Quality Spur Drive - any recommendations ?

Newton

Newton

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Long time since I have had the time to be up here, a little boy have sorted out my time where very few hours could be spent "back in the saddle".

Was however back in the cue shop the other day and did some work and it got me turned "on" again - it's my time off and is for sure a recharge.

Now, I have quite a few square dowels lying and I thought I could start turning these, but the current self made dead centre is not good enough and it pi$$es me off when I have to do the tiny mini me cuts to get started (Yes I cut the corners).

So I thought I should look for a good quality spur drive and the only one I have found is made for the wood turners out there with 2" diameters OD and fairly short stubs to chuck up on - most of them has the MT.

Is there any one which knows about a quality product out there without the MT shanks ?

Thanks
N
 
The one I have looked at looks like this ...

I know Chris´es products but was looking for something else - but thanks.

N
 

Attachments

  • 4775.jpg
    4775.jpg
    83.4 KB · Views: 524
TomHay said:
I used to use MT to straight shanks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Global-CNC-...339?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43c9d50783
Click to expand...

No TIR issues ? I have a MT2 -> MT3 sleeve for some MT2 drills I use in the tailstock and, well - the drill is for sure not fixed 100%. Might be that I should give it a knock on it's tail (can't do that on the drill side) but it feels sloppy and I only use it as a start, then boringbar. Was however wondering if there was something like your link out there Tom - so if you say it's good I'll consider ;-)
 
Newton said:
Long time since I have had the time to be up here, a little boy have sorted out my time where very few hours could be spent "back in the saddle".

Was however back in the cue shop the other day and did some work and it got me turned "on" again - it's my time off and is for sure a recharge.

Now, I have quite a few square dowels lying and I thought I could start turning these, but the current self made dead centre is not good enough and it pi$$es me off when I have to do the tiny mini me cuts to get started (Yes I cut the corners).

So I thought I should look for a good quality spur drive and the only one I have found is made for the wood turners out there with 2" diameters OD and fairly short stubs to chuck up on - most of them has the MT.

Is there any one which knows about a quality product out there without the MT shanks ?

Thanks
N
Click to expand...

Shopsmith uses centers with straight shanks. They and much cheaper clones
are on Fleabay all the time.

It sounds to me like getting the precision you want will require having the shank
ground by a pro.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Late breaking news - little machine shop sells a wood turning rest and a straight
shank spur drive.

Taig sells a rest for wood turning - but I saw no spur drive from them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dale
 
Last edited:
If you are turning squares, why don't you use a 60 degree dead center in the chuck and a live center in your tail stock? You should be able to take .020 to .030 passes with the right rpm and travel speeds without a spur drive.

Rick
 
Last edited:
It sounds to me like getting the precision you want will require having the shank
ground by a pro.


Dale[/QUOTE]

Dale is onto some thing here.
I would suggest having the centre cone indicated to the zero you want in some adjustable chuck or some other adjustable setup.
A friend of mine has a saying, if you can not make it right, make it adjustable.
Neil
 
Newton said:
Long time since I have had the time to be up here, a little boy have sorted out my time where very few hours could be spent "back in the saddle".

Was however back in the cue shop the other day and did some work and it got me turned "on" again - it's my time off and is for sure a recharge.

Now, I have quite a few square dowels lying and I thought I could start turning these, but the current self made dead centre is not good enough and it pi$$es me off when I have to do the tiny mini me cuts to get started (Yes I cut the corners).

So I thought I should look for a good quality spur drive and the only one I have found is made for the wood turners out there with 2" diameters OD and fairly short stubs to chuck up on - most of them has the MT.

Is there any one which knows about a quality product out there without the MT shanks ?

Thanks
N
Click to expand...

A spur driver is not necessary when turning shafts or butts. The friction of the dead center in the head stock should be enough to turn the work piece and cut it with a router. You should be able to stop the shaft from spinning with your hand.

Kim
 
Spur driver and accuracy don't really belong in the same sentence. I think ive looked at just about every commercially available spur driver and the only one I've seen capable of maintaining a precise O.D. relative to the center would be Hightowers.
 
Well, I guess I'm just lazy and wants to do larger cuts. Using a 60deg dead centre and a revolving tailstock I often end up stoping the squares in my lathe. I also try to don't use the router since I still don't get as much of the dust out as I like so using the ultra sharp cutters the wood is almost pealed as a orange and I could mount my dust extraction setup much better around the cutting tool than on the router setup.

I'm now up for a monotone - turn a bunch of squares round - and was just wondering if a proper drive dog/spur drive would do the trick. Thinking about it - TIR is not an issue since they would be oversized and turned using the dead centre when picked for cuework.

I looked at this thing which looks like a quality product - I guess http://www.robert-sorby.co.uk/stebcentres.htm

Anyway, thanks for the comments.
N
 
Newton said:
Well, I guess I'm just lazy and wants to do larger cuts. Using a 60deg dead centre and a revolving tailstock I often end up stoping the squares in my lathe. I also try to don't use the router since I still don't get as much of the dust out as I like so using the ultra sharp cutters the wood is almost pealed as a orange and I could mount my dust extraction setup much better around the cutting tool than on the router setup.

I'm now up for a monotone - turn a bunch of squares round - and was just wondering if a proper drive dog/spur drive would do the trick. Thinking about it - TIR is not an issue since they would be oversized and turned using the dead centre when picked for cuework.

I looked at this thing which looks like a quality product - I guess http://www.robert-sorby.co.uk/stebcentres.htm


Anyway, thanks for the comments.
N
Click to expand...

I have one of those in my collection of drivers. It's good for turning handles but I have a much smaller one with just 2 stakes that also has the insetting center. They both work much better than a non insetting center if the part is to be mounted more than one time.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
I have one of those in my collection of drivers. It's good for turning handles but I have a much smaller one with just 2 stakes that also has the insetting center. They both work much better than a non insetting center if the part is to be mounted more than one time.

Dick
Click to expand...

Thanks Dick,

The wood I'm working on now is in dimensions for handles, forarm and buttplate so the size should not be ultra small. Would be nice to own something which keep the wood spinning even if I'm greedy on a cut :p
The springloaded senter looks good, if not I guess I have to put a stop on the drill making the centre hole-which I have so far just eyeballed ...

Thanks
N
 
Newton said:
Thanks Dick,

The wood I'm working on now is in dimensions for handles, forarm and buttplate so the size should not be ultra small. Would be nice to own something which keep the wood spinning even if I'm greedy on a cut :p
The springloaded senter looks good, if not I guess I have to put a stop on the drill making the centre hole-which I have so far just eyeballed ...

Thanks
N
Click to expand...

The spring loaded center keeps your center in the blank more true. Those that are not spring loaded enlarge the center every time you put the dowel between centers.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
The spring loaded center keeps your center in the blank more true. Those that are not spring loaded enlarge the center every time you put the dowel between centers.

Dick
Click to expand...

Good point, did not think of that one :-)
N
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top