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Making the Fruit Chuck (Photo 14)

Photo 14 Click on the photo for an enlarged view

Between centers, prepare a 3" cylinder of some soft timber, i.e. Philippine mahogany or the like, and form a spigot to suit your chuck. Put the cylinder into your chuck and check that it runs true. Part off to give you a length of 2" and true up the face with a parting tool. With a spindle gouge, scoop out a shallow recess about 2 1/2" in diameter and about 3/4" deep. Sand the recess to take out any ridges and with the 1/8th drill bit in the Jacobs chuck, drill a hole all the way through the center of the cylinder. Take the (Fruit Chuck) body out of the jaws and countersink the back of the hole to accept a flat head screw. A number 6 or 8 screw with the thread all the way up can be super glued or araldite it into the hole. Allow for about 1" of screw thread to penetrate. Voila - a fruit chuck.

Photo 15 Click on the photo for an enlarged view

Photo 16 Click on the photo for an enlarged view

Photo 17 Click on the photo for an enlarged view

Photo 18 Click on the photo for an enlarged view

I took the apple and screwed it onto the thin screw of the chuck and lightly tightened it. (Photo 15) I spun it slowly by hand and checked that it ran true. Then bringing up the tool rest and with the 3/8" spindle gouge, I finished the end of the apple as before, but this time made this indentation slightly smaller at the end. I also needed to bore out this end to a depth of 1/2" or so. I scraped and sanded this end as before and applied finishes, carefully blending everything in so as not to form rings.

Now you can fit a previously prepared stock and tail to the apple. I make my stalks from ebony or some other hard woods by whittling them from a 1/4" stick and hand sanding to a reasonable finish. I make 20 or so at a time and keep them beside my jar of cloves (photo 16), which I use to glue in as a tail (photo 17). Carefully glue them in with super glue and clean off any excess with a clean cloth. You now have a beautiful piece of fruit that will look good in that nice bowl you made. (Photo 18) Add some more apples and pears and a couple of bananas, and you have a gift that you can proudly give to anyone. With a little bit of practice, all of the stages of the apple making will become easier and quicker.

Tools used for this project were:

3/4" Roughing out gouge, 3/4" flat skew chisel, 1/2" spindle gouge, 3/8" spindle gouge, 1/8" parting tool and 1/8" drill bit in a Jacobs chuck, home made fruit chuck. Total cost of materials was about £1:00 or $1.60 Selling for about £6:50 or $ 10.40.

Good luck,
Oskar