steb center
John Lucas
>I picked up a steb center while at the symposium. Always wanted one but balked at the price. My first impressions are good and bad. For straight spinle work it's great. It drives very positively and you can simply back off the tailstock and the piece will stop for scrutiny. Tighten the tailstock and it's back to work. you don't have to stop the lathe.
The downside. For my mirror handles I turn and sand the piece down to the last little bit on the bottom of the handle. I usually then use the skew to cut this last 1/4" down until there is an extremely small tenon and then cut this off. I carve the remnants of the tenon off with a knife. With the Steb center the spring tension breaks this tenon so I can't turn it as small and it takes a lot longer to carve away the stub. For these handles I'll go back to my old 3/8" drive. For spinles that are large or have tenons on both ends I think the steb center is the way to go.