Between Centers

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avbill

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Joined
Oct 18, 2007
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Location
San Bruno, CA, USA.
I bought Johnnycnc bushings to begin turning between centers. So the first thing I did with the bushing with to mark the lower barrel bushing first. I painted the ends.


And boy are they machined to a tight fitting. Thank you Johny.
 
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Bill,

After you use that set of bushings for a few pens and then try to use the standard bushings, you will notice considerable slop in the fit of the store bought bushings. Then you will wonder how you ever made a round pen! :rolleyes:

That tight fit insures precision and shows John's excellence in machining.
 
I was playing with mine last night, trying to see how loud of a pop I could get when I pulled one out of the end. It was nice instead of one of the factory bushings falling off and rolling on the floor never to be found.
 
The Johnny bushings are really great, can't argue that! Now before you use his bushings you should tune your machine. Clean your taper. Grab a dial indicator and check the run out on your dead center and then check the alignment between the dead center and the live center. The bushings can be perfect, but if the machine is not perfect, the bushings will not be. My little jet mini is notorious for the head stock shifting on me, no matter how tight the bolts are. So I check my alignment after every couple pens to be sure it didn't move on me.
 
barrysj said:
How do you adjust your lathe if you find the alignment off?
Click to expand...

That would depend on the lathe. What lathe do you have?
I know my Jet mini has screws on the headstock end that allow it to be twitched a little. Also depends on which way the alignment is off.... side to side or horizontally.
My bigger lathe is a Rockwell/Delta ... fortunately it is very well aligned because I wouldn't have a clue what to do with it if it wasn't! :biggrin:
 
I am new to pen turning and want to know more about turning between centers. Can someone post a complete how to with pics or point me to a previous post on the subject?:confused:
 
avbill said:
I bought Johnnycnc bushings to begin turning between centers. So the first thing I did with the bushing with to mark the lower barrel bushing first. I painted the ends.
Click to expand...

Hmm...seems like it would make sense to have them marked during manufacture. Light grooves out near the ends of the bushing (or even on the ends just outside the center dimples) would seem to be the easiest way to do it in the absence of a really small roll stamping setup: one groove for the smallest OD bushing, two for the next smallest, etc. I could see it being a big help on the occasional set with only a small difference in sizes.
 
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