George wrote in message on Tuesday 26 April
2005 06:17 am:

B B B B B But don't the jaws have to "grip" tightly?

I'm with you, Bill. Snug does fine if you've made the hold properly.
Roughed a 16x8 chunk of slinging wet hard maple on the pin chuck
yesterday,
reversed to a 2" dovetail recess for hollowing. Works, just don't tell
the lawyers you use them in stuff that big.

Still, the 15 year old regular Nova is getting a bit peened out.

ALL aspects of wood turning merit serious focus and attention. I've had a
few pieces leave the lathe ... usually in several simultaneous directions
and developing jagged edges as they exit. One left a too-loose Longworth
chuck and took $40 worth of laser engraving with it. One got a catch in a
thin cross-section (say 'hasta la vista, baby!'). It's now a solid ash
cheese and cracker board. Very pretty. But you should have seen it when it
was still a bowl. :-/ And there were a couple spindle pieces that got
chalked up to skew and scraper training but were at least as much the fault
of trying to work long pieces without a steady rest on a machine that can't
turn slowly enough to get away with that.

I'm willing to give mounting careful thought now.

If I grip the wood too tight, I will destroy it. I usually start my bowls on
a faceplate and turn a dovetail in the bottom for hollowing. There are a
lot of other ways to get there, but I am comfortable with this. The
dovetail is usually 1/4" deep, or less; just deep enough to accept the
dovetails cut into the chuck jaws. If I lean on the tommy bars, I can
destroy that recess in just about 4 seconds flat. DAMHIKT

If I grip it too loose, it goes whizzing past my head and groin. Both of
which have sentimental and ornamental value to me.

So now I grip work too firmly to shake easily, but not tight enough to
stress. It took some practice and could use some refinement. But I think
I've begun to get a handle on how tightly to grip this beautiful wood we
work with.

Bill