Shopsmith Forums

Well it seems today I'm on the subject of lathes so here is another post that might interest some from another forum. If you saw it there it is the about the same thing so you can skip reading it.

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Steb like drives new to me
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Some years back the Steb center was introduced. However us shopsmith people don't have the the option to use them. A bit later they came up with the "steb like products", and what has been of interest to me was the steb like drives. In this case the drive mounts in your lathe chuck, depending on how you feel about that option will most likly be if you want to go this route or not.

I have been wanting to give this method a try and found that Penn State (www.pennstateind.com) had both a 5/8" and 1" dia "Super Spur Center Inserts" (LCENTQC58 and LCENTQC1). The cost seemed reasonable at $16.95 each + shipping and maybe tax depending on where you live.

I went for a local ebayer:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/disoorder_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ
and since I was the only bidder each went for the starting bid of $16.29. They combined my shipping so that was only $4.80.

Since this is something very new to me my reviewing it would not mean much at this point. I will say they seem to be made well and while they are from China what isn't these days.

I had contacted the sell to make sure the inserts would fit the Nova G3 chuck I have and I was assured they would and the sell happens to also be a user of the same chuck so I felt confident things would work.

So what would one of my posts be without a picture and so:
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/12199425@N02/sets/72157606303201429/
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Photo's removed from Flickr do to changes in account... 12/26/2008
See photo's below
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Comments are welcome and comments from fellow owners are sought.

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Since this I have had a project to try one of the centers on and was very pleased with how it worked... however I'm not a big turner so others might not think they are so great. But at least now if you didn't know about them now you do.

Ed

Here are the photo's:
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Ed

Ed- first- it is really great to have you back. And, I swap my SuperNova 2 back and forth from a Jet Mini to my Shopsmiths. And I have Sorby and generic "Stebs." I think they are a wonder -tools and have had same performance from either sourced center.Mike Tobey

OK, Hopefully this doesn't sound like a really dumb question. What are the steps for? I have the stronghold chuck that I bought at the TA this last spring. I haven't used it, yet. Do I need those steps?

Hi,

You are asking a good question and I bet others here would like to know but just don't ask... so good for you!

What you have ask should be taken in two parts. First about the steb like centers, you have to use stebs like because there are real stebcenters and these are not them. If you look at the shopsmith drive center it has but 4 spurs, while as you can see the other one has a large number of teeth. It is all about how the drive center holds the wood... the general thought has been that the stebs like drives are safer, hold better, distrubite the pressure better/more evenly and there is less chance of splitting the wood. If you have more interest I'd google it.

The other day I posted a picture of a large fishing lure I made. It is made out of aged cedar and was a pain to turn. A second one out of the same piece of wood work so much better using the stebs like center, worth the cost for that alone.

The big rub has been that these were made for traditional lathe MT2 mounts. As you know shopsmith doesn't work that way, so we were left out. Then someone came along and said why not make these to fit in a chuck so you don't have to take the chuck on and off all the time. We that also means that shopsmith owners with a chuck can now buy them and use them!

So for a summery, you don't need them but when you get into doing some turning you might like to have them and the point of the post is that now as a shopsmith owner you can.

Ed

shydragon wrote:OK, Hopefully this doesn't sound like a really dumb question. What are the steps for? I have the stronghold chuck that I bought at the TA this last spring. I haven't used it, yet. Do I need those steps?

Ed,

the Penn State listing says that the chuck must clamp down to 1/4" or less to grip the base of the drive. none of the Nova jaws are speced to close that far. it looks like you get around that in your third picture by clamping with the jaw plates rather than the jaws proper (sorry for the poor terminology). am I seeing that correctly?

Ivan

Hi,

As I recall the Nova jaws don't list the inside dimension where say theWoodworm™ Screw mounts... so I was concerned and as I mentioned I corresponded with the fellow who was selling them. And as it turned out he also has the G3, and had been using the two products together.

I'm also not sure where the 1/4" comes in as the adapters are clearly larger then that??? If you want I can measure to see what the size is. I do know they are smaller then the screw mount but larger then the 1/4" number. Before I clamped them in for the first time I made sure the chuck jaws would tighten smaller then the adapter. (I should also mention that the way I have it mounted is the same way the paper catalog shows it mounted on their chuck.)

If you are still worried they do sell real versions for in the $60+ range but at this moment I don't recall which catalogs I've seen them in.

Ed

iclark wrote:Ed,

the Penn State listing says that the chuck must clamp down to 1/4" or less to grip the base of the drive. none of the Nova jaws are speced to close that far. it looks like you get around that in your third picture by clamping with the jaw plates rather than the jaws proper (sorry for the poor terminology). am I seeing that correctly?

Ivan

Ed,

thanks. you answered my questions. no need to keep digging.

Ivan

This post has been linked to recently so I thought I'd add a bit of information to it.

Number one is that I no longer want to promote anything from PSI. I have been disappointed in everything I've ever gotten from them, somethings took a little longer but in the end it is what it is.

This is now what I recommend:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... rs#p206281

Of course I can not say if it will fit your brand of chuck but it will work with the Nova chucks.

More costly to be sure but cheap is often mostly cheap and at the end of the day not worth it.

Ed

I use a steb like drives quite often. I normally turn on a big Powermatic, but recently have been feeling nostalgic and have been using the 10ER. I have a steb center that mounts in my chuck from Penn State and really like it. I too have had a few issues with Penn State, but will say they have always been open to replacing anything found defective ( a few faceplates that had a lot of runout). The nova drives you posted look quite good, I think I will try them.