How to hold small diameter stuff

[Tiger]

Dear all,

I have the Herless lathe with a cheap Chinese chuck that you can't buy extra jaws for to hold thin stuff without tailstock support. The chuck squeezes down to about 40 ml diameter. Until I get a new more expensive chuck, does anyone know of how I can hold anything less than 40 ml without tailstock support. Has anyone made jaws that can be attached to hold thinner diameter work?

[RETIRED]

There are numerous ways to hold small diameters.
Hold between centres.
Shape the end to fit in the morse taper.
Use a Jacobs chuck at the drive end.
Glue the small bit to a wooden face plate.
Tenon the end and fit it into a tight drilled hole.
Hold a big bit in the chuck and make it into a small diameter.

PS. Did you get some more tools?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I made some pin-jaws for the chaiwanese chuck that came with my MC-900.

I persevered with 'em for all of, oh... two days or so before throwing 'em to kingdom come. Then I simply made a few jam-fit chucks to hold the wood until I could afford something decent.

If you don't know what a jam-fit chuck is, 'tis basically a block of wood fastened to a face-plate or held in the normal jaws then hollowed out until the piece you're working on is a tight press-in fit. It won't hold as well as a steel chuck, but with a light touch you can still do most things. They also do wonders in improving your tool control. ;)

[Gil Jones]

Tiger,
Check out this page on how to make a set of chuck jaws from wood. http://www.turnwood.net/turning_wooden_bracelets.htm
There are some other interesting things on this site, rummage around some, you may like it.

[Tiger]

Thanks, gentlemen, your suggestions are all helpful. Don't know why I didn't think of them.

, got a 2nd hand roughing gouge (not as big as yours, but this one is definitely HSS and not just stamped HSS).