Longworth chuck on my shopsmith

rubberneck · Post by **rubberneck** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:40 pm

I just made this the other day. It is a Longworth self centering chuck. To finish the bottoms of bowls and platters. It will take something as small as 3 1/4" or as large as 12". Sure makes turning the bowl bottoms easy. I think I'm going to make another and see if I can sell it on eBay to pay for the parts. The step by step article I followed is at woodcenteral however there are half a dozen more out there....Bill...

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:36 pm

Beautiful work, one question why did you not just drill a 5/8" hole and use a saw arbor with a nut? I only downside would be the minimum depth of the bowl would be the thickness of the nut but the advantage is you could chuck smaller items.

rubberneck · Post by **rubberneck** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:46 pm

Most of the work to make this is router type work. I needed a smooth upper surface for the router to pass over (arbor in the way) and decided to use a face plate to attach. Beside, this chuck consists of two pieces of plywood that rotate in opposite directions to open and close the self-centering jaws. A wood screw and washer are used at the center to act as an axle. If the saw arbor were used you wouldn't be able to rotate the disc's ...Bill...

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:03 am

Nice work, rubberneck. BTW, why don't you edit your profile so we can all know more about you. That applies to any of you that have not edited your profile. Thanks!

Greenvilleguy · Post by **Greenvilleguy** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:46 am

Rubberneck, Thanks for sharing. I'd never heard of a Longworth chuck. I've been custom turning a jam chuck for every bowl and was thinking about buying the Jumbo jaws by One Way. (Sometimes, I even finish the bottom first with a slight recess for the 4 jaw chuck and leave the recess as part of the foot. I know, I know, the purists out there are appalled.

This chuck is almost as versatile ad the Jumbo jaws and a lot less money.

BTW, here is the link to the site you mentioned above. I noticed that you made an 8 "jaw" version. www.fholder.com/Woodturning/lwc-wtm.htm

Like Paul, I wondered about using an arbor. The main disadvantage I see is that you couldn't use it for shallow platters. I'm thinking I could just leave off the face plate and mount it in my 4 jaw chuck.

rubberneck · Post by **rubberneck** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:08 am

Using a wood block and mounting to you 4 jaw chuck is the most economical way. Thought of doing that myself, but opted for the face plate because of alignment concerns over the long haul. Afraid the wood block would get knocked about and I was concerned about lining up each time the chuck was changed. The faceplate just seemed to be the best option for me....Bill...

Greenvilleguy · Post by **Greenvilleguy** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:43 pm

Well Bill, If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I hope you are flattered.

I made mine with 6 "jaws" since I know how to divide a circle into 6 equal parts or 60 deg segments. It's not as pretty as yours, but it works fine.

Thanks again for the idea.
[ATTACH]837[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]838[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]839[/ATTACH]

rubberneck · Post by **rubberneck** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:56 am

Congrats Doug!! It looks mighty pretty to me! They work really well too...Bill...

muncyjohn · Post by **muncyjohn** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:36 pm

Well Bill that looks like a great piece of work, sell on ebay??? whats the price for one of these?? I could maybe use one this summer when it warms up!
John

james.miller · Post by **james.miller** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:10 pm

Here is a link to building a Longworth Chuck http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/read ... _485.shtml

Here is a company that builds a similar chuck but out of Aluminum and very nice, you could call and see if they could build one to fit the SS http://chickandduckmfg.com/