ccccchunt
Member
I have been turning for almost 20 years and lately have been doing a lot of "tube-in" casts because honestly I HATE drilling, gluing and squaring blanks. I'm great at the drilling. Good at the gluing, but continue to suck at squaring the blanks.
I recently purchased a carbide squaring setup from Rockler and it didn't seem to do that well and often left the ends of the blank jagged. But I struggled through it and the pens came out great as usual!
Then I started making some Artisan Lighters and those use a 37/64" hole down the center. I don't know about you guys, but the squaring gets even harder on sizes that don't have a pilot shaft and you have to either make your own or just come close!
I have seen other people make sanding jigs for squaring blanks on the lathe so I decided to give it a shot. I didn't build a jig though - I just used things I had on hand.
1st I mounted a jacobs chuck in the headstock that held a 2" sanding disk with replaceable hook and loop paper and installed 60 grit circle.
2nd in my tailstock, I mounted my PSI Turn between Centers Live center.
Then I started figuring out what material to make my pilot shaft for the blanks from. Then it hit me....... Why not just use the bushing!!!!!?!!!!
So I put the bushing onto the live center and the bushing went perfectly into my blank. Almost like it was designed to !!
Brought the tailstock up within and 1/8" and then just moved the tube back and forth on the 7mm rod on the live center.
Perfectly squared blank with zero blowouts!!! Funny it took me 20 years to have this AHA moment!!
Thought I would share in case anyone else was having the same problems. Will work with any blank because all the bushings have a 7mm hole for the mandrel.
I recently purchased a carbide squaring setup from Rockler and it didn't seem to do that well and often left the ends of the blank jagged. But I struggled through it and the pens came out great as usual!
Then I started making some Artisan Lighters and those use a 37/64" hole down the center. I don't know about you guys, but the squaring gets even harder on sizes that don't have a pilot shaft and you have to either make your own or just come close!
I have seen other people make sanding jigs for squaring blanks on the lathe so I decided to give it a shot. I didn't build a jig though - I just used things I had on hand.
1st I mounted a jacobs chuck in the headstock that held a 2" sanding disk with replaceable hook and loop paper and installed 60 grit circle.
2nd in my tailstock, I mounted my PSI Turn between Centers Live center.
Then I started figuring out what material to make my pilot shaft for the blanks from. Then it hit me....... Why not just use the bushing!!!!!?!!!!
So I put the bushing onto the live center and the bushing went perfectly into my blank. Almost like it was designed to !!
Brought the tailstock up within and 1/8" and then just moved the tube back and forth on the 7mm rod on the live center.
Perfectly squared blank with zero blowouts!!! Funny it took me 20 years to have this AHA moment!!
Thought I would share in case anyone else was having the same problems. Will work with any blank because all the bushings have a 7mm hole for the mandrel.
