Keith Young wrote:
Because the wood is soft I find it impossible to get a really good
grip.Guess the wood acts like a sponge. Is this chuck unique or is it a fact
that most chucks are poor on green wood.

I can't comment specifically on the Compaq, but I think it would be
fairer if you said that most green woods are poor on chucks Like you
discovered, green wood is soft, and also weak. It is very easy to break
the wood around the chuck. You may need to use a wider and deeper
recess, leaving plenty of material around it, and make more sympathetic
cuts.

--
Derek Andrews, woodturner

http://www.seafoamwoodturning.com
Wedding Favors ~ Artisan Crafted Gifts ~ One-of-a-Kind Woodturning

The wood is spongier than dry wood. I use the external tenon method and
tighten the chuck well. I try to make the tenon larger than smaller. My
present chuck is a Oneway Stronghold and it is very good but I have used a
no-name cheapie as well with the external tenon. A trick you can try is to
put CA glue around the area the chuck will grip. The CA glue will firm up
the wood.
Billh

"Keith Young" wrote in message
...
Hi

Because the wood is soft I find it impossible to get a really good
grip.Guess the wood acts like a sponge. Is this chuck unique or is it a
fact that most chucks are poor on green wood.

Sincerely
Keith

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 18:01:03 -0800, "Keith Young" wrote:

Hi

Because the wood is soft I find it impossible to get a really good
grip.Guess the wood acts like a sponge. Is this chuck unique or is it a fact
that most chucks are poor on green wood.

Its your chuck. I only use Oneway Stronghold chucks and I never have a problem holding green wood (which is 95% of what I turn).
I've used the Compaq chuck and promptly returned it. I found its grip extremely weak.

Peter Teubel
Milford, MA
http://www.revolutionary-turners.com

The CA trick is good. It penetrates well into the end grain, but hardly at
all into the face. Makes it more of an improvement in recesses or small
tenons where it can get some percentage distance. Problem is, small tenons
can fall on the natural fault lines of annual rings!

Try to use the tailstock until your piece is at its best balance or least
weight, so as not to put unwanted stresses on your mount. Don't think
"grip" so much as "mount," and you're conceptually better off. The grip
only has to keep the piece from rotating under tool pressure, which
shouldn't be much at all if you're letting the wood come to the edge rather
than stuffing the edge into the wood.

If you've got a dovetail, inner or outer, it's the key to your mount. It
needs to wedge the nose of the jaws into a flat created for that purpose on
the piece Needn't be tight, just snug, because as long as there is no gap,
the only way it slips is if you deform one side of the mating surface or
other. Which you don't do, because you keep your tailstock in play until
late, and you let the wood come to the edge to be cut, right?


"billh" wrote in message
. ..
A trick you can try is to
put CA glue around the area the chuck will grip. The CA glue will firm up
the wood.
Billh

"Keith Young" wrote in message
...
Hi

Because the wood is soft I find it impossible to get a really good
grip.Guess the wood acts like a sponge. Is this chuck unique or is it a
fact that most chucks are poor on green wood.

Sincerely
Keith

"Keith Young" wrote in message ...
Hi

Because the wood is soft I find it impossible to get a really good
grip.Guess the wood acts like a sponge. Is this chuck unique or is it a fact
that most chucks are poor on green wood.

Sincerely
Keith
Keith,
Make up some disposable wood "faceplates" from dry scrap in a size
that fits the natural diameter of the chuck jaws. Use a polyurethane
glue such as Gorilla to glue the wood faceplate to the blank and then
chuck onto the faceplate.

Peter
meet me at http://www.peterhyde.bravehost.com/

"billh" wrote in message
. ..
The wood is spongier than dry wood. I use the external tenon method and
tighten the chuck well. I try to make the tenon larger than smaller. My
present chuck is a Oneway Stronghold and it is very good but I have used a
no-name cheapie as well with the external tenon. A trick you can try is
to put CA glue around the area the chuck will grip. The CA glue will firm
up the wood.
Billh
===========================
Be sure you give the CA enough time to set before chucking it. Otherwise you
may have a hard time removing it, or tear out the tenon.

Ken Moon
Webberville, TX

I have a Nova Compac Chuck that I have used on green wood. It's a decent
little chuck. (Pay particular attention to the word "little") It's a
decent chuck when you observe it's limitations of capacity. It's grip is
acceptable when used on smaller blanks, but when you try to grip green wood
blanks approaching the size limits of a mini lathe, you're gonna throw a
blank or two. If you intend to turn larger blanks, get a larger chuck.
Either a Talon or a Supernova with spigot jaws.

Barry


"Keith Young" wrote in message
...
Hi

Because the wood is soft I find it impossible to get a really good
grip.Guess the wood acts like a sponge. Is this chuck unique or is it a
fact
that most chucks are poor on green wood.

Sincerely
Keith