Every time I used the gauge block I’d think to myself, surely you can come up with something better than that!  Well, I finally did.

I mounted a 2″ x 2″ x 4″ piece of scrap wood between centers, trued it up and turned a tenon on one end.  (Actually it wasn’t a piece of scrap it was a nice piece of Mango.)  Then I mounted it in my chuck and using a 1″ Forstner bit drilled a hole 2 1/4″ deep.

Then I glued a Florida State Quarter in the hole with some thick CA glue.  The coin was glued in the hole so that over time, the bottom of the hole wouldn’t get messed up by the sharp point of the gouge.

The piece was mounted back in the chuck and parted off so that the hole, with the coin in the bottom, was exactly 2″ deep.  I also marked a line 2 1/2″ from the tailstock end of the piece.  This line indicated where the piece would be parted off.

I gave the piece a bit of shape and turned two beads at the base.  The two beads signified 2″.  It’s important to have a lot of deep, significant meaning attached to jigs that you make

Then I parted the piece off.  On the section that was left in the chuck I turned a 1″ tenon to use as a jam chuck.

I mounted my gauge block on the tenon and finish off the top of it, including a little bit of chatterwork, which for some unexplained reason I promptly colored with black sharpie ink.  Note to self, don’t do that again.  I also applied a coat of shellac.

Using the gauge block is so much easier than my previous method.  I can rest the base of the tool on the workbench, drop the gauge block over the tool and all I need to support is the Sharp Fast Jig.  It almost makes sharpening fun again!

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A friend gave me a couple of freshly cut cedar logs recently.  The logs were fairly small diameter, about 5″ and the pith was offset quite a bit to one side.  I cut the logs into 2′ lengths using my chainsaw, but did not want to split the logs using my chainsaw.  I knew I would get cleaner, more accurate cuts with my bandsaw and would waste far less of the wood.  I needed a safe way to cut the round logs on the bandsaw.

This is the simple jig I put together.  Two pieces of scrap plywood with a couple of supporting triangular brackets.

The log is then screwed to the jig at the front and back of the jig.  I made sure that the screws went into waste wood.

Set the bandsaw fence making sure that you will not be cutting through the screws!  Because the log is screwed to the jig, it will prevent the log rotating while it is being cut.

Once a flat surface is established, cutting the log into spindle stock is fairly straightforward.

The end results.   A bunch of 2″ to 2 1/2″ spindle stock with some beautiful color.  Ready for the end grain to be sealed and then stacked and stickered to dry.

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A while back I saw a friend of mine had a magnetic tray mounted on his lathe headstock.  I thought “that’s a pretty cool idea!” and then promptly forgot about it.  Well, last week I was wandering the aisles of Harbor Freight, as we all do, and saw they had magnetic trays for sale!  I brought two of them, a 6″ and a 4″.  I put the 6″ tray on my Jet 1642 headstock and the 4″ tray fit nicely on the headstock of my Jet mini.

How did I live without these   No more knocking small metal parts into the shavings.  When the trays get full of flying shavings, just pick them up and turn them over to empty the shavings while all the metal parts stay in place.   Thanks for the idea Jim!

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I recently turned a bowl and the bottom was a lot thinner than I liked and getting dangerously close to becoming a lampshade.  So I decided to make myself a better bowl depth gauge.  Something more accurate than my current method of holding my gouge at the center of the bowl, eyeballing along the rim of the bowl and then bringing the gouge up and out of the bowl to eyeball how deep I was with my hollowing.  I wanted something that would be accurate, but would still be quick and easy to use.

A visit to the plumbing section of Home Depot and I returned with a couple two foot sections of 3/4″ PVC, two tee sections, a 90 degree elbow and a cap.  The wooden morse taper I turned and the rifle laser was purchased off Ebay.

I cut one of the PVC pipes in half and then cut an 8″ section off the other.   (The length of the 8″ section was determined by the swing of my lathe, half of 16″.  I cut the other pieces to 12″ as with the current tools that I have I’m unlikely to be turning a hollow form any deeper than that.)

Depending on the laser sight you get some adaptions may be needed to one of the PVC tee pieces. In my case the diameter of my laser sight was slightly greater than the internal diameter of the tee piece.

I mounted the tee piece in the pin jaws of my chuck using a 60 degree live center to help mount it true.

Then, with the lathe speed slowed down, I drilled it out with a Forstner bit that matched the diameter of the laser.

A nice snug fit.

I turned a tenon on the wooden morse taper that matched the internal diameter of the PVC pipe and then I pieced all the parts together.

Here is the depth gauge mounted on the lathe.  The wooden morse taper is inserted in the tail stock.  It is not necessary to jam it into the tail stock.

Side note: With a self ejecting tail stock it is not considered a good idea to use a wooden morse taper.  Click here to read a discussion on this subject.

So, throwing caution to the winds, I mount my bowl depth gauge in the tail stock.   Once everything is adjusted and the laser is shining on the tip of the cap, a couple of drops of CA glue can be applied to each of the PVC joints.  Don’t glue the laser into the tee piece though, at some point you will need to take it out and change the batteries   The laser sight I got has a switch to turn the laser on and off,  a lot more convenient than the lasers you get from stationary stores which require you to constantly depress a button for the laser to be visible.

