I spent the last couple of days making myself a set of self centering jaws for turning stummels. It is mounted to a 145mm diameter faceplate that fits in my wood turning lathe and pictured here with a short screw in axle to be chucked up in any standard three jaw chuck. FWIW it will go from the metal turning lathe to the wood turning lathe without adjusting the workpiece. The jaws are 50mm wide, 55mm deep and 25mm thick. The jaws are also fitted with sunken centering screws and sections of an old file to provide some grip. It will grab hold of anything from 3mm to a whopping 90mm thick. Probably not the easiest DIY workpiece I ever attempted but it works like a charm and IMO time well spent to make it.
After completion I tested them by making this little billiard. You are only allowed to critisize the pipe if you made one of the same size yourself.
Stummel diameter : 17mm
Height: 23mm
Chamber diameter: 10mm
Chamber depth: 19mm
Stem: 37mm
Total length: 73mm
LMAO. Friends this side of the pond ............and a lucrative "tobacco exchange" system going.
Really glad to see you around again Chris.
I'm sorry, Streamline I overlooked your post. The secret is to get the little block in the middle centered. I did that by drilling a hole in the centre from the bottom and the screw in shaft protrudes through a hole in the centre of the faceplate. The one side of the screw is left handed thread and the other half is normal right handed thread so it can be adjusted from either side. When putting the vice together the jaws are turned into the screw from both sides until it locks against the centrepiece and pointing in the same direction. The centrepiece is then fitted onto the plate and the slides are then fitted.
