24
3. Drive the spur center about 1/4” into the
workpiece, using a wood mallet or dead blow
hammer as sho wn in Figure 38 . Be car e f ul that
you do not split the workpiece. Never use a
steel face hammer and never drive the
workpiece onto the spur center while it is
mounted in the Lathe spindle.
Figure 38
4. Make sure hea dstock is locked to lathe bed.
5. Clean tapered end of spur center and inside of
headstock spindle.
6. Insert tapered end of spur center (with the
attached workpiece) into headstock spindle.
7. Support the workpiece while bringing the
tailstock into position about 1-inch away from
end of workpiece. Lock tailstock to bed.
8. Advance tailstock quill with the handwhee l in
order to seat the live center into the workpiece.
Use enough pressure to secure the workpiece
between the centers so that it won’t fly off, but
do not use excessi ve pressure.
9. Tighten quill loc king handle.
The tailstock qu ill is capable
of exerting excessive pressure against the
workpiece and the headstock. Apply only
sufficient forc e with ta ils tock to hold workpiec e
securely in place. Excessive pressure can
overheat center bearings and damage both
workpiece and lat he.
10. Move tool support into position. It should be
parallel to workpiece, just below the centerline
and approximately 1/8" to 1/4" from the
corners of the workpiece to be turned, as in
Figure 39. Tighten support ba se to Lathe bed.
11. Rotate workpiece by hand to check for proper
clearance.
12. Start lathe at lowest speed and bring it up to
the appropriate RPM for the size of workpiece
used. Consult digital readout on the
headstoc k.
Figure 39
11.5 Cutting Techniques 11.5.1 Roughing Out
1. Begin with a large roughing gouge. Place the
tool on the tool support with the heel of the tool
on the surface to be cut.
2. Slowly and g e ntly raise too l hand le until cutti ng
edge comes into contact wi th the workpiece.
3. Beginning about 2” from the tailstock end of
the workpiece, roll the flute (hollowed-out
portion) of the tool in the direction of the cut.
See Figure 40. Make long sweeping cuts in a
continuous motion to rough the piece down to
a cylinder .
4. Keep as much of the bevel of the tool as
possible in contact with the workpiece to
ensure control and avoid catches. NOTE:
Always cut down-hill, or from large diameter to
small diameter. Always work toward the end of
a work-piece, never s tart cutting at t he end.
Figure 40
5. Once the workpiece is roughed down to a
cylinder, smooth it with a large skew. Keep the
skew handle perpe ndic ular to the sp indle and
use only the center third of the cutting edge for
a long smoothing cut (touching one of the
points of the skew to the spinning workpiece
may cause a ca tch and ruin the wo rkpiece).