I’m still trying to get a good shot of the laser on the outside of the bowl.  When I do I’ll update this post with a picture of the depth gauge in action.

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The first step is to mount a piece of hardwood between centers, or as I have done, in a chuck with a live center at the tailstock for support.  True the piece and turn it roughly to size.

Take one of your centers and transfer two marks to the piece indicating the two sides of the taper.

Set a pair of calipers to the diameter of the morse taper upper end, and using a parting tool, part into the piece until the calipers slip over the parting cut.  Repeat the procedure for the lower end of the morse taper.

Make a relief cut to the tailstock side that is smaller in diameter than the lower end of the morse taper.

Turn a straight line from the larger diameter to the smaller diameter.  You’ll need to sneak up on this slowly and check the line often with a straight edge.  I cut up one of those plastic discount coupons to use as a straight edge.

With the piece still held in the chuck, remove the live center from the tailstock and slide the tailstock forward to check the fit of your taper.  Rotate the headstock by hand while the piece is in the tailstock to identify the high spots to be turned down.  Once the fit is good, round off the end of the piece.

Remove the chuck and insert the new morse taper into the headstock.  You can now shape and true up the area that will be used to mount a work piece to.   Wooden morse tapers are useful for holding small turnings.  They can simply be glued to the morse taper.  Bear in mind that there are limitations to the size of a turning as a wooden morse taper is nowhere near as strong as a metal dead center!!

Why did I need to turn a morse taper?  Stay tuned

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So I started looking for ideas as to how I could raise the logs to a more comfortable working high and hold them securely while cutting them.  Finally I saw a solution in the June 2010 edition of the American Woodturner, the AAW journal.

The log processing platform was in the “Tips” section of the journal and I’m really pleased with the one I built.  It holds the logs secure and steady, has plenty of room for the chainsaw to travel after the cut is complete so the chain doesn’t end up buried in the the dirt, and it raises the logs to a comfortable working height, which my back is really pleased about!

I built mine from pressure treated pine.  It took about ten minutes to cut the timber to size, cut some 45 degree angles on the uprights, and then I shot it together using a framing gun and some galvanized nails.  The four tall upright pieces are 32″, the two shorter upright pieces are 26″.  The gap between the  tall pieces is 7″ and the other gap is 4″.

Processing logs with my chainsaw is a far more enjoyable experience.  Quicker, safer and less stress on my back.  My thanks to the reader who submitted this tip to the AAW Journal.

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Something that has been bugging me for a while is where and how to store my donut chuck.  I use it often so it needs to be close to the lathe, but at just under 16″ diameter and consisting of a couple pieces 3/4″ plywood along with a heavy dedicated face plate, it is fairly bulky and heavy.  Inspiration struck me and I decided to hang it on the wall behind my lathe using a threaded wooden dowel.  The following post shows how I threaded the dowel with 1 1/4″ x 8 threads to match those on the face plate.  Thanks to Al Hockenbery for the advice he gave me on the AAW forum.

The first step was to measure the large diameter of the threads on my lathe.  Strangely enough that came to 1 1/4″.  Who would have guessed that!  Now I know why it is called a 1 1/4″ x 8 thread!

I then rounded a piece of scrap wood between centersto the same diameter, tapering one end slightly.

Then, using the faceplate that I had dedicated to my donut chuck, I cut threads in the dowel.  Tapering the end of the dowel helped a lot in getting the threads started.  I also found that reducing the overall diameter of the dowel from 1 1/4″ helped as well.  Once I had done this, screwing the dowel into the face plate and cutting the threads, was a lot easier.  Making the dowel about 8 to 10″ long also helped as it gave me a decent place to grip with both hands.  The threads did not look as good as those on a metal bolt, nor were they as deep, but they worked just fine.

Once that was done I mounted the dowel in a chuck and predrilled a hole for the screw that was going to be used to attach the dowel to the plywood.

Measured to length and parted the dowel off.

Not trusting the holding power of a screw into plywood, I put some wood glue on the back of the dowel before screwing it to the plywood partition.  I was concerned that when I unscrewed the donut chuck from it’s new resting place, that the screw holding the dowel on would unscrew from the plywood.  Here is a shot of the threaded dowel mounted.

A shot of the donut chuck screwed onto the dowel.  I made the dowel about 2 1/2″ long, giving me room to hang the front section of the donut chuck on the dowel as well.

Excited with my new threading abilities, I made some more threaded dowels, and decorated the wall with my sanding disc and my vacuum chucks as well.  I was surprised how well the wooden face plates on the vacuum chucks threaded onto the wooden threaded dowel.  They actually threaded on easier than the metal faceplate on the back of the donut chuck.   I did find that a dab of paste wax on the threads helped lubricate them.

