Flat Center drive

[Neededwill]

So I make cufflinks every now and then. I wear the multiple pairs I have mon thru fri. I have made some for other people but lately it seems I have gotten quite a few request.

Now my problem is I use left over cutoffs from my pens I make so the are smaller and square. I have kind of found a way to do them by taking the corners off with the sander. But the difficult part is turning them down and finishing them. I have tried double sided tape, gluing them to a homemade wood center drive that wear out fast.

So I wanted to see if anyone had and ideas. I thought of a morse taper center drive but with a flat face not pointed for tbc. I would glue the wood piece to that but not sure if it would hold. I also thought about a chuck style with small pins.

What do you think? Any help or advice would be appreciated!!!

Here is a set of the ones I wear.

View in Gallery

 

[magpens]

How about trying one of these....

Arbors Pen Kit Making Supplies Berea HardWoods

It has a MT2 taper, goes in your headstock, and has a large end which is flat (with a threaded hole in it), and close to the size you need I think.

It's real function was discussed in this thread ...

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/arbor-question-130095/

 

[Neededwill]

That is basically what I am thinking of. Will need to check that out and see what size it is. Thanks

 

[rholiday]

Do a search for drill chuck mandrel on Penn State Industries.
Various sizes available. Also, should use a drawbar on the drill chuck when used in the headstock.

 

[monophoto]

The approach that I use for pendants would probably work.

I use a flat waste block - in my case, it's threaded to screw on my headstock spindle, but you could also turn a morse taper that fits into the spindle bore, putting a tenon on the end that you glue into a waste block or mount the waste block in a scroll chuck. Turn the waste block round and flatten the face. If the waste block wears away, flatten the face and glue another piece of wood on it to extend its life.

Then, use double stick tape to attach the blank to the flat waste block. Use the tailstock to apply pressure to the blank while rounding it off, then back away the tailstock and finish off the face.

If you need to work on the back (probably not with cufflinks), you could have a second wasteblock that has a circular mortise that is just large enough to contain the finished cufflink - a little double stick tape will hold the blank in the mortise, while the edges of the mortise will keep it centered.

 

[Neededwill]

Waste block screwed on head stock sounds great. I had made wood with a morse taper but they wear out pretty fast it seems. Will try the idea of screwed on.

 

[dogcatcher]

I would get a steel rod that is about the same size as the diameter of the wood on the cufflink. Use it in a collet chuck, hot glue the piece of wool on the steel rod. Turn, sand etc.., then a few drops of alcohol to melt the hot glue.

 

[Fish30114]

I like dogcatcher's thought, similar to mine which is stone simple, go to HD or Lowes or wherever and buy an appropriately sized dowel cut to desired length and mount it however it will run true, in a Jacobs chuck, a collet chuck or a multiple jaw chuck, glue your scraps to the dowel with hot glue and proceed.

Let us know what you end up doing!