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smidsy
26th January 2005, 12:31 PM
Hei Guys,
Need to make a couple of needle holder key rings which require a 10mm mandrel. I tried turning a spacer for my pen mandrel but that didn't work, I'm thinking either proper mandrel bushes or make a mandrel out of a 10mm bolt and mount it in the drill chuck.
The problem for these kits is that the timber protrudes past the tube about 3mm each end.
Any ideas?
Cheers
Paul

fxst
26th January 2005, 01:35 PM
Paul nows the time to invest in a small metal lathe :D
I tend top make most of my own mandrels and the required bushes out of brass as they usually give the dimensions needed. beats buying them and is still turning :p
Pete

smidsy
26th January 2005, 06:30 PM
Hei Pete,
If I could find the money I would have a metal lathe yesterday because I could have a lot of fun with one.
Unfortunately even a cheap one is way beyond my means atm.
Cheers
Paul

gatiep
11th February 2005, 02:04 AM
Paul,

Sorry about the delay in responding, as I somehow missed the post. I seem to recollect that you have long jaws or pin jaws for your Vicmarc 100 chuck. If you do, use a 10 mm bolt as a mandrel, slide a scrap pice of wood over the bolt next to the bolt head, then the tubes/blanks, then another piece of scrap wood. Clamp the thread end of the bolt loosly in the jaws, then remove the pin from your mc900 live center and wind the tailstock/ live center up against the bolt head, then tighten the chuck onto the bolt and you have a 10 mm mandrel. It will help if you could drill a center hole in the head, which you can do on the lathe with a jacobs chuck and drill in the tailstock, otherwise just have the bolt in the jaws with the head clamped against the jaws to lign it up. Start the lathe and with a fine texter mark the center on the spinning bolt head and then drill with a drill press so that the live center point can fit into the hole like on the pen mandrel you have..
Another mandrel can be made with a headless bolt or 10 mm rod in this case. Between centers turn a piece of wood about 100 mm long to about 50 mm diameter so that your normal chuck jaws can grip it. Part it off it into 2 x 50 mm long pieces. Grip each piece in the chuck lining it up with the live center/tailstock in the original center dimple, pressing it into the chuck, then tighten the chuck. Now drill a 10 mm hole into the wood about 35 mm deep with a 10 mm drill bit in a jacobs chuck in the tailstock. Replace your live center against the wood with the wood turned around in the chuck, running as true as you can get it, (not a problem, because the part off will be square, so just push the wood against the inside of the chuck while tightening it) and the live center will mark the center on the undrilled end.
Now use a 10 mm headless bolt ( or rod ) that is about 60 mm longer than the blank you need to turn, slide the rod through and put one drilled piece over each end. Grab the one piece of wood in the chuck and your live center against the other, ligned up with the dimple in it and screw the tailstock up against it, compressing the whole lot. Start the lathe and turn the blank down as well as the inner ends of the end blocks. Now you have a perfect and reuseable mandrel.

One can do almost everything in woodturning with just a bit of lateral thinking, however I havn't been able to make a succesful dovetail joint yet!

Enjoy your turning!

Cya

:)

smidsy
11th February 2005, 02:44 PM
Hei Joe,
I played around with this a couple of weeks ago at Liddlelow.
I don't have the small jaws for the vicmarc (I've got the 25mm jaws on the clone chuck) but what I did was use a 10mm bolt minus the head mounted in the drill chuck.
It seemed promising but I needed a longer bolt. The other prob was that on this kit the brass tube is recessed inside the wood by about 3mm each end so I need to get some 10mm brass tube to use as spacers.

Been busy with other stuff lately so I haven't touched the lathe - gonna get back in to it though coz I've got about 15 jobs lined up.
Thanks for the info.
Paul