Help! Bowl's mortise slightly too big for chuck!

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putnamm

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Jan 12, 2016
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I'm using a Nova G3 on a Grizzly 10x18 benchtop lathe. Turning a piece of padouk into a bowl. And the size of the mortise on the bottom of the bowl I cut just slightly too big for the chuck's largest setting. The chuck still grasps it pretty well, and it will stay put for a number of hollowing cuts. But eventually I hear it start to come lose. It fell off once already. Any tips for how I can more firmly secure it? This bowl was going to turn out pretty nice, too. I would love to be able to finish it.
 
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Mark; You are using the chuck in expansion mode???

Wrap the jaws in 5-10 layers of double sided tape. Then cut the tape between the jaws. Make smaller, and then expand again. This should make up the difference and the tape help hold the recess.
 
If the remaining bottom material is still thick enough and the design is still in the roughing stage, cut a new deeper mortise within the existing one only smaller and feather away the one that is too big. Sorry, that sounds confusing to me and I wrote it..:confused::confused:
 
An old woodworking trick is to make the mortise a PRECISE 90 degrees with a PERFECTLY flat bottom and then glue in a piece that PRECISELY fits the mortice. After that you can reverse mount the piece and cut a new (smaller!) mortise. It's kind of a crapshoot. I've done it successfully and also failed. Never tried it on a bowl. (Last resort - I like randyrls idea)
 
Last edited:
Mark; You are using the chuck in expansion mode???

Wrap the jaws in 5-10 layers of double sided tape. Then cut the tape between the jaws. Make smaller, and then expand again. This should make up the difference and the tape help hold the recess.

This worked like gangbusters. Thanks!
 
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