wood hacker
10th March 2010, 11:22 PM
Ok so maybe this idea has been floated before but here is a simple way to avoid those nasty jaw marks left by a scroll chuck when the diameter of the piece does not match the optimum diameter of the jaws. Now I know that that is what step jaws were disigned to overcome but some of us beginners have grander desires than we have budgets.
You take a strip of PVC pipe slightly wider than the jaws are deep split it and then remove enough so that what remains when wrapped around the piece does not quite meet at the ends. Stick the whole lot in the chuck and tighten to your hearts content and the jaws bite into the PVC and not the timber. I am guessing though that if you are using it on the foot of a bowl and want the jaws up against a shoulder you would make the strip slightly narrower than the jaws depth, though as I have not yet attempted a bowl (it is next on the list) I cannot really say.
Now I cannot actually claim this as an original idea. I got it from my Dad who saw it done by the president of his local woodworkers club. But to that unknown president many thanks for the quick cheap simple saver.
You take a strip of PVC pipe slightly wider than the jaws are deep split it and then remove enough so that what remains when wrapped around the piece does not quite meet at the ends. Stick the whole lot in the chuck and tighten to your hearts content and the jaws bite into the PVC and not the timber. I am guessing though that if you are using it on the foot of a bowl and want the jaws up against a shoulder you would make the strip slightly narrower than the jaws depth, though as I have not yet attempted a bowl (it is next on the list) I cannot really say.
Now I cannot actually claim this as an original idea. I got it from my Dad who saw it done by the president of his local woodworkers club. But to that unknown president many thanks for the quick cheap simple saver.