Hello Bill,

I started turning on a lathe that fits the description of yours. There are
basically two fairly good solutions: first, saw a cross on the drive end of the
wood so that the prongs can fit considerably into the wood. Unless the wood is
too soft, this should enable a catch to stop your lathe without routing a hole.
The second is to use a tailstock cup center that is lot a live center. This will
allow the wood to stop when you get a catch without much or any damage to the
wood. Your catch will not do much damage to your turning either, since the wood
will stop when you have a catch. This requires you to use lighter cuts and
actually increases tool control.

A third option might be to use a good sharp gouge and perhaps cut down on the
number of catches. The Oland-style tool, in my opinion, is best suited for
hollowing end grain and not for spindle turning.

Fred Holder
http://www.fholder.com/

In article .com,
says...

Got a bunch of firewood that I am using to practice technique on with
my newly made oland-style tool (which is working GREAT, btw). The
problem I am running into is with the 4-prong drive-center.

the lathe is a taiwanese steel-tube, cheapy with 3/4-16, mt1 drive.
The center is 4 stubby, little prongs with a pointed middle pin. I
hammer it into the wood, mount the piece and apply pressure with the
tail-stock. So far so good -- except when I manage to get a catch. In
those situations, the drive-center seems to just route a nice
concentric circle and will no longer hold or drive the wood.

Not sure what kind of wood it is but "feels" about as hard as
poplar,i.e., not real soft but not real hard either.

Should I loosen my belt so that it will slip when I get a catch?
Should I get a different type of drive-center(where?) Or should I just
get better quality firewoodgrin? I have a faceplate and guess I
could use that but it is a pain especially for just doing some spindle
work.

thoughts, suggestions, comments, donations of Oneway lathe are welcome

Bill W