How do I find center of a full splice blank?

breakin8

breakin8

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hello my lathe dosnt have a large hole to pass the butt through. So i have been doing my joint work from a steady rest. How do i find center of the butt end and joint end. Please help im at a loss. :)
 
I have a butt collet and joint collet how would i do this. I have a 48" metal lathe very early.
 
need to figure out a way to chuck it up at close to the joint and get it running true.

alything less will be a mess. \

what are u trying to do? taper ? pin? i have about 20 different collets. you need to make them i use delrin
 
Putting in the pin. But i will be tapering off of the pin then the pin will become center. If i find very near center of the butt i will spin it on a live center tapering and ring work.
 
breakin8 said:
Hello my lathe dosnt have a large hole to pass the butt through. So i have been doing my joint work from a steady rest. How do i find center of the butt end and joint end. Please help im at a loss. :)
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Here is one way. I am assuming you have a safe way to spin the cue in the steady rest, a bearing or something. With the cue spinning in the rest. use a common pointed wood turning chisel to make a center impression. Sort of a cone. Now stop the lathe and loosen the steady rest arms. Move in the tail stock with a 60 degree center mounted and put it in the hole you have just made in the cue joint now holding the cue between the center and the chuck. The cue should now run pretty true at the joint.

Perfect in fact if you have done it right. Now bring the steady rest to the joint area and readjust it so it is now supporting the cue. You can now move out the tail stock out and the cue will be running true. You can now drill for a screw if you like. I have a friend who used this method to make hundreds of Sneaky Pete's on a wood lathe out of cut in half house cues. He actually made them into pretty good cues. and sold every cue he made.

This is best done with a bearing and a sleeve mounted in the steady rest. Once the bearing is centered it is repeatable if you don't move it.

You know a funny thing while thinking about this. The guy I refered to with the wood lathe. He would drive around to the bars and sell his cues. He would just walk in with one and somehow manage to sell it for like 60 to 75 dollars. I have to say, over the years I knew this old guy he probably sold 500 or more cues. He was a real hustler. He did a real nice finish on them and they were easy to sell. He had no interest in making anything more the the S/P's. This was more then 20 years ago and things like ebay and the such didn't exist. S/P's from cue makers were pretty expensive and $75 for a cue like his was cheap.
 
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Clamp dial indicator to work piece then sweep the quil of the tail stock.
with work piece in steady rest.
Worked for airplanes. colded
 
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macguy said:
If he is using a steady rest, an indicator may show it is running true but is will not necessarily be on a center line with the lathe. He could not say, drill a centered hole.
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A 30" long center-holed thomson rod fixes that.
 
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