Home made live center

[Burt Alcantara]

I'm just getting into hollow forms with tiny bases. I don't have a vacuum system so I need to do the foot and finishing on the lathe.

What I'm thinking I need is a large cone live center that will fit into the opening to stabilize the form for finishing and a small peg to finish the foot. whlie rechucking.

I'm open to all suggestions since I'm the green one here.

Thanks,
Burt

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Burt.....do you have a donut chuck?

The one HF I've done....I used double-sided tape to tape some pieces of 2" styrofoam....multiple pieces taped together to make a rough square to the center of the base of the donut chuck. I turned the styrofoam insulation to a cylinder. The diameter of the cylinder was small enough to go through the opening of the HF. The cylinder has to be long enough to hold the edges of the HF off the base of the donut chuck. Then I put the HF on the styrofoam...installed the capturing ring of the donut chuck to hold the HF....then turned the base/feet. This is how I turn the tenons off my NEs too. I turn a cone shape to support the NE so the edges don't touch the base of the donut chuck. You could do the same thing with a piece of wood...turn a cylinder and tape it to the donut chuck.

[George Guadiane]

I haven't done it yet, but you might want to make a donut chuck, they look VERY efficient.
Till I make mine, I make jamb chucks. The one thing I do with hollow forms is to make the jamb so that the HF meets the jamb at the shoulders, rather than in the opening... I broke several nice hollow forms doing things similar to what you are proposing.
The idea is to hold the HF at the wide point, thereby giving it a wider stance. It's harder to damage the piece that way. I use a piece of wetsuit (neoprene) between the chuck and the HF to protect the finish, then I use stretch (pallet) wrap to secure the HF to the jamb chuck... Done properly, there is no movement, almost like it is one piece (that pallet wrap is REALLY STRONG) and I can turn off the nub and finish sand the bottom with no danger or problems.

Be sure to hold the piece securely as you remove the wrap, I have ruined finishes by thinking the chuck would hold the piece in place.

[Burt Alcantara]

I don't want to use a donut chuck simply because I need access to 100% of the work. Most of my finishing is home brew frictioning so I want a stable base to lean into the work to generate heat. For me, the best finishes come out when the rag is so hot I can't hold it.

Ideally, I'd turn the foot area to a stable thickness but because the form is long and thin (2-3/16) it's somewhat fragile. I'd like to put a cone-ish type device on the tailstock to keep the piece from rotating off center.

Right now, I'm reverse chucking onto a cone with a pointed tailcenter. Do the finishing then take off the tenon. I can't put enough pressure on the piece to get the heat that I need so I'd like to try doing this with the piece in the chuck supported with the tailstock.

Burt

[Gordon Seto]

Burt,
What kind of live center you have?
If it is Oneway, you can tap a 3/4" X 10 TPI on a block of wood and make your special cone.



If you have the Nova, there is stud for you to make special cone.

[John Shuk]

Custom Centering Cones

Turn your own from UHMW polyethylene.

The aluminum cones packaged with the Oneway revolving (live) center are valuable for many turning projects. But two or three shapes aren't versatile enough to fit all projects.

Fortunately, you can easily make your own cones because the threads on the Oneway rotating cup center are standard 3/4"x10 tpi. Jet now markets a similar device.

I like to turn my own cones from ultar-high molecular weight (UHMW) polyethylene rather than hardword blanks.

The properties of UHMW are ideal for cones. UHMW is dimensionally stable, will not split, is a little slippery, not too hard, and not too soft. It turns easily with a bowl gouge.

Read More: See my "Custom Centering Cones" magazine article on page 49 of "American Woodturner, The Journal of the American Association of Woodturners, Winter 2007, Vol. 22, No. 4".



That is from a friends site. www.carlford.info He wrote the article for American Woodturner. You might enjoy reading it.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Burt I use the one from Oneway. You can turn the cone either directions. It works really well on HF's, Peppermills, etc. I can measure tomorrow if you need to know the size.