Ways of Mounting Wood on the Lathe

In this article I try to explain some different ways to mount your turnings on the lathe. None of the methods shown here use special chucks or tools. You can make all of these chucks with materials that you have in your shop.

Jam Chuck

Jam Chuck

This is ideal for finishing off bowls, but it can be adapted to be used for repetitive jobs where the stock is all prepared to a set size, and a tapered jam can be utilized to hold the stock. For bowl bottoms, or any turning, you can either jam inside or outside, depending on the shape of the turned article. As the name implies, this is a friction chuck principle where the holding is done either by jamming the stock inside a recess or over a spigot. This principle is not limited to initial stock mounting, but lends itself to various phases of turning. Simply turn the recess or spigot to accommodate the size of the other part. If you make the recess too big or the spigot too small they can be helped to fit tighter by wetting the contact areas, which will lift the fibers and take up some of the slack. Or if it is still loose, use a few layers of toilet tissue or paper towel or serviette to do the job.

Glue Chuck

There are two basic types here, the simple glue chuck, and the glued jam chuck.

Simple Glue

Simple Glue Chuck

This system is ideally suited for mounting bowls, plates, platters , and other similar turnings where the bulk of the wood is not to far away from the mounting surface. It allows you to make the most of the stock that is available to you, as you don’t need to waste material by turning a foot or spigot.

For the simple glue, you can turn a spigot, as shown above (Glue Block), or a faceplate mounted block with a clean, slightly concave outer face. I generally nail a small brad into the center of the Glue Block face, cutting off all but 1 mm. Centering the turning can be done by positioning this pin into an appropriate recess in the center of the piece to be turned.

As for the glue, the world is your oyster. I prefer to use PVA (Poly Vinyl Acetate) which takes a couple of hours to dry. Some of my fellow turners use hot melt glue, while others with full pockets and little time use the "super glue" type of products.

Again, please think out of the normal here. Using the hot melt glue for example, is an ideal way of reverse mounting bowls as well, particularly rough edge turnings, or "holey ones" that won’t lend themselves to vacuum chucking. Simply hot melt glue the glue block to the finished surface, then mount and turn as you will. When you want to get the block off, apply a little mineral turpentine, wait a few minutes, and the glue will soften, allowing the block to be removed.

Glued Jam

An extreme example of glue and jam, but you get the idea. Normally the jam is a bit bigger.

This is good where you need that little extra strength, perhaps because you are turning further away from the mounting. Doing things like candle sticks, bud vases, etc, essentially short spindle work. This makes the best of both the glue and the jam chuck, and by using the jam chuck recess, you increase the glued surface. Unfortunately, with this method, you loose the lower end of the stock (what's in the recess) but it is ideal if you don’t have a normal chuck, in which you would loose the bit at the bottom anyway.

Glue and Paper

This has been around since the beginning. Essentially the same as the glue chuck, except that the inclusion of a layer of paper facilitates the easier separation of the glue block when required. The down side is a possible reduction in the strength of the bond. This method can be used in the same situations as the simple glue mount. This type of mount is not suited to using hot melt glue, but any other seems to work. It does need a lot of super glue though.

Faceplate

Not a lot to this really. Simply find the center of the work and secure the faceplate to the work, centralized of course, using screws. I prefer to use "gib screws" which are a very sharp screw with an aggressive pitch and depth of flute (or whatever the screw equivalent is). Take care as always with the lathe speed, as out of balance work is dangerous.

Centers

An example of a screw chuck on a small faceplate. I prefer a larger bearing surface and a larger screw.

Between center turning is just that and therefore needs a tail stock. Mount a spur drive center in the headstock and use a center in the tailstock to force the turning stock onto the drive center. It is important to ensure that the stock is fairly well balanced, or the speeds are low or else you could well end up wearing your turning stock. Having said this, there are a range of off center turning projects that can create a range of effects by deliberately using different centers for different parts of the same piece.

Screw chuck

This method is ideal for holding bowl blanks to turn the outside of the bowl. To call this screw chucking is really a little bit of poetic license. A specially machined "coach screw" is locked into the chuck, and a piece of stock with an appropriately sized hole is screwed onto it, thus holding it against the closed jaws of the chuck. A derivative of this that I have seen is where a special faceplate has been made with the screw as part of it, so the area of support is greatly increased.

Press mount

Basics of a press mount. Note use of waste wood packer to protect the bottom.

This is another way of reverse mounting bowls to finish the bottom. It can also be used to hold stock while a dovetail or spigot are turned on the base for mounting in a chuck. For bowls, a padded faceplate is used and the work is pressed against it by the center of the tailstock. Friction drives the turning. I have a wooden disk that I attach to my faceplate, and it is covered in 1" thick foam rubber. Different sizes can be made to suit different sized turnings. For turning spigots for mounting, the work can be held between the tailstock and the bare metal faceplate, or even the chuck jaws. If you are going to be using this method to clean off the bottom of a bowl, help yourself by marking the center of the bottom of the bowl when you are turning the outside. This makes centering it when remounting a very simple task, by just bringing the tailstock center back up to the mark.

There are many different ways to mount your turnings on the lathe, and I'm sure that some of you have come up with your own unique methods. Each method described here can be used for a large variety of turnings, and the key is to try them all out and see which ones work best for you.

 

Rex Haslip