Author Topic: Finial Chucky  (Read 2327 times)

Offline davidbrac

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Finial Chucky
« on: January 23, 2020, 11:31:12 AM »
My wife was in the States before Xmas and brought this back as an xmas present for me. Its a Rubber Chucky "Finial Chucky" basically a bearing in a piece of rubber for holding finial ends. Got out into the shop yesterday with some spare time so tried it out. It works well, and is another tool that will be used.

I used to just keep the end attached and cut it of when the piece was near to  finishing.

Offline Twisted Trees

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2020, 12:36:35 PM »
That looks good, think I may pop out and buy some small bearings a couple of rubber door stops see if I can improvise one!
TT, AKA Pete, but that name is taken :-)

Offline Paul Hannaby

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #2 on: January 23, 2020, 06:20:38 PM »
If you turn your finials in the conventional way, why would you need tailstock support?

Offline Twisted Trees

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #3 on: January 23, 2020, 07:53:09 PM »
If you turn your finials in the conventional way, why would you need tailstock support?

Because sometimes some new idea's are good ideas, without them we would still be turning on the down stroke of a pole lathe!
TT, AKA Pete, but that name is taken :-)

Offline Sandy

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #4 on: January 23, 2020, 09:51:27 PM »
I was thinking it would only be beneficial when turning a long thin finial or such like in order to support and keep the work running true but then another thought was that it might actually create whipping.  Googled it and see it's been around for a few year snow so some folks must be buying it.

But I wouldn't even bother trying to improvise - better things to do / spend my money on.

Offline Paul Hannaby

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2020, 09:23:14 PM »
If you turn your finials in the conventional way, why would you need tailstock support?

Because sometimes some new idea's are good ideas, without them we would still be turning on the down stroke of a pole lathe!

By "conventional" I meant starting at the farthest point from the chuck and working back to maintain support without the need for tailstock support.

There are many innovative but unnecessary tools which have made it into production, I already own many of them and often wonder why I bought them!  ::)

Offline bodrighywood

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2020, 11:10:08 PM »
Something a short as a finial I tend to support with my hand, anything longer and you would need a support along the length surely. I would be wary of using the support in the tail stock as the slightest bit of overtightening can bend the wood as you pare it away.

Pete
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 10:00:05 AM by bodrighywood »
Turners don't make mistakes, they have design opportunities

Offline BrianH

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2020, 09:46:14 AM »
No need to go Stateside, Planet do.... or did!... make a similar support device. Theirs is... was.... a hollow steel live centre with 3 small plastic inserts which pushed into place to do the actual supporting. The low tech alternative, of course, is a tightly rolled piece of workshop paper pushed into the end of the tailstock, this will give enough support to stop 'wobble' without putting undue pressure on the finial head
Brian

Offline burywoodturners

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2020, 04:57:50 PM »
No need to go Stateside, Planet do.... or did!... make a similar support device. Theirs is... was.... a hollow steel live centre with 3 small plastic inserts which pushed into place to do the actual supporting. The low tech alternative, of course, is a tightly rolled piece of workshop paper pushed into the end of the tailstock, this will give enough support to stop 'wobble' without putting undue pressure on the finial head
Brian
I bought one of the Planet live centres, I found it Ok for what it was, but I also found the largest bore in sert was 6mm so I bolted pieces of scrap to ot and made a variety of shaped live centres, some of which needed something like this. A hollow live centre for a ball ended piece ( Harry Potter Wands come to mind!) Lately though I have an insert which fits in the bearing and gets modified on a regular basis.
I say I bought it, I had gift vouchers for a birthday and aprize frm a club competition and this was the most usefull thing I could find!
Ron

Offline Bill21

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2020, 10:01:55 AM »
Just recently seen these, they look useful. Probably too expensive to get over here though. We need a UK manufacturer.

Offline Derek

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Re: Finial Chucky
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2020, 10:56:42 AM »
As stated by Paul and Pete no need for an end support.

For finials, I just start and work back leaving as much material on the piece until it needs to be cut this gives plenty of support it just means that you need to do each piece to completion as far as turning and sanding is concerned, never needed the support for those.

For long thin stems as Pete I use my hand to support the centre to stop whipping if needed and then still apply the same principle as turning finials.

If you need to have something at the end for support you would be better off buying something like this Robert Sorby revolving centre which one of the attachments means you need to make up something to hold whatever you want. It gives you a number of options for different holding methods for different jobs