tenon removal from piece

[Edward Ford]

Hello fellow turners,

I have been turning bowls and forms for about a year now. I would like to step up my game. My question to the more experienced turners is this:
What is the best way to remove the tenon on the bottom of a bowl or form. I have a set of cole jaws, but I find they do not hold well and it takes a long time to set up. Thanks, Ed

[Paul Atkins]

I really hope you don't mean tendon - ouch. I don't want any of my tendons removed. I don't use a chuck for bowls, so I don't have tenons on the bottoms of my bowls. I usually finish the bottom first. Sorry I am not much help here.

[alex carey]

vacuum chuck.

[Mike Minto]

ed, i either use my vacuum chuck (if i plan in advance and keep my work on the scroll chuck so i can properly center it) or my cole jaws (which i'm not a big fan of). i've started to use blue tape or some other means to augment the cole jaws to hold bowls on, though. there's no real quick way that i know of. also, i use a bowl gouge and slow rpm's. mike

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ed - Welcome to the Creek!

You have lots of options when it comes to removing the tenon, depending on how much you want to spend.

Jam chuck - using the tailstock to hold the turning, remove as much of the tenon as possible and then remove the remaining bit of tenon with a chisel and sand.

Donut Chuck - very easy to make your own and does a very good job of holding regular shaped bowls and most hollow forms.

Vacuum Chuck - while it may seem expensive at first, you can make your own for about the same price as a good quality 4-jaw chuck.

Should be lots of info available - just do a search. Let us know if you have any questions.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Ed welcome to SMC. On bowls and hollow forms I use either a vacuum chuck or a donut chuck. It does take a minute to setup a donut chuck but it works really well and holds well. On on side of the donut chuck I made sizes from 4" bowls to 14" bowls. I leave the bowl in the chuck and take it off the headstock. I have a adaptor that fits in the tailstock to screw the chuck on and that way when you bring to bowl up to the donut chuck it is perfectly centered. Tighten down the donut chuck, release and remove the chuck to finish the bottom. I use the same procedure to mount a bowl or HF on my vacuum chuck. Questions well just ask away.

[Edward Ford]

Thank You For The info. I will look into the vac chucks. Sorry for the spelling error. Tenons not tendons !!!!!!!!

[Mark Hubl]

Donut chucks are pretty easy to make and work well. Do some web searches for instructions, several folks have them posted on their sites. Here is a thread that has some pics.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=120314

[Bob Espy]

I don't use a tenon but perfer a mortise for turning on the chuck. Then reverse to bowl using the cole jaws and apply a slight bit of pressure with the tail stock while finishing the bottom. Remove the tail stock and then just touch up where the tail stock divit is.

[Ron McKinley]

is easy to adjust. Use the tailstock with it until you have to remove it to get the last little part. If you don't want to make one there is a fellow on this board that makes them for a very reasonable price. Maybe he will check in............Ron

[Scott Hackler]

I use a jam chuck and I find it really easy. I always turn with a tenon (except for the monster bowls, they get a recessed dovetail). I finshed the sanding process completely, in and out... and reverse it on the jame cuck and turn off all but 1/4" or so of the tenon. I sand the freshly turned bottom and using a chisel and my power sanding setup, I remove any traces of the tenon. Works great, but does require a little practice.

The only real difficulty is centering it on the jam with the live center. If you didnt have a clear center point, it will wobble a bit. Also, "just a little bit more off the tenon" is code for too much and be prepared for it to fly off the live center and screw up the work you just did.

PROS:
easy and cheap

CONS:

cant really do HF's, vases or anything but a bowl or platter

[ROY DICK]

Ed,
Which ever way to chose from the above info; a sharp chisle and light cuts will serve you well.
Welocme to the Creek and hold on to your wallet.
The vortex gets DDddeeeeppppeeerrr.<insert echo>.

Roy

[Wally Dickerman]

Ed, you say that you have a set of Cole jaws and that it takes too long to set it up. How long to change jaws? 5 min., 10 min.? How long did it take to turn the bowl? If you used your tailstock to turn the tenon, then you already have a centering spot when you bring up the tailstock to use with the cole jaws. Using the tailstock will make it very secure. Just turn off the tenon or shape it to form the foot. When finished just cut off the nub that's left and you're finished.

Wally

[Jason Clark2]

I think I tried most of the methods out there: jam chuck, cole jaws, donut chuck, etc. I got my vacuum setup up and running about 6 months ago and i'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

I'll be the first to admit that it won't work in all cases (large voids, some hollow forms, etc) but for 90% of what I do it will be my primary method for finishing the bottom.

Jason

[Mike Minto]

one thing i do to speed up the TEDIOUS chore of changing jaws on my scroll chuck has been to take the correct allen wrench for the screws which hold the jaws in, cut off the short 'elbow' of the wrench, and mount it in my cordless drill. using the clutch judiciously, i can change a set of jaws fairly quickly. mike