nd time

[Harvey M. Taylor]

If you permanently marked one of the numbered chuck jaws, then marked the tenon on a workpiece next to it and rough-turned it, and took it off the lathe to dry, then came back later after drying to finish turn it, and placed it in the chuck jaws as before, wouldnt it be pretty close to true? WHEW, I am out of breath after that long sentence.Have I revolutionized the procedure of turning a workpiece?

[Gary Garmar]

Depends on the moisture content in the wood and how much it moved while drying. That said, I think following your example would get you fairly close.

[Bill Wyko]

I do it all the time but I've only done it with segmented pieces.

[Jerry Pittman]

I do it with single piece, dry wood turnings and it works pretty good. From my limited experience, wet wood moves around so much I doubt it will do much.
Jerry

[Don Eddard]

I mark the four jaw numbers all the time, but on wet wood it's about a 50/50 chance that it'll make much difference. As Gary said, it depends how much the wood moves. I still use that as a starting point, but often I end up reversing the piece in a jam chuck to re-true the tenon after drying anyway. At that point, all the previous markings are moot.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Harvey,

I have yet had a single piece of wet wood dry in such a way that would find this advantageous. Dry wood is a different story and I've had good luck.

Wet wood ....once it's dry, I always have returned the tennon first and then rechucked.

[TYLER WOOD]

ditto Ken's remarks. Except even on some dry woods, the movement from the realease of stess will cause the wood to move. I have had 2 bowls do that lately. I think one piece was not quite dry, the other the mesquite was about 10 years cut. This piece ended up as BBQ starter.

[Curt Fuller]

wouldnt it be pretty close to true?

It's usually "pretty close". But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. You will usually still need to re-turn it if it needs to be more than close.

[joe greiner]

The way you suggest gives you a fighting chance, at least. The jaws have manufacturing tolerances, and that's why they're numbered in the first place. Especially important to use the numbers if you have multiple jaw sets for your chuck.

If you still have the tailstock divot, it MAY be close to the original alignment. That's how I did these:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=62394

If not, you can almost find the original alignment by turning at slow speed, with a pencil held nearby to mark the high spot, loosen the chuck, tweak the mounting, re-tighten, and repeat as necessary. If your second turning can tolerate enough wood removal, it's hardly worth the effort.

Joe