Shopsmith Forums

I have been trying to turn some bottle stoppers and keep having the same problem with mounting the blank. I have the Penn Station chuck made specifically for the stoppers and drill the correct size hole for the screw. However every time I begin to turn; it becomes loose, wobbly and impossible to turn. I've tried drilling a smaller hole for a tighter fit but with the same results.
Any suggestions?

Don't know what you have but if it is this one noted in the following link it sound like a lot of people thing you should change to a 11/32" drill????

http://www.pennstateind.com/mm5/merchan ... 1#prodtabs

I'm going to be playing with this sort of thing soon and I'm looking at using a pin chuck, see this post:

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=9258

Ed

I had the same issue a few months back. I had to stop in the shop for a while and I have not gotten back to working on them, But now I have an answer to the problem. Thanks.

I've use a tap to match the threads on the chuck (1/4" x 20 TPI if I recall correctly) and that seemed to fix the problem. Some thin super glue also will strengthen those cut threads. Don't use too much CA glue or it will weep through the end grain pores and stain the wood. When I had problems with the chuck coming loose, I drilled the hole a bit oversized and glued in a piece of dowel and then redrilled, etc.

There may be occasions where a threaded insert might serve very well. They could likely be reused a number of times or left in to attach the turning to something else.
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I have seen them in steel, stainless steel, cast zinc and brass in a lot of styles.


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Bob, I experienced that a couple of times, especially with some of the softer woods. I found reducing the drill diameter helped, so did using a tail-stock center on the piece until I got close to the end of the shaping, and taking light cuts.

Another thing I found that helps... I don't know what you call it, but i turned a piece of wood that fits over the live center on my tailstock, it has an internal cone cut in it that matches the taper on the live center and the outside is tapered and then has a flat on the front. The idea is, you put this "sleave" over your live center and then butt that up to the wood. It holds it tight, yet doesn't marr the end of the wood. It helps hold the wood tighter and keeps it from wobbling off-center as much.

On the subject of wine bottle stoppers, I've purchased a pack of silicone bottle stoppers from Woodcraft. These are a much less expensive alternative to those metal stoppers and don't require the threaded chuck to turn the tops.

The Woodcraft variety fit over 1/2" dowels, so there are a couple of options for turning the tops. You could use a 1/2" pin chuck and then glue in the dowels, or glue in the dowels and hold the top in the drill chuck, or try the 1/2" router bit chuck, or use a collet chuck to mention a few possibilities.

You can "glue" the silicone stoppers to the dowels using clear RTV Silicone sealant from the auto parts store.

I believe I saw others selling these silicone stoppers that fit over a 3/8" dowel.

I also bought a package of the cork stoppers, but the holes for fitting them to a dowel weren't drilled on center in most cases, so I think they'd end up looking rather sloppy when finished. They are even less expensive than the silicone stoppers.

reible wrote:Don't know what you have but if it is this one noted in the following link it sound like a lot of people thing you should change to a 11/32" drill????

http://www.pennstateind.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PK-BS1-MJ&showreviews=1#prodtabs

I'm going to be playing with this sort of thing soon and I'm looking at using a pin chuck, see this post:

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=9258

Ed

Careful perusal of the PSI link, leads me to observe:

1) The tap and drill kit provides a 5/16" drill bit for a 3/8" tap.

2) The chuck and drill kit includes a 23/64" drill bit.

And to conclude"

A) The threads for the stoppers are 3/8-16. (the proper tap drill size for a 3/8-16 thread is 5/16").

B) The 23/64" drill is the proper tap drill size for a 3/8-24 thread.

C) I have to assume both the tap/drill kit and the chuck/drill are the same thread(matches 'most' of their kits).






Z) Somebody at PSI(or wherever) mis read a tap drill chart.






Therefore maybe reducing to 5/16 and using a 3/8-16 tap will produce better 'results'.

I cannot help but think the tail support adapter described above is a good idea.

I now see that there are a couple of different sizes of bottle stopper chucks. The Penn State type with 3/8" threads and the Woodcraft/Rockler type that have 1/4" threads. Sorry for any confusion.

My metal stoppers came from Woodcraft (shown here -- http://www2.woodcraft.com/PDF/77B92.pdf ) so that's why I referred to 1/4" x 20 TPI threads. Woodcraft's instructions say to drill with a 6mm bit, but I've used a 3/16" bit and had fewer problems.