pipemakersforum.com

I just have to complain a little here. I carved 6 stummels today and broke every one of them! I need to be more patient with stem fitting i suppose.

ok, so, I had my tittie fit and decided complaining to strangers isn't going to fix the issue. I have a slight taper in my tenon I just cant seem to sand out and I think that's whats busting my mortise. so yeah, I guess I need more practice on the lathe

Delrin tenon. If you get the mortise right the delrin tenon goes in like butter. Todd Johnson has a fantastic post about using delrin.

Brandon

Fit your tenon as soon as you have the hole drilled. It's utterly impossible to split the block before you shape. So do your tenon-twiddling before the shank is shaped and your danger-zone is hugely reduced.

What are you cutting them with that you are getting a taper?

When I'm fitting a stem, I think about fitting about 8 little sections. Get the first 1/8" to feel right, then work on the next 1/8 until 1/4" feels right, then work on the next 1/8" etc.

Sasquatch wrote:

When I'm fitting a stem, I think about fitting about 8 little sections. Get the first 1/8" to feel right, then work on the next 1/8 until 1/4" feels right, then work on the next 1/8" etc.

Todd, that sounds awfully tedious. Get yourself a metal lathe, you bozo!

Rad

Don't be hatin' cuz I gotz skillz.

It's actually nowhere near as tedious as it sounds. My complete tenon procedure basically involves "eyeballing" it to just a little big, cutting a bevel on the end of the tenon from which to gauge the actual fit (stem comes off lathe #1) and then making a series of cutnfits over a period of about 5 minutes until I'm happy with it. It really is pretty fast and pretty painless.

This is totally dumb compared to having a metal lathe and making a couple of passes and a couple of adjustments, but needs must when the devil drives (or something).

Now being in possession of a 2 jaw chuck and thinking every time I use it "How did I live without this?" I'm sure I'd feel the same about a metal lathe. But I don't wanna dink-out when I do upgrade - when I get one it's gonna be a good one, and that means waiting a bit.

well firstly, I'm using a wood lathe we'll get that out of the way. I use a combination of a flat scraper and a parting tool for the tenon. i get the taper if i don't hold the tool perfectly square. I recently figured out that if i watch the "horizon" instead of the cut I get much better results.

I'm kinda kickin myself in the ass for buying a sander instead of a metal lathe this year. can't wait till next time to get one. till then, is there any way to attach a chuck to the tailstock of a wood lathe?

bloodysafety wrote: till then, is there any way to attach a chuck to the tailstock of a wood lathe?

That shouldn't be a problem. They do drill on wood lathes don't they? Wouldn't that involve a chuck and a drill bit in the tail stock?

Rad

If your tail stock has a receiver for a Morse taper you can use one of these:

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/200397 ... Chuck.aspx

Works like a champ.

Yeah you can drill on the lathe no trouble. Jacobs chuck on a Morse Taper, as has been mentioned - just find out if your MT is #1 or #2.

You didn't mention if you were using briar or not. That's another issue here, tapered tenon or not. Some woods just won't tek the strrrren, Cap'n.

thanks guys! i have a hard time finding stuff like that since I'm totally new to turning, I dont know any terminology. Thanks bunches!

Yes I do use briar, but I also use madrone