Help! I can't find a drive centre to fit.

[Robbo3]

Worst case, you could always get a chuck and fit a drive centre in that.

Worst case marcos? The pro's do it all the time for speed.
In fact that's quite a good idea (which I hadn't thought about before - although I do it) for those lathes that don't have a morse taper.

Kate, you have a PM

 

[marcros]

Worst case, financially.

 

[graduate_owner]

Just to give you an idea, I paid £150 for my Union Graduate bowl lathe, complete with 14" outboard faceplate and sanding table. I have seen these tables sell on ebay for about £70-£80, and faceplates for about £30. I think it was really cheap for a graduate, so I was lucky but nevertheless those are the facts. What I was getting at is it may not be worth throwing good money after bad. If you can get a suitable part easily and cheaply then fine, go for it, but please be aware that what you have is a low quality piece of kit.
I know we can't all afford top quality tools, and I have a couple of Lidl / Aldi tools myself. I bought them knowing they would get only occasional use and it wasn't realistic to buy mid to top quality kit for such use. By the same logic I have some Axminster hobby range machinery. When it comes to a lathe though, I don't think occasional use applies, and I'm sure many turners will use a lathe for several hours at a time. In that situation I wouldn't expect cheap tools to be satisfactory.
I also think many people try to learn woodturning on their own, perhaps with the assistance of a book and I think there are enough difficulties to overcome without having to work with inferior kit and I suspect a cheap lathe is just what you need to put you off turning because you don't realise the problem is the lathe, not you. My B&D attachment very nearly did that to me.
Different topic but same concept - I always thought planing wood was some sort of mysterious black art, until I tried planing with a reasonable hand plane and a sharp blade instead of the blunt block plane I had.

K

 

[graduate_owner]

To respond to Bourbon's particular point about cheap tools - I'm not suggesting people should only buy the top quality makes. As I said above I have Lidl and Aldi stuff, and Axminster hobby kit. I don't have any Mafell, Festool, Lie Nielson or Veritas because I can't see that I could justify the expense. I do have a Clarke wet and dry grinder and I think it is pretty poor - I had to replace the whetstone wheel because it wobbled in all directions and I never did manage to get it to run true. I think Clarke are still in existence because I suspect they don't really exist anyway if you see what I mean, they are just one of several 'brands' such as NuTool and Silverline that attach their stickers to far east imports. Some of their imports may actually be fine. I have a very nice Clarke welder, but it is not a far east import, it was made in Italy. I understand some of their air compressors are quite decent too, but in general I would avoid any of those brands unless I was buying for very occasional use. I have read many posts on this forum regarding the inadequacies of these brands.

I well remember reading a comment in the Whole Earth Catalogue many years ago, to the effect-

Cheap tools are $hit. They may not smell but they are stinkers to work with.

( Like my old blunt block plane )
K

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you have wet stone that doesn't run true, you can usually true them with devil stone - but you must devise a way of clamping it dead solidly. Cut a block of wood, hot glue it or screw it to your bench and clamp the stone to it JUST touching the wheel, so that you can hear it touch the high spot(s) only. Leave it run for a few minutes until you can't hear it touching any more, then move it slightly until it touches again, and repeat. Keep going. When you hear it touching all the way round, the stone is round. The secret is that the both the devil stone and the grinder must be fixed absolutely dead - the slightest movement and because the wheel is slow, the stone will ride it. Sideways movement can be adjusted by shims. Mine is now perfect, and I had nearly thrown the thing out.

 

[graduate_owner]

Hi Phil, and thank you for that. I might be able to resurrect the old whetstone after all. The replacement is a better stone altogether though. Of course what I would really like is one of those CBN wheels, but what a price they are. I'm sure if I bought one I would not regret it, but squaring up to that initial purchase - well, perhaps with some Axminster vouchers for fathers day, birthday etc, who knows? I felt the same about buying a lathe chuck. I spent £160 on an Axminster evolution, and then another £75 for a set of O'Donnell jaws. Ouch! More than I paid for the lathe, way more, but now I have them I am glad I did go ahead with the purchase.

K

 

[Paul Hannaby]

If you have a chuck that will hold a 2"-ish diameter disc, you could use a morse taper adapter. Here's one Axminster sell http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-morse-taper-carriers-ax21686

 

[Robbo3]

Katy, FYI.

Three jaw (Edit: Four jaw - thanks Phil) self centering engineering type chuck produced by the maker of the Peatol lathe.

Drive centres are from the Chronos SCT 7pc Set of Drive Centres
- https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/cgi-bin/sh00 ... #a51209S03

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Your three jaws have bred.