View Single Post
  #6   Report Post  
Posted to rec.crafts.woodturning
Fred Holder Fred Holder is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 137
Default Shape Shifter Review

Hello Mac,

I just returned from the AAW Symposium, quite a blast! See if I can
answer your questions. The turning speed was determined by the level
of vibrations. When the lathe began to shudder, I backed the speed off
until it settled down. All eccentric chucks present this problem,
except when one uses counterweights to eliminate the vibrations. None
of the other eccentric chuck that I own enable one to use a chuck with
them, except one that I purchased in England. It was made of aluminum
and caused a great deal of vibration with a chuck attached. How much
vibration you get is directly related to the amount of weight of the
offset piece. In this case, you have the weight of the wood and the
weight of the chuck.

I have not make up my mind on purchasing the chuck or returning it. I
probably will not purchase it since I've ordered one of the Vicmarc/
Escoulin chucks, which costs in the $500 range. It has a lot more
capabilities than the Shape Shifter, but, of course, costs
considerably more. I believe it has the capability of mounting a chuck
onto the unit also.

If one has a lathe with 1-1/4" x 8 tpi, it is a simple matter to use
that size of Nova Chuck insert and you can use an insert in your chuck
to convert it to fit a 1" x 8 tpi spindle without having to add an
adapter and extend the whole mechanism considerably. I change adapters
in my chucks all of the time to either fit the 1-1/4" x 8 tpi spindle
of my Nova DVR to to fit the spindle of my Vicmarc VL-100 evs lathe
which is 1" x 8 tpi.

If I did not already own five eccentric chucks, I would consider the
ShapeShifter a good choice. It has a great deal of capability, and one
could use counterweights to balance the offset weight with a little
bit of experimenting, perhaps a disk between the chuck and
ShapeShifter with wheel weights on it to counter balance the load. I
might even give this a try and provide another story on the
ShapeShifter if Dan doesn't get in too big a rush to get the unit
back.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Basically, one can do anything the eccentric chucks can do by jury-
rigging things, by mounting between centers, and with homemade rigs.
I've seen many demonstrators do eccentric turning by removing two of
the jaws from their four jaw chucks. ShapeShifter does this a bit
easier.

Fred Holder, More Woodturning

On Jun 24, 6:37*am, mac davis wrote:
On Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:23:25 -0700 (PDT), Fred Holder
wrote:

Very good review, as usual, Fred..

Question: Did you feel that the low turning speeds were due to the chuck being
offset in the Shape shifter, or do you find this typical with eccentric chucks?

Did you buy or return it?
I found this requirement a little cheap on the designers part, but I guess you
can't give one to everyone..

I like the concept, but will wait until Dan or his competition come out with
something a little more user friendly on the mounting end... As in availability
of different spindle sizes as the chuck manufacturers do..
Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to offer one in 1-8 / 1-8 or 1 1/4-8 / 1
1/4-8...

I don't think I would of bought my first chuck (Oneway Talon) if I would have
had to buy a spindle reducer to use it.. *YMWV

Thanks again for posting the review, Fred...



Hello All,


Looks like I didn't fix the link so that it would work. Here is
another try:
http://www.morewoodturning.net/MW%20August%202009%20Test%20Page.pdf
I hope it works this time.


Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net


On Jun 23, 12:51*pm, Fred Holder wrote:
Hello Mac and others,


I finished reviewing the ShapeShifter eccentric chuck and have written
a review. This hasn't been proofread by Mildred as yet, so if you find
typo errors let me know. You can see the review at the following link:


http://www.morewoodturning.net/MWAugust2009 Test Page.pdf


If one doesn't own an eccentric chuck, this might be a decent option.


Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing