Shop Made Tower Jaw Dimensions

[OldCorps]

I've been devouring the wealth of information on this forum for several weeks now, and finally joined today, so this is my first post. I've been a woodworker since I built my first downhill racer out of orange crates, lumber company scraps, and three different size wheels from a baby carriage, and two old lawn mowers. That was about 65-years-ago when I was ten. I've graduated a bit from then to building some fairly high-end stringed instruments—at least that's what their owners claim. I consider myself an intermediate to fairly accomplished woodworker, who still has a lot to learn. And, boy, have I learned a lot just lurking on this forum. Some of you folks do absolutely amazing work, and I come to you as a humble grasshopper seeking knowledge.

I have built several pipes, which I've given to friends, using my existing equipment (drill press; wood lathes; band saws; vises; rasps and files; hands; etc.). Some time back, I decided that, at my age, I've become weary of projects demanding hundreds of hours to complete, and, being a 30-year-plus pipe smoker, I've decided to try my hand at serious attempts at making some nice pipes—at least for myself. Last week I drove up to Grizzly in Muncy, PA, and a nice 10" x 22" metal working lathe followed me home. I've got a 6.5" four jaw chuck for boring and drilling stummels and shanks, and a three jaw for stems. I'm going to my buddy's for three days, tomorrow, to use his milling machine to make a set of tower jaws. Here lies my first question.

I've seen some really awesome looking custom jaws here on the forum, but I haven't been able to find any specs on them. So, my first question from you learned ones is: Would someone be so kind as to share with me, some data regarding what you consider to be optimal height, and width for stummel-holding jaws? I really don't relish having chunks of wood thrown across my shop. It tends to be somewhat unnerving. Been there... done that, as they say. And: What is the most advantageous location—in those jaws, for pin placement. I believe I have adequately deduced the function of the single set of pins, but, what is the advantage of a second set... and what would be the optimal placement of that second set, should you deem them necessary?

Thanks, in advance, for any information you might wish to share,

Gene

[Vermont Freehand]

If you have access to machinery and want to "do it once and never again", I'd consider something along these lines. I took the original jaw and reversed it (as you would for gripping big pieces). Then cut out the notches from bar stock and match it to the notches on the original jaw. Keep in mind when the jaws are closed all the way together, you don't want them touching (or even close to touching). This is so when you open them up, they don't protrude the outside of the chuck too much and hit the ways. I made mine so the thinnest I can clamp is 1 1/4". Sometimes you'll have to grind off the small side of the original jaw to accomplish this. The width (or thickness) of the tower should be the same thickness as the original jaw (mine is 1 3/16"). Then make the waffle gridding for the most gription. The center point is nice to have at about 1/2" from the end, so you can get in sorta tight, yet have plenty of gripping power. The overall length of the added piece of tower on mine is about 3 1/4" long. After it's welded on (and welded super accurate), take it to the milling machine and true it up to balance the weight and not have one heavier than the other.

[caskwith]

Steve's jaws look really good there. I have ummmm, a few chucks for briar blocks now lol. If I were doing this for a hobby and could only choose one then I would go for an independent like Steve, if you have any plans to do this more seriously then you want to get a self centering version. I have both of course

[Vermont Freehand]

+1 on self-centering, I wish I had one!! The independent only takes a few more seconds to get centered, but self-centering is the way to go. Maybe some day I will find a self-centering chuck that will fit these jaws.

Basically, for the towers, use a solid piece of metal as opposed to a front plate and side plates. The solid metal will not twist as easy. Some of the pros I've visited with have a graveyard of chucks from the past 40 years and they are all twisted up over time. Thats how I came up with this design, from seeing 40 years worth of attempts that have failed. The beefier the better

[Alden]

Good luck with the project.

[OldCorps]

I've milled towers that are 2x2x3-1/2" high from some very hefty aluminum naval shaft material. I've milled slots that tight-fit down over the original jaws and sit on the two tallest flats, covering the face of the tallest jaw. I intend to drill and tap those flats 5/16-18, and bolt the towers down to the jaws with 2" Allen head bolts. I've still got a lot to do before they are finished, and I'll post photos when they are done, and let you know how they work out. Thanks for the input.

Gene

[OldCorps]

Well, I've had to put my original plan on the back burner, and decided on another tack. It seems that I had not paid close enough attention to the Six "P's", and hadn't considered the hardness of the jaws which I had intended to drill and tap. My dumb! Perhaps, in future I will purchase a pair of jaws, have them annealed and re-hardened after they are drilled and tapped, but for now, I've gone a different direction.

While perusing pipe-making videos on YouTube, I came across caskwith's earlier video and became interested in the jaws he was using then. I thought "Hmmm, I believe I can make that.", and had a welder friend weld up a base and cut me a pair of jaw-plates, and I went at it here in my shop. Below is a photo of my end result.

I just finished cutting off, and forming new heads on the jaw bolts, and deburring, yesterday, and haven't given it a shake-down cruise, yet, but intend to do that today. One thing I think I'm going to need to do is set a pair of pins in the jaws, closer to the edges since the ones now are nearly an inch from the edge, which will certainly limit me in turning the top of the stummel. If all goes well, I can get to work on a holding device to do stems and, perhaps I can build a decent pipe, or two... or three, or... Hopefully, the thing will work. I'll let y'all know how things work out.

Kind of exciting. Building up the courage to turn on the lathe. Think I'll start her up at 150, work my way up through the speeds, stand back and hope for the best.

[caskwith]

Pic is a little small but from what I can see it looks great!

[OldCorps]

I tried to post a larger photo but the board kept telling me it was too large, so I kept re-sizing until it was accepted. How do I go about posting it larger?

[socrates]

I'm looking to add jaws to one of my Sherline metal lathes. They seem to have difficult chucks to adapt jaws to. Your design may be just what I need. You did a great job.

Sent from my HTC0P3P7

[oklahoma red]

I tried to post a larger photo but the board kept telling me it was too large, so I kept re-sizing until it was accepted. How do I go about posting it larger?

There are several ways of posting pics. The one I employ utilizes the free storage space my local internet service provider gives me. I first size the pic with my editing software to between 800 and 1000 pixels wide and save it. I then use Cute Lite file transfer protocol (FTP) software to upload the pic to the space allotted to me. Your ISP will give you the URL link to access this space. To post a pic here on the forum, use the "IMG" button when you create a new post. The URL link and the exact name you gave the pic go in between the bracketed letters:

[OldCorps]

Thanks red. I must admit that, this early in the morning, to my less than polished computer savvy mind, it does seem a bit complicated. Hopefully, after some breakfast and a bit more caffeine, the brain can walk me slowly through it, and I can make it work.

Your chuck is beautiful! Did you build it yourself? Very refined. After I'm done tweaking and am satisfied that it does the job, I'll use some winter downtime to do a bit of spit and polish. I know, pretty doesn't make it work any better, but IMHO it certainly adds to the pleasure of the work.

How do you like the functionality of the chuck? Any tips on increasing user friendliness would be appreciated. Any bugaboos to watch out for? I've got so many irons in the fire right now, that I still haven't had a chance to do a shakedown cruise. Hopefully today.

[oklahoma red]

Thanks red. I must admit that, this early in the morning, to my less than polished computer savvy mind, it does seem a bit complicated. Hopefully, after some breakfast and a bit more caffeine, the brain can walk me slowly through it, and I can make it work.

Your chuck is beautiful! Did you build it yourself? Very refined. After I'm done tweaking and am satisfied that it does the job, I'll use some winter downtime to do a bit of spit and polish. I know, pretty doesn't make it work any better, but IMHO it certainly adds to the pleasure of the work.

How do you like the functionality of the chuck? Any tips on increasing user friendliness would be appreciated. Any bugaboos to watch out for? I've got so many irons in the fire right now, that I still haven't had a chance to do a shakedown cruise. Hopefully today.

This chuck is a collaborative effort between renowned pipe maker Grant Batson and Robert Cortner, a superb machinist in Nashville. Very stout and it can either be direct-threaded (as I have done) or gripped in a three jaw chuck. I went the direct-thread route to cut down on the overhang. As with any chuck, you will save yourself a lot of grief by making sure the two gripping surfaces on the briar are parallel. I took the blade out of an old ice pick and I chuck it into the tailstock and use that as a pointer to dial in the centers of my drilling points.
Be very respectful of this spinning mass on your lathe. It will beat the snot out of anything that gets in its way. 2 jaw self-centering chucks are great and work fast but I personally like the ability to tweak the positioning if needed for any reason.
As to the picture posting any storage that is accessible with a URL should work, be it the "cloud" or whatever. The key is using the "IMG" button located with the other "buttons" located across the top of the message posting window. Hey, I came over on the Mayflower and I figured it all out by myself