Nova chuck references/howtos/tutorials?

[johnpipe108]

I have recently returned to my English Northumbrian bagpipes project, about a year and a half after making the smallest drone:



Today I went out to Woodcraft and purchased a Nova Precision Midi woodturning chuck, and I've never worked with this type chuck before. As may be seen in the photo above, I'm turning small, cylinder-bored parts. I will be cutting the blanks in the background for the mid-size two-part drone (the smaller and larger drones are the 4 pieces in the foreground), and a common stock for the three drones; the bulky piece of cocobolo is for the stock, and it will be hollowed out inside as is commonly done for this class of bagpipe.

I will need to end-bore the drone blanks on the lathe, either in the square or after turning to cylinder. Once bored, turning is virtually the same as pen-turning. I will also be doing the same with a 1-inch square x 7-inch piece of African Blackwood for the pipe chanter.

I would be looking for info on the best way (ways?) of chucking the pieces for end-boring, either square or round, and if needed will support the outer end with my home-made center rest. The drone blanks will be 3/4-inch square x 5-inches long.

The Nova chuck comes with two sets of jaws, the smaller (25mm minimum diameter)has an internal radius of about 0.200-inch, and the larger (50mm) being about 0.850-inch internal radius. The larger would be used to grip the 1-3/8-inch OD on the stock for hollowing after turning to form (cylindrical at the ferrule, with a slight outward taper to the other end), which hopefully will be reasonably straightforward, so the main questions would seem to be on holding the drone and chanter pieces.

Any tips or references on useage of such chucks for my purposes will be appreciated.

Thank you, John

[nelsone]

I would probably turn the blank first. When I have done that for pens or spice mills I have the jaws on each of the flats with the corners between the jaws. A jacobs chuck on the tailstock and run it in.

You may get some better answers than mine, but that's what I do for that type of turning.

I'd love to see progress pics on your pipes!

[johnpipe108]

Originally Posted by nelsone

I would probably turn the blank first. When I have done that for pens or spice mills I have the jaws on each of the flats with the corners between the jaws. A jacobs chuck on the tailstock and run it in.

You may get some better answers than mine, but that's what I do for that type of turning.

I'd love to see progress pics on your pipes!

I'm a little unclear about your reply; do you mean you have turned the blank to a cylinder, except for the ends, leaving them square for the chuck, before boring?

I will not be able to use my jacobs chuck in the tailstock for the shorter blanks as it has been damaged and has excessive runout , and I will not be able to afford a new one for a few month after parting with 110 presidents today! I will feed the drills, held in a hand-chuck, into the rotating stock (this is the common practice in end-drilling bagpipe blanks)

Thanks, John

[nelsone]

Sorry for not being clear. When I have done pens or mills I drill the hole before turning the cylinder. Square blank in the chuck. The reason is if you are off just a bit with the square blank, you still have room to keep everythign centered.