Fixtures and Chucks for Woodturning: Everything You Need to Know to Secure Wood on Your Lathe

by Doc Green

Overview

This book will help you save money on woodturning, expand your abilities, and master new challenges, giving you more success and confidence at the lathe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565235199
Publisher:	Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/01/2011
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Clarence "Doc" Green, a retired community college professor with a Ph.D. in physics, is a member of the American Association of Woodturners and his local turning club. He is an active participant in two woodturning forums, "World of Woodturners" and "WoodCentral." Green has been a woodworker for more than 30 years, but turning wood only since 2004. In that time, however, he has thoroughly researched the field of woodturning and wood-holding techniques for the lathe. He is the co-author of The Theory and Servicing of AM, FM, and FM Stereo Receivers (Prentice-Hall, 1980) and the author of Technical Physics (Prentice-Hall, 1984).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Spindle Turning Chapter 2: Faceplates Chapter 3: Scroll Chucks Chapter 4: More Chucks and Chucking Methods Chapter 5: Jam Chucks Chapter 6: Collets and Mandrels Chapter 7: Doughnut and Longworth Chucks Chapter 8: Vacuum and Vacuum Systems Chapter 9: Vacuum Chucks Chapter 10: Steady Rests Chapter 11: Illustrative Applications Chapter 12: Assembled Pieces

Editorial Reviews

The title should be enough for even the expert woodturner to get excited about. How many times have turners fretted about ways to mount particular pieces? Author Green may in fact have the answer in this excellent and beautifully illustrated book. Green shows you how to make some excellent steadies as well as some interesting and novel PVC vacuum chucks. The author takes you through all of the standard chucks and shows how to make them work better for your turning. This is a great reference book that won't lie around collecting dust.

Turners tend to get comfortable with learned methods, repeating a standard chucking process with ease until the day they run upon a situation where the tried and true won't work. I've been turning for a few years now, and every once in a while I have to mutter, "Now, how am I going to do that?" Doc Green pretty well has that question covered, and I believe anything beyond the realm of his new book may fall into the category of wild and crazy ideas. Doc divides the book into twelve sections, all well-illustrated with clear photographs showing what he's talking about. He covers drive centers and live centers, faceplates and screw centers, scroll chucks, shop made and jam chucks, collets and mandrels, cole jaws, doughnut chucks and Longworth chucks, vacuum systems and their chucks, steady rests, and several turning projects to practice methods he has described. Every method presented carries with it the necessary cautions about what not to do as well as how to do it best. He explains leverage and torque, how a turning tool puts stress on the workpiece, and how best to prepare a blank for mounting on the lathe. The really nice thing about this book is that every method is presented with alternatives, so there are a variety of ways to solve a given problem. There are also lots of shop-built jigs and aids included. Unless you've solved every problem in handling wood on the lathe, Doc's book will be invaluable for enlightening each new challenge along a woodturner's path of experience.

Fixtures and Chucks for Woodturning by Clarence Green covers both commercially produced and shop-made chucks, centers and faceplates. In addition to the projects for making your own shop helpers for turning projects, there are some projects that incorporate the use of these wood holders to create turned items. Fixtures and Chucks for Woodturning (Fox Chapel Publishing, ISBN 978-1-56523-519-9) is priced at $22.95.

From the Publisher

The tagline for the book "Fixtures and Chucks for Woodturning" says, "Everything you need to know to secure wood on your lathe" and I don't think that is an exaggeration. What more can there be when you have section headings of: Drive Centers and Live Centers Faceplates and Screw Centers Scroll Chucks Handy Shopmade Chucks Jam Chucks Collets and Mandrels Cole Jaws, Doughnut Chucks, Longworth Chucks Vacuum and Vacuum Systems Vacuum Chucks Steady Rests Turning Projects, and Assembled Pieces This book provides not only information on the above topics along with a multitude of photos but, also, is intermixed with projects such as turning an egg or a goblet with a lid. If you're wondering about turning punky wood or attaching to end grain, well that information is in here too. Fantastic! My Ratings of The Book Layout and Appearance: Good balance of photos, how-to instructions, projects. Thumbs Up! Instructions: Clear information and instructions Thumbs Up! Projects Selection: An unexpected bonus in this book. Great. Inspiration: Lots of information to open the door to creative turnings. Thumbs Up! Overall: Thumbs Up!

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