring up the tailstock for support
- https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/4-jaw-l ... r-cwl20rv/

 

[Phil Pascoe]

While you can indeed get away with much buying cheaper and flimsier tools, they do not (on the whole) take well to being used as professional standard bits of kit.

One of our club members came in with a good quality 3/8th spindle gouge with 2" snapped off the end - he said all he heard was a click as it caught a knot - just goes to show.

 

[KimG]

While you can indeed get away with much buying cheaper and flimsier tools, they do not (on the whole) take well to being used as professional standard bits of kit.

One of our club members came in with a good quality 3/8th spindle gouge with 2" snapped off the end - he said all he heard was a click as it caught a knot - just goes to show.

Indeed, but I think what that shows is that more than likely your member had more of the tool hanging over the rest than was advisable for the task in hand (because the break would almost certainly have been close to the pivot point), plus he was using the wrong tool for the job, you got knots, you need strength.

 

[RogerP]

Many Record Power lathes have 3/4" x 16 TPI so in their catalogue there's quite a good range of chucks which should fit your lathe.

 

[AndyT]

I don't have a Clarke lathe but I do have an Axminster badged Chinese made lathe which is probably of similar vintage and has the 3/4" 16tpi thread that many similar lathes came with back then.

This is what mine looks like, with a pencil for scale

It takes a standard drive centre like this

which has a No 1 Morse taper shank - a standard since the 1880s. Here it is in place.

If yours is similar the diameter at the visible end of the hole will be about 11mm. If you poke a pencil in and waggle it you will be able to feel if the hole is tapered.

If yours is similar you can get morse tapered shanks on all sorts of accessories.

 

[Doofusme]

Hi Katy

If its the really old Clarke with a pressed steel bed then it is probably an MC10 thread 3/4"x10tpi, if you could post a photo or email me one of the lathe or specify the actual model number, it may help to further identify your specific machine, the above I think I may have one in my stock of bits and pieces that you can have for a small donation to Bloodwise charity.

Best Wishes
Phil

Hi all, I'm very new to the woodturning business and have just bought my first second-hand lathe. It's quite an old Clarke 20" lathe, it's nothing special but will do while I'm learning the ropes. My only problem is when I got it it didn't have a drive centre and it's not a standard fitting. I've contacted Machine Mart (where it originally came from) who say that the lathe and all the accessories are now discontinued. I've had a look online and even spoken to a couple of dealers but can't find one anywhere. I've got a faceplate I can use for turning bowls and larger pieces of wood but nothing for smaller than about 7cm in diameter. I wondered about using a Jacobs Chuck and fitting a drive centre into that but I'm really not sure what will work and what won't and I don't want to end up damaging my lathe or myself. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Katy

 

[Keegis]

The lathe I have is a Clarke Woodworker 20" and the model number is CWL6B. The part number for the driving centre is SD6011 if that's any help too. I can get some photo s when I get home but I'm fairly sure the hole is the spindle is too small to fit a pencil into.
I really appreciate everybody's help, what a great forum for helping eachother out. Especially since I'm just starting out, I need all the info I can get!

Kim G I understand what you're saying about Clarke not being a very well respected make but it's doing fine just now and while I'm just learning the ropes I am happy to be using it. I'm not in a position to buy a new one just now so I'm trying to make the most of what I've got. I have no problems with it other than the drive centre being missing which is irritating but I'm hoping to be able to get sonething to help.

 

[marcros]

have a read of this small-lathe-free-for-collection-t29623.html

 

[Doofusme]

Manual here https://www.clarkeservice.co.uk/manuals ... /cwl6b.pdf

And it is not a hollow drive shaft so no morse taper will fit and thread size is 3/4x16

So its the earlier CWL6 that has the 3/4x10 thread

 

[Keegis]

It's definitely 3/4" x 16TPI, that's stated in the user manual. I can try some of what is suggested on that link, thanks Marcos. I'll have to keep an eye out for any others that may come up on these forums, I'd really like to be able to do some more delicate pieces too.

 

[marcros]

Worst case, you could always get a chuck and fit a drive centre in that. If you do upgrade in the future, you can keep the chuck for that. Sadly, a chuck will cost a bit of money, but you don't need anything too large for that lathe- smaller the better really.