Accessory advice needed

[Misco]

Hello all!

First post on the forum, and I'm seeking help. I've not long started wood turning after being keen to try the hobby for many years. My living situation is limiting, however, in that I'm in an apartment block in South Korea with no access to workshop space.

I've got around this problem with a teeny 4 inch max width capacity mini lathe from China. It's doing the job for now and I've turned a few pens, key chains and whistles.

The problem is that it comes with two 10mm drill chucks permanently attached rather than an mt1 or mt2 head/tailstock. I want to do some bowl turning (small bowls obviously!) but can't find a faceplate that would fit into a drill chuck.

Do you know if such a thing exists? If so, I'm coming back to the UK very briefly next week. Any thoughts on where I'd buy such a thing?

Thanks in advance,

Michael

 

[MusicMan]

Are you quite sure it does not separate somehow? That's an odd design. Could we see a picture or a web reference?

The trouble is, that even a 4" faceplate would be rather unstable on a 10 mm conventional chuck.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

No. You won't find a faceplate to fit a chuck, as above it would be unstable. I can't help wondering what your lathe was designed for if it has two chucks? The tailstock one must be live?

 

[Misco]

Imgur / a / gSNcF (forum won't allow me to post a link!)

Here it is in all it's cheap Chinese glory. I'm almost positive it's fixed. You can see the wee threaded post it came with to hold the workpiece.

What I'm picturing is a post on a plate, maybe two inches across, to screw down to a blank and give me access to hollow.

I'm very much making things up as I go though, and am very open to any other advice on how I'd turn small bowls with this set up.

If I'm stuck with pens it's not the end of the world though. They're addictive!

 

[Misco]

No. You won't find a faceplate to fit a chuck, as above it would be unstable. I can't help wondering what your lathe was designed for if it has two chucks? The tailstock one must be live?

Yes indeed, the tailstock has a fixed live chuck. Honestly it was very, very cheap. I'm trying my best to make it work for what I want to do. We're here in Korea for just another year so it's hard to justify anything too large to take home or too expensive to leave behind.

(edit; on rereading this the phrase "fixed live chuck" seems very odd, but I'm sure you know what I mean!)

 

[minilathe22]

So you have a non-removeable live chuck on the tailstock? and a non-removeable chuck on the headstock end as well.

If you don't want to invest too much money, maybe you could create a bowl shape and maintain a thin spindle of wood through the centre, which you then remove once you have taken the bowl off the lathe. Sand the centre of the bowl by hand afterwards.

Also take a look at making your own "screw chuck" with a large wood screw. Might be worth thinking about.