Question from non-turner again - Joe Hermann?

Re: Question from non-turner again - Joe Hermann?

Raymond Overman in SC

>I may be speaking out of turn but...

One suggestion is to turn your handle then before parting it off at the headstock end, back the tailstock off and use a jacobs chuck with a forstner bit in the tailstock to drill your hole for the tool. This will assure the hole is centered and square to the turning.

I think the other option that was brought up earlier is to drill the hole for your tool in the blank handle stock prior to turning. Then turn a dowel on a waste block that will fit in the hole. Use this to center the block the handle will be made from and bring the tailstock up. Turn the handle from there. This will also assure a centered and square hole.

Good luck.

Re: Question from non-turner again - Joe Hermann?

John Lucas

>Joe

A mandrel is usually described as a jig(often wood) that fits on the lathe and holds the piece to be turned. One example is to drill a 1" hole in a block of wood. Then mount a waste block on the lathe and turn a 1" tenon. this fits in the hole you just drilled. Now you can turn that piece. This is how most salt shakers are done.

If you need to turn something that needs a hole all the way through that must be centered then many people turn a "mandrel" to fit the hole. For example lets say you drill a 3/8" hole all the way through. Now take a waste piece of wood and turn a tenon that is a snug fit for the 3/8 hole. This "mandrel" then drives the blank. You can support the other end with a live center if the hole is small enough. If it's a large hole then you you may have to turn a mandrel that will fit over your live center that has a tenon that will fit in your wood blank. The turning you are now doing fits between these 2 mandrels.

There are many different ways of doing this same thing. There are custom made mandrels designed for production turn. These are usually made of metal. You drill appriate sized holes and then drive the wood on the mandrel and turn it. Pull it off when your done and put the next piece on.

Does that all make sense. It's much easier to explain with pictures but I'm at work getting ready to shoot some art work as soon as the artist gets here. There is a book out and I think it's by Dick Sing but I'm not sure. It's about different ways to mount things on the lathe. It's excellent. I intend to buy it one of these days just to keep in my library.

Re: Question from non-turner again - Joe Hermann?

Joe Herrmann

>Joe:

Raymond and John pretty much summed the procedure up. Like John said, it's kind of hard to explain without photos. I have a couple that Harry Gilliand submitted for a future article in Woodturning Design and I was going to try to them attach to this posting. I'm concerned, however, that they will be too large for the site so I'll email them to you instead.

Joe