Compared to how long wood turning has been around, chucks are a relatively new invention and by no means a necessity. I've turned lots of very small items without a chuck. Usually use a threaded glue block, but have also just done it between centers.

Cheers,
Brad

 

Although it is wasteful of wood, you can start with a block that fits your chuck and turn a bowl or other project from just part of it.

Are the jaws of your chuck reversable? If so, they could go quite small.

 

my chuck is a Nova G3 50MM jaw. can't see a way to reverse them

 

You are right, Mike. I have a Nova G3 and the jaws are not removable or reversable.

How about finding a small check that you could clamp in the Nova jaws?

 

Phil what kind of chuck are you referring to I can't think of one

 

Several ways to go about it just depends on how you want to proceed.

I have turned a larger spindle blank to hold in the jaws and then cut a mortise to hold a square stock blank. Make wooden jaw inserts to allow clamping smaller parts. Just glue stock to a wooden face plate, etc.. Easy enough to just cut up branches and use for turning stock so not money lost. How small are you wanting to turn?

 

Several ways to go about it just depends on how you want to proceed.

I have turned a larger spindle blank to hold in the jaws and then cut a mortise to hold a square stock blank. Make wooden jaw inserts to allow clamping smaller parts. Just glue stock to a wooden face plate, etc.. Easy enough to just cut up branches and use for turning stock so not money lost. How small are you wanting to turn?

how would you make a jaw insert, I have thought of that but haven't figured out a way to do it

 

Thanks every body for your suggestion they are a great help, the size pieces I want to turn are smaller than the 1 3/4 minimum for my current set of jaws

 

In the end the time spent on making these things is more about problem solving on the fly for odd pieces but frequently it makes more sense to just a large enough piece of wood to avoid messing with it if possible. In the grand scheme, for most woods, one isn't losing any money turning a two inch blank down to a small knob for example. I bought the Nova 25 mm jaws for holding small parts a long time ago but still have a few of odds and ends stuffed in the bottom lathe drawer.

how would you make a jaw insert, I have thought of that but haven't figured out a way to do it

Generally I just turn a round insert and turn both a recessed channel at the midpoint and will turn a lip to register to the jaw. A hole is then drilled dead center or make a mortise to hold square stock and then quarter the piece. I put it back together and then use a rubber band in the recess to hold the insert together. The round spindle or square stock then can be inserted into insert and the piece tightened. More of use a few times and chuck thing. I aslo turned some collets from Delrin and they worked well.

Collets from basswood are doable also. After several failed attempts to turn the stupid little ebony pulls from spindle stock found that I could turn them in this fashion without issue. From the spindle stock consistently would shear off during the process.

I made Delrin jaws similar to the Nova soft jaw set to clamp things at times. Have used jam chucks a few times also.

what kind of glue would you use to glue green wood to a glue block

If I can use double sided sticky tape I go for that first but need sharp tools to avoid applying excess forces as just not much surface area on small pieces. Superglue, hot glue, and wood glue all work also depending on the wood. For small branch cut offs I just use branches that can be easily chucked in the jaws as not too worried about saving wood.

 

Just glue the smaller block of wood to one that fits in your chuck. Another option is to make your own wooden soft jaws or a collet for your chuck to hold smaller pieces. You will find several YouTube videos about making jaws for your chuck. If this is something you plan to do often getting a set of smaller jaws will be useful for other projects as well.

 

thanks for your input, i just remembered a collet chuck I made when I fist stated turning haven't thought of it for years'. Thanks for the ideas

 

BTW, I forgot to mention that I use hot glue to attach pieces to a glue block.

 

thats my go to glue as well when dry I don't know about green

 

Thick CA glue is best for wet wood to a glue block. Both surfaces should be slightly concave to ensure contact at the OD. Not sure how well turners tape or hot glue work with wet wood.

For Nova G3 size chucks, Record Power jaws fit. I have a set of RP 35mm I use on a G3 chuck for smaller items, goes down to ~ 1-1/4”.

 

thanks that is good to know