Shopsmith Forums

Good morning my wonderful resource of all things woodworking....

I have a Teknatool Nova chuck. I have on it the 50mm jaw set. While using it yesterday I tightened it around a column of hickory to turn a goblet. It seemed no matter how tight I would tweak on my t-handle allen-key, once I turned my SS on to begin turning, it would eventually loosen up enough to throw my peiece. twice I hurt my hand, but to no real damage. The peice was about 10 inches long, 5 inches diameter, and I was trying to turn at "H" setting, which I beleive is about 1300 RPMs.

I am thinking now, as the sun clears dust from my head, that I was turning too quick and need to refer to my Richard Raffan turning book.

Other than that, my question would be this:

How hard can I tweak on my chuck to tighten the jaws around my wood?

Not knowing what shape your material is, I probably would have tried a couple of things. I would have used the tail stock with a live center to round the material. Once you have it rounded then you can pull it away from the tail stock end to start hollowing out the inside. If you have the speed reducer, that would also have been helpful especially if you have an irregular shape material to work with as it gives you even slower speeds which work well with irregular and heavy material.

Well I had used a live tail-stock to get it to round first. It was in good round as I moved to use with just the jaws. I think the sharpness of my tools may have been a factor. I sharpen my tools, and am still new to this, so this maybe a combination of things to deal with.

You definitely need sharp tools, especially when turning hardwoods. You might want to try practicing on either soft woods like pine first or "green wood" and maybe do a simple bowl to get the hang of hollowing it out. I was taught to start from the outside edge and work towards the center and also stay a little below the center of the face. Also a bowl gouge is designed to hollow out the inside. Not sure what chisel type you are using. If you have any woodcraft stores nearby, they offer basic spindle/bowl turning classes. That's how I learned to turn and would have been lost without them. You need to remember to "ride the bevel" to prevent catches. Here is a link to some wood turning information which should be helpful to you.
http://www.woodturningonline.com/

Here is another excellent source for video...

http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodvision/ ... 1339217302

I watched a series of bowl turning videos, one of which addressed chucking wet wood in a four jaw chuck.

I had trouble with the sequencing, but they went from roughing the blank to drying the wet bowls.