3 Attachment(s)
BATONS, and CHUCKING for stability
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dane Riley
How do you attach the handle? I would hate to give one to a conductor and have it come flying off during a performance.
BATONS
Dane, One of the conductor's batons is one piece dogwood. Those with a separate handle have a long tenon glued into the handle with epoxy, the tenon grooved a bit with a file for some bite. Not too worried about the shaft flying across the orchestra - I've seen conductors break batons and get mad and throw them.
I started making batons when a girl I've known as a kindergartner wanted to know if I would make a baton she could buy and give to her boyfriend (now her fiance) graduating as a band director. I told her what I tell everyone with a similar request - sure, it will cost $75. Or if you come by the shop, pick out the wood, help with the design, and learn to make a few shavings it would be free. She liked that! (Poor college student) I figure she not only will get an introduction to woodturning but the gift will be more special, she can say she helped make it! Good fun.
CHUCKING
Thomas, et. al.,
Sometimes a thin spindle will whip/vibrate/chatter with too much tailstock pressure, sometimes with not enough. As I suggested, try holding one end tightly in a chuck. That end will be held rigid. Depending on the thickness and stiffness of the particular wood, this stiffness will extend part way up the shaft and can very much increase stability. The difference can be night and day.
Consider the spindle as normally held between two centers - there are two pivot points, one on each end. Push on the shaft and it will flex and bow at the midpoint. If one end is held in a chuck there is now only one pivot point at one end. As forces try to flex the shaft on that pivot point, forces from the chuck work to prevent flexing. You can push on it now and it will still bow, but the point of bowing is moved from the midpoint towards the tailstock.
I only turn short, relatively thick pieces between centers. I always use a chuck on everything else, either a scroll chuck or a jam chuck. For thin spindles of small diameter like "harry potter" magic wands, I use the morse taper in the headstock as a jam chuck by turning a small MT2 taper on the end of the blank before thinning the spindle. (There are several real advantages to using the MT taper instead of a scroll chuck.)
As a test of this method I made some 24" long spindles from pine shelving board from HD, tapering from about 1/2" down to 1/16" inch. No problem. These make great blackboard pointers for professor friends. Walnut for whiteboard pointers.
These pictures show the short tapers. At first I used a couple of calipers to get the taper right on the first try but I eventually made a small gauge from a piece of brass. The third one in the second picture shows both support ends before they are cut away.
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I've made hundreds of these wands using the MT jam chuck and the left hand steady technique. The same technique works for bigger spindles too.
(BTW if anyone is looking for something to make to sell, I get from $25-$50 for these without even trying.)
I wrote up a PDF document on turning thin spindles, if anyone wants it just give me an email address. I've sent this out to a bunch of people.
JKJ