Popular Woodworking 2007-12 № 166, страница 59
At the Lathe 8 When you have sliced the thicker pieces, trim off the corners of all the pieces. You don't need to cut actual circles; knocking off the corners is enough. The rest will happen very quickly on the lathe. Pay attention to safety; you need to stay alert for this kind of small work on the band saw. Drive the stem into the disc. For this, I have a very simple jig; a piece of 1V2"-thick hardwood with a 5/8" hole drilled to the depth you want for the bottom of the stem to protrude (about3/4"). The tailstock is fitted with a live center that has had the point removed. This allows the end of the dowel (stem) of the top blank to simply bottom out in the recess of the live center. This quickly centers the dowel, and prevents splitting it, as pushing a point into it would do. 9 Since I am usually preparing hundreds or thousands of these blanks at once, I've developed a reasonably efficient way of gluing them up. First, lay the prepped pieces of wood out on a bench and tap the dowels into them. Put a piece of tape along the edge of the bench and lay a thick bead of glue along the edge. Roll each top stem in the glue just above the disc. ... with the driver in reverse, open the jaws of the lathe chuck all the way and place the short end of the blank into the opened jaws ... When you turn thousands of tops per year as I do, it becomes very important to shave off time wherever possible. I keep a reversible driver on a bungee cord next to the lathe (so I don't have to pick up the weight of the driver 40 or 50 times an hour), with a chuck key mounted on it that fits the Jacobs-style chuck on the lathe. To mount a blank, I grab the driver and pull it over to the lathe ... ... then move the blank forward into the recess in the live center... 84 ■ Popular Woodworking December 2007 |
