Solutions - why didn’t I think of ... *LINK*

Re: Solutions - why didn’t I think of ...

mikeee12345

I use hard rubber balls and turn various profiles on opposite ends, one end fits my adjustable chuck the other end is made to any shape that is required by the project I am turning. You can also use Delrin polymer and turn different profiles on the billet for the project you are turning. Prior to that I was turning wood profiles and coating them with liquid rubber you put on tool handles. All depends on the size of the item and the materials you have readily available.

They are OK unless they are not

John K Jordan

Charlie,

I bought every one of the Rubber Chucky things at one time and they are handy at times. I do like the ability to quickly shape the rubber pieces for a custom fit and did that with several to jam spheres for finish cuts. These came highly recommended by turner Rudy Lopez. But I doubt I'll buy from them again because....

The aluminum #2MT mandrels they sent were bad. They were machined poorly and would not fit properly in the lathe spindle, with wobbly play and galling of the aluminum when it spun against the steel socket in the headstock:

I have a surface plate and good instruments and could easily see the exact problem when I carefully measured the mandrels: the taper itself was out of spec, machined to the wrong angle. I suspect a supplier had a bad CNC setup made a batch with poor tolerance.

I called to get this simple problem straightened out. The guy who answered the phone refused to believe it was a machining problem since all his parts were always perfect. He even told me that everybody knows Morse tapers needed to be pounded into the sockets with a hammer to seat correctly. Say what?!! Then he got mad and hung up on me. He called back and said it was a bad connection. I wish I had a recording of that conversation.

He told me I could return the mandrels but I would get the same thing in return since they were all the same and there was no problem on his end. I gave up and just machined them myself to the proper taper. Maybe the guy was just having a bad day but that conversation turned a potentially happy customer into an ex-customer!

This was a couple of years ago so I hope they have the problem corrected by now so you probably won't have the same problem if you buy some.

I recommend just making your own mandrels and components out of wood. Just turn 2MT tapers or thread a piece of lignum vitae with the spindle thread and make jam pieces to fit. I often use closed cell foam or rubber sheeting to make a conformable jam.

BTW, your link doesn't work since it has an extra "http//"

JKJ

Re: They are OK unless they are not

Charlie belden

Sorry about the link error. Posted from iPad and copy and paste on a touch screen sometimes makes selecting a link to copy “touchy”

Re: Solutions - why didn’t I think of ...

Ralph Lindberg

I've been using some of those products for some years, He and a local turner are friends and he brings in new products all the time.