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A chuck reversing adapter is used to take a turning that is mounted in a chuck on the headstock and rotate it and mount it on the tail stock so that you can align or center it correctly while mounting on a vacuum chuck or donut chuck prior to finishing the bottom of the piece.  Or to put it more simply, it is a piece of metal with a morse taper on one side and a thread on the other that matches your chuck.

I normally don’t have any problems reversing a vessel with a wide rim, especially when using my donut chuck.   However, for pieces with a narrow rim, like hollow forms, I have been struggling with alignment when reversing.   The chuck reversing adapter has solved that.  The following pictures illustrate how it is used.

Here is a hollow form that I’ve finished hollowing and am now ready to reverse and finish off the bottom.  Without removing the piece from the chuck, I unscrew the chuck from the headstock and set it aside.

I then mount the back piece of my donut chuck to the headstock.  You can see in the above image that I have attached a piece of scrap wood to the center and have turned it to a cone shape.  Then I attached a couple of pieces of self adhesive fun foam.  This cone will go into the mouth of the hollow form.

I then mounted the chuck reversing adapter into the tail stock and threaded the chuck onto it.  Note, the chuck reversing adapter is not a live center!  It does not rotate in the tail stock as it has no bearings.  It is a temporary method to hold the chuck in the tail stock in alignment with the headstock.  Don’t start the lathe with it in place, you’ll ruin your whole day!

The tail stock was then slid forward till the workpiece was almost touching the donut chuck.  Then I locked the tail stock in place and advanced the spindle using the hand wheel until the workpiece was snug against the donut chuck, taking care not to crush it.  The front piece of the donut chuck was then secured in place with the bolts.

I then loosened the chuck on the tenon of the hollow form, and withdrew the tail stock.  The donut chuck held the piece securely and correctly aligned.

I then put a live center in the tail stock and brought it up to the work piece in order to turn the bulk of the tenon off, leaving just a small nub.  It’s a good practice to support the work piece whenever you can using the tail stock.

The last little nub was removed with the tail stock out of the way and then the bottom of the piece was sanded.

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I have a set of forstner bits and they go from 1/4″ to 2 1/8″ diameter, in 1/8″ increments.  I figured that while I was busy making the gauge, I might as well go ahead and include all these diameters.

I used a piece of 1/4″ hardboard.  It was thicker than my parting tool, so I ran it through my drum sander a couple of times until it was just slightly thinner than my parting tool.  This is probably not necessary for most applications, but I thought it may be useful occasionally when I wanted to make a parting cut in the middle of a piece and not have to widen it in order to insert the gauge.

Then I drew two lines down each side of the hardboard, just over one inch from each edge.  I set my drill fence so the center of the forstner bit was positioned over one of the lines.  Then, using a scrap piece of wood as a backer board,  I started drilling holes, from big to small, down one side and up the other side.

When all the holes were drilled, I set my table saw fence to the line I had previously drawn, and with two passes, cut all the circles in half.

The gauge now hangs within easy reach of my lathe and is perfect for sizing tenons and checking spindle diameters.  A quick, easy and cheap solution that makes my work flow at the lathe easier

If you have a hint or tip feel free to share in the comments section.

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I finally got a chance to play with the chatter tool I made.  My initial experiments were pretty disappointing.   The tool was “screeching” as it is supposed to, but I only seemed to be able to put spiral grooves on the test piece.   My first thought was that the blade was not thick enough and I was getting too much “deflection” and not enough “chatter”.  I had used on old jigsaw blade, so I took an old sawzall blade and cut and shaped that.  Even though it was wider, and offer less give, I was still just getting spiral grooves.

So I took the two blades back to the grinder and ground a very slight bevel on the edges.  More importantly I rounded over the point of the blade so that instead of coming to a sharp point it came to a blunt, slightly round point.   Immediately I started to see improvements!  Both the jig saw blade and the sawzall blade worked great, although they did produce different patterns.

There are no shortage of patterns you can get with the chatter tool.  Whether any of them are repeatable is open to debate though!  A number of variables affect the pattern.

• The amount of the blade sticking out the tool.
• The distance from the tool rest to the work piece.
• The speed of the lathe.
• How hard you push the tool into the work piece.
• How quickly you move the cutting edge across the work piece.
• How many times you move the cutting edge across the work piece.
• The angle the cutting edge is presented.

The image below shows some examples.  I colored the patterns with a black permanent marker so they would show better in the image.

A chatter tool is used primarily in end grain, so applications include embellishments on box lids, spinning tops etc.  The chatter tool will work better on hardwoods than softwoods.

After spending an hour or so playing with the tool, I feel the most important variables are lathe speed and distance of the tool rest from the work piece.  For the most part the tool is presented so that the blade is horizontal and the handle is closer to you than the blade.   The tool rest is about 4 to 6″ from the workpiece and lathe speed is around 1000 rpm.  The blade is pushed into the wood and then pulled from the center to the edge.  Rotating the tool slightly counter clockwise will change the pattern achieved, but it will also cause the tool to move towards the edge of the work piece a lot faster!!  I found lathe speeds between 750 and 1800 worked with an optimum range between 1000 and 1200.

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