Rounding all your blank: good idea?

[studioso]

Hi,
I finished planning out a jig that will sit over my blanks on the lathe and will have a slot on top for a router.
I was thinking that this will be an accurate jig for turning blanks ( if I don't want a taper) as well as making plastic sleeves and bushings.

But I was wondering:
is it a good idea to turn all my blanks to their largest diameter? Or in other words: are round blanks better than square ones?

The advantages I can think of are that you get a better idea of whAt the final grain will look like, you might fit it better in a collet chuck (which I don't have yet) or a spigot jaw chuck (what I have) and have an easier time drilling them.
But on the other hand, maybe a round blank will not have as much support when drilled? Am I gonna have too much of a hard time cutting them to length on my scroll saw? Is it just plain pointless?

Elaborate!

 

[jttheclockman]

Well elaborate

You left no name

You ask a difficult question and the answer lies in what you want to do. Are you going to be drilling all your blanks on the lathe??? If you are using a drill press and a jig to hold them then you want square blanks. If you are using colette chucks you want ends round, the entire blank does not have to be round. If you are segmenting then you want square blanks. I feel there is no advantage to a round blank over a square one when it comes to turning them unless it is a fragile blank and knocking the corners off will remove some of the stress that will be applied when using the tools to turn them. Good luck. Not sure what you are doing with the router but hope you are not planing on using it to round your blanks.

 

[areaman]

I agree with John, personally I do not like my blanks rounded. The Woodcraft i go to has recently started rounding all their blanks. Supposedly to make it easier.

 

[jskeen]

I do prefer rounding my blanks, but not any smaller than necessary. It does make them easier to drill with a scroll chuck or collet chuck on the lathe, and most drill vises will work with a round blank as well, as long as your bits are sharp. IMHO, with a drill press vise, a perfectly square blank is ideal, but hard to get consistantly. A round one is next best, and still better than an irregular rectangle or some such.

One disadvantage, I believe that a round blank will warp more easily than a square one, and is harder to stack for drying.

All said and done, I round any blank that I think is special enough to warrant the extra attention, unless it's wet.

 

[studioso]

Thank you for your replies, my name is Alex!

well, right now I use my lathe to drill the blanks: I have spigot jaws on a oneway 4-jaws chuck to hold the blank. but I find that most of the blanks are not perfectly square, even acrylic blanks are rectangular, so they end up being supported by only 2 jaws. One of the problems with this is that I can't accurately rechuck the blanks. And when I drill, I like to start with a short countersink bit, than drill a 7mm hole with a good quality bullet tip bit, and then drill with the final size bit. Because i cant take the blank out, I have to replace the bits 3 times for every blank I'm drilling. Especially when trying to make a batch of pens It would be so much easier to change the blanks than to change the bits.

Also I do have a drill press, although without a good selfcentering vise it's too combersome to use. I though that perhaps a standArd round blank size would speed things up a bit.

Thank you,
Alex

 

[jskeen]

Hey Alex,

I think you are correct, round blanks would be easier to replace in your scroll chuck for multiple drilling steps. However, even with a top quality scroll chuck there is quite a bit of variability depending on where the round blank is clamped each time, the position of the slider rails in relation to the spiral backplate or gears, and relative location of each jaw on the blank each time it is mounted.

While this variability may be within your acceptable range of deviation, as you start to use different types of blanks you may find that it is too much run out to work with eventually. In that case a collet chuck is the next step up in accuracy and repeatability in workpiece holders for a wood lathe. Beyond that is the realm of the metal lathe. It's a slippery slope, so be careful.

James

 

[larryc]

I have gone through the trials and tribulations of drilling on the drill press and on the lathe. I own a collet chuck and spigot jaws for the lathe but what I wish I had found at the beginning was this:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCPENCHK.html

Works great on round, square, oblong blanks.
No connection with PSI just a happy customer with this product.

I can't say the same thing about their blank squaring jig:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/PKSQUARE.html

It's a POC.

Larry

 

[alphageek]

I've thought alot about this one. I have seen someone post here before that rounds all/alot of their blanks.

I liked the idea because it gives you a better idea of the quality of grain patterns inside and how it will look. The negative however, is that if I want to use a blank to do some segmenting, much of the segmenting that I do is much better suited to square blanks than round. Rounding the blank makes holding it for segmenting harder.

 

[islandturner]

The late Russ Fairfield was a great believer in preturning blanks. See the specific page in his website here: http://www.woodturner-russ.com/PenPages-BetterPen-2.html. The top part of this page present his thoughts on the subject in some detail...

 

[leestoresund]

I got a 5/8" steb for my drive center and a 60 degree for the tailstock.

I find the center of the blank with a center finder.

Then put that point on the steb and tailstock center and turn until it is just round or to fit the largest collets I have i.e. 3/4 or 5/8.

That works best for me.

Lee

 

[Parson]

I find it to be a total pain to round my blanks so I can then drill them on the lathe. I usually just eyeball it and use a pin chuck to center them the best I can and start drilling.

This doesn't work though for all my segmented projects... they require precision drilling through the center.

Larry, I'm gonna ask the wife for both of those PSI products for my birthday next month. They'll make my pen turning a lot faster and easier.

 

[soligen]

Even when segmenting rounded blanks are better for certain cases IMO.

If I want the segmenting perfectly square to the axis of the pen, what I do is round the blank, drill the hole, then re-mount and turn round again to a cylindar to remove wobble introduced by drilling. Then I segment. This is good for segementation where drilling the exact center and straight is important - like celtic knots or similar.

I sure some will think this overkill - probably is, but for me personally, the _pursuit_ of perfection is more important than the extra time involved. If I ever reach perfection, i'll let you know, but don't hold your breath LOL.

 

[Dave Turner]

I have gone through the trials and tribulations of drilling on the drill press and on the lathe. I own a collet chuck and spigot jaws for the lathe but what I wish I had found at the beginning was this:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCPENCHK.html

Works great on round, square, oblong blanks.

Larry

Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't I just take off two of the jaws on my pin jaw set and do the same thing as this for free?

Dave

 

[Russianwolf]

Seeing examples of Eagles work, he usually worked on Hexagonal blanks. So really the sky is the limit in terms of what works.

For me, I'm looking at doing some inlay/segments here soon as well as some other things. My plan is to use rounded blanks with a simple jig that has a V cut in it. the V stabilizes the round blank just fine and a clamp on top immobilizes it. It should allow me to make designs that would be nearly impossible with a square blank even if I could find consistency there.


On the other hand, I can round a blank inside of a minute with my duplicator attachment without worrying about a catch because I'm working too fast.

 

[sgimbel]

If you have the four way chuck see the pen drilling option for $20 +.
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/CJAWPEN.html