I continuously have my turned pieces fly off my lathe and I think it’s because I’ve been using pine as a glue block. The glue holds just fine but either the glue block breaks or it comes completely out of the Chuck. Sometimes I’ll use a worm screw but the same thing happens.
So my question for experienced wood turners, is what type of wood do you use for glue blocks?
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Have you tried using a hardwood? That would seem to me to be a logical next step. Try poplar maybe.
Yeah I think that’s my next step as well as using larger jaws for a larger tenon.
I'd go straight to hard maple or a similar wood. Dense and not tending to split. Oak, ash, and hickory would tend to split.
I have used glue blocs before when I did not have à Chuck. I would screw the Block to a faceplate and glue the Block to the turning blank with a sheet of newspaper in between. When done I would just insert a chisel in the glue joint and the paper would Split leaving a flat surface easy to sand. Once I bought a chuck, it made the glue Block method obsolete.
Thanks gulfstar, but I’m not sure how else to attach the bottom piece of a stack of segmented rings to the chuck without a glue block or worm screw? See attached pics..
On the photo on the right, is this the glue block or is the glue block attached to the light brown piece afterwards ?
Imagine the purple heart ring (left pic) is completely filled in (no hole in the middle), and that is what is happening in the right pic. So, the bottom of the turned piece is purple hear, with a glue block on it and the tenon shaped. And its that glue block that keeps coming out of the chuck or breaking completely.
But I think I figured out my answer, which is larger set of jaws for a larger tenon. I think my tenons have just been too small for the size of this piece...
Exactly my taught, and if you can get the purple heart piece thick enough, Or laminate it to a sacrificial piece , I would turn a tenon as wide as possible and chuck it from the outside. I found that trying to turn large pieces with a small diameter chuck leads to induced vibrations when working far from the chuck and makes taking good cuts difficult and leads to catches. As I draw closer to the chuck towards the center of the bowl or vase, the cuts are cleaner and easier. I need a larger chuck too.
The ring you show in the photo is not ready to be glued to anything. You can use cole jaws to hold the ring and flatten it for gluing to your vessel.
If you're looking to drive the piece using this ring, then yes, a glue block would be one way to go about it. As suggested, maple or birch work well.
You didn't say whether you would be using tail stock support or not
Your tenon doesn’t look tapered. Shouldn’t it be wedge shaped for the jaws to bite onto?
I think hardwood is the best choice for your kind of scenario
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