Wobble?

barretthanks · Post by **barretthanks** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:43 pm

I have been turning pens using a live center for a few weeks now with great results. I decided to try my hand at duck calls and made a pin (key) chuck out of 5/8 steel rod. Unfortunately, there seems to be some wobble in the rod as my calls are coming out a little lopsided (and beads are uneven, etc.).

The pin chuck I made is about 6 inches with flat depression of about 2 inches. It holds the call fine. I'm using a collet chuck from Penn State with the requisite adapter.

What do I need to check, align, tighten, etc.? Thanks.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:52 pm

Are you using a live center in the tailstock for support? If not, I'd expect that that's the problem because there is too much material extending from the headstock.

barretthanks · Post by **barretthanks** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:46 pm

I am trying, but am having a heck of a time finding the center of my homemade pin chuck. The YouTube video I'm using for reference doesn't use the tailstock. Any advice?

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:59 pm

One way is to find someone with a metal lathe and have them use a "center drill" to drill the end of your pin chuck so that it will mate with a live center. Here's the type of bit that's used and one can be obtained from places like Grizzly, MSC, Enco, etc:

[ATTACH]11515[/ATTACH]

You may get satisfactory results on your Shopsmith by clamping something like a piece of 2x4 on edge to the table in drill press mode and then drilling a hole into it with a 5/8" bit about 3 1/4" deep. Then while the 2x4 is still clamped in place, insert the pin chuck into the hole and drill the end with a center drill just deep enough to create a seat for the live center. If you don't change any of your setup except putting your chuck in the hole and swapping bits, you should be successful in drilling the center of the chuck. You may need a length of 4x4 between the floor and the bottom of the drill press table to add stability to the setup. You also could try a dry run by drilling the headstock end of the pin chuck to see if this will work for you on the Shopsmith.

Perhaps you also could think about shortening the length of the pin chuck to something that is just a bit longer than the blanks you're using plus enough extra for clamping into the collet chuck.