beefier spur center

[hfmann]

I'm looking for a spur center that's got more beef than the standard SS one. I'm turning fairly heavy wet wood and the SS center keeps drilling into the wood and spinning as I keep tightening it.

fyi - I'm using Lyle Jamieson's technique of starting between centers and adjusting to get it balanced before starting the initial roughing. The point on the spur center makes it easy to adjust the piece for that. It also makes is fairly simple to jockey the piece a little after early roughing to adjust for design considerations.

Any ideas?

thanks,

hal

[edma194]

How about using a screw center? The Shopsmith screw is suggested for pieces up to 5" in diameter. There are larger ones available and some are made to be held in a chuck instead of needing to be mounted on the 5/8" shaft.

[hfmann]

Hi Ed,

Thanks Ed. I did end up using that the last time after I got the balance point identified using the spur center first. However, it doesn't give me the ability to adjust the axis later. During early roughing I can discover that want to move the center a little and the screw center doesn't let me do that. For that matter, neither does a mortise that I use to make with a forstner bit to fit in a 4 jaw chuck.

hal

[reible]

You might want to look at the "steb" like centers. They mount in your chuck and if it is a Nova chuck it will fit, other brands, well who knows.

Nova makes the set I have but others have them too. I would avoid PSI, I have one and it is not made well when compared to the Nova brand. This the largest I have:

https://www.amazon.com/9021-Flexible-Po ... JF7P0&th=1

The point is spring loaded so you can move it around until you find the location that works then put the teeth to work.

Ed

[hfmann]

oh Ed - that looks perfect. And I do have the Nova chuck. I'll give that a shot.

thanks,

hal