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

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

wrote in message
oups.com...
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.

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?



Ah,well, the mention of "better quality firewood" is _not_ so silly.

Heat-value of different kinds of wood is almost exactly
correspondent to the density of the wood.

Harder wood means higher density, means better heat-value,
usually also means higher cost.

But the higher cost gives you that much more heat pr. weight unit,
_and_ plenty more fun for the lathe:-)

Go to it!

Bjarte

On 4 Aug 2005 07:51:22 -0700, "
wrote:

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.

Tighten up the tailstock when it does that. Soft wood will do that,
and even if you grind off two of the prongs on the drive center, it
will still spin. Just tighten it up and be on your way.


--
Chuck *#:^)
chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply.


September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

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Thanks for the help. For the record:
1) I do have a live center(ball-bearing) in the tailstock
2) I found I got more catches with my gouge than with my oland....go
figure (maybe need to talk to the CFO/SWMBO about upgrading gouge)
3) Will keep an eye out for better firewood

Bill W

wrote:


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.

Bill,
In addition to the other excellent suggestions, you can sharpen your
prong center. Hold it up in front of you, looking sideways at one of the
prongs--you'll see the leading side which is straight up to the point,
and the trailing side is curved. Put the curved side to a grinder, at
the right side of the wheel--keeping the point away, of course. Don't
grind the straight leading edge at all, just the curved side to give an
angle at the point of about 25-30 degrees. Not necessary to grind nicks
from the edge, just so it's sharp.

Ken Grunke

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Bill, you got just about all the good answers there are for this situation.
I grind off 2 prongs (it's easier to cut a slit rather than a perfect
cross); I sparpen the prongs (not a lot, just enough to make them thinner
and sharper; I tighten up on the tailstock not just when it slips but after
a few cuts, the wood loosens. Possibly this is why you're getting catches,
especially on spindle turning. Not that it's not common to get catches
when turning between centers, it's just not that common. The only time I
get catches turning spindles is when I'm using the skew and reading
something at the same time. kidding : )

Take care,
Ruth
www.torne-lignum.com

--
www.torne-lignum.com
wrote in message
oups.com...
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

wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks for the help. For the record:
1) I do have a live center(ball-bearing) in the tailstock
2) I found I got more catches with my gouge than with my oland....go
figure (maybe need to talk to the CFO/SWMBO about upgrading gouge)
3) Will keep an eye out for better firewood


Saw the cross if you can. Sharpen with a file as advertised, and tap the
prongs in with a _wooden_ mallet. Metal is going to peen the end of the
taper.

For a suggestion on gouge angles for roughing - though these are for bowls,
take a peek at http://personalpages.tds.net/~upgeor...20Pictures.htm

If you want a look at spindle roughing angles, name your gouge type, and I
can e-mail a couple of suggestions of the thousand-word kind.

Hi Bill

One suggestion after all the other good advice, get a larger spur center.

And practice, practice so you do not get catches with a spindle gouge,
an oland tool is good for face plate turning not so good for spindle
turning, just don't give up, more practice and if possible get someone
to hold your hand, a book and video, dvd etc. is also a good help.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

wrote:
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

"Ruth Niles" wrote in message
...
Bill, you got just about all the good answers there are for this
situation.
I grind off 2 prongs (it's easier to cut a slit rather than a perfect
cross); I sparpen the prongs (not a lot, just enough to make them thinner
and sharper; I tighten up on the tailstock not just when it slips but
after a few cuts, the wood loosens. Possibly this is why you're getting
catches, especially on spindle turning. Not that it's not common to get
catches when turning between centers, it's just not that common. The
only time I get catches turning spindles is when I'm using the skew and
reading something at the same time. kidding : )
==================
Ruth,
Can you post us a video of that??

Ken Moon

Ruth wrote: ....snip.... "The only time I get catches turning spindles is
when I'm using the skew and reading something at the same time. kidding
: )
********************
Ken inquired: "Ruth, Can you post us a video of that??"


Ken, I could but then I'd have to close the book to hold the camera. I'm
good, but I'm not that good. : )

Ruth
www.torne-lignum.com
Check out my "customer" pages
to see pics of some of the posters here.

"Ruth Niles" wrote in message
...
Ruth wrote: ....snip.... "The only time I get catches turning spindles is
when I'm using the skew and reading something at the same time.
kidding : )
********************
Ken inquired: "Ruth, Can you post us a video of that??"


Ken, I could but then I'd have to close the book to hold the camera. I'm
good, but I'm not that good. : )

Use the timer.

On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 16:14:58 -0400, "Ruth Niles" wrote:

Bill, you got just about all the good answers there are for this situation.
I grind off 2 prongs (it's easier to cut a slit rather than a perfect
cross); I sparpen the prongs (not a lot, just enough to make them thinner
and sharper; I tighten up on the tailstock not just when it slips but after
a few cuts, the wood loosens. Possibly this is why you're getting catches,
especially on spindle turning. Not that it's not common to get catches
when turning between centers, it's just not that common. The only time I
get catches turning spindles is when I'm using the skew and reading
something at the same time. kidding : )

Take care,
Ruth
www.torne-lignum.com

Good point on the tightening, Ruth... it also snugs the taper, unless they hit
it in with a hammer first..

I used to think that the spurs were digging or turning after a few cuts but
realized as I was tightening the tailstock, that the live center wasn't moving
into the wood, the taper was snugging up in the tailstock..


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

"Ruth Niles" wrote: Ken, I could but then I'd have to close the book to
hold the camera. I'm good, but I'm not that good. : )
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ruth, count me as the first to volunteer to come and hold the camera for
you.

"Ruth Niles" wrote: Ken, I could but then I'd have to close the book to
hold the camera. I'm good, but I'm not that good. : )
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Leo Lichtman wrote: Ruth, count me as the first to volunteer to come and
hold the camera for
you.


Hi Leo! I've missed you. Thanks for volunteering, now I guess I have to
make a video and become famous. : )

Ruth
www.torne-lignum.com