When to use cup centers?

[Jeff Novak]

Hello fellow turners,
I'm brand new to Sawmill Creek and I'm somewhat of a newcomer to lathe turning (about 1 year). I've turned pens, bottle stoppers and recently started turning bowls.

A couple of questions regarding using cup centers for turning....
1. I saw a woodturners video and they were doing some spindle work...and he was using a cup center in both the tail stock and the head stock. If cup center drive is free spinning does it make sense to use one in the head stock?

2. I have been doing most of my bowl turning using the 3" face plate (or screw) and spindle turning using the 4-prong spur drive that came with my Laguna 12/16 lathe. Is there a guideline as to when to use a faceplate versus a spur drive versus a cup center?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Edward Weber]

Answer to #1. is no.
A revolving cebter is for the tailstock. A drive (fixed) is for the headstock to drive the piece.

As for #2. there are no hard and fast rules on how or what you use to drive your work piece.
Typically spindle turning is done with spur drives, steb center or crown center drives and stabdard 4 jaw chucks with the proper jaws.
Bowl turning is usually done with face plates and 4 jaw chucks but there are many other methods to drive and support a workpiece.
If there's something in particular you're interested in, just ask. I'm sure someone here can answer your question

[Richard Coers]

Not all cup centers are free wheeling. Some turners use a fixed cup center to drive a spindle while they are learning. A catch with a skew is not bad when the cup center in the headstock can spin instead of taking a chunk of wood from the spindle. OneWay calls theirs a safety drive center. If you use a drive spur to start turning a bowl, you have options to recenter to blank to clean up a void or get a more centered spot to show off the grain. A face plate also has screws to deal with and it's no fun to hit them with a gouge.

[Jeff Novak]

Answer to #1. is no.
A revolving cebter is for the tailstock. A drive (fixed) is for the headstock to drive the piece.

As for #2. there are no hard and fast rules on how or what you use to drive your work piece.
Typically spindle turning is done with spur drives, steb center or crown center drives and stabdard 4 jaw chucks with the proper jaws.
Bowl turning is usually done with face plates and 4 jaw chucks but there are many other methods to drive and support a workpiece.
If there's something in particular you're interested in, just ask. I'm sure someone here can answer your question

Thanks Edward for the info.

[Jeff Novak]

Thanks Richard. I believe that's what the turner in the video I was watching was teaching....use a cup center in the head stock when you're learning to turn. He didn't explain what type of cup center he was using though.

[Robert Henrickson]

Not all cup centers are free wheeling. Some turners use a fixed cup center to drive a spindle while they are learning. A catch with a skew is not bad when the cup center in the headstock can spin instead of taking a chunk of wood from the spindle. OneWay calls theirs a safety drive center. If you use a drive spur to start turning a bowl, you have options to recenter to blank to clean up a void or get a more centered spot to show off the grain. A face plate also has screws to deal with and it's no fun to hit them with a gouge.

Using a fixed cup drive center is hardly only for beginners in spindle turning. I frequently use use them for complex spindle turning, precisely because they allow the spindle to slip. I also use them extensively in multiaxis turning, again since they allow slippage rather than a serious catch or dismount. I learned that usage from Derek Weidman.

[Bill Howatt]

Using a fixed cup drive center is hardly only for beginners in spindle turning. ...

For sure! Catches don't stop once you aren't a beginner anymore, they are, hopefully, just less frequent. Saw Raffan get an unintended catch in one of his videos.

[Jason Edwards]

I think cup centers are one of those tools that you really don't realize how well they work until you try them. As others have mentioned, if you do get a catch, the work just spins. If that happens, just tighten up the tailstock a bit and keep going. A spur drive will try to act like a drill, and often throw the work out of the lathe.

Both Robust and Oneway make cup drives and both work well. I know that the live center from Robust has the exact same cup dimensions as their drive center, so you can flip your work end for end and it will register. Not sure if Oneway's dimensions are the same, but probably. Robust also has a "bowl drive" attachment that threads onto their cup drive so you can drive bowl blanks too. I've rough turned bowls up to 16" using this style of drive.

Another nice thing about cup drives is that you can make minor changes to the center location if you need to adjust the wood a little bit. Much harder to do with a spur drive, as it will want to go back into the existing slots made by the spurs. So try one, you might be surprised how much you like it.

[STUART Robertson]

Bowl turning;you'll find many turners mount the blank on a faceplate because it is very secure(usually)
Turn the outside first and form a spigot to fit a four jaw chuck,complete and sand the outside.Reverse and mount in the chuck and complete the rim and inside.Reverse again to finish the base.
Join a WT club,there's lots of crap on youtube.