vertical as you can. There are Introduction some wonderful devices that An earlier article in More will insure a vertical tap. Some Woodturning on turning wine are self contained, some are stoppers got me thinking about used with your drill press. I collet chucks. I wondered if I thought that I'd tried to make could make one entirely out of you spend enough already, so wood. I thought this would be we'll correct for any tapping just an exercise to see if I could Drill and Tap error later. do it, but it surprised me with its The next step is to drill a hole usefulness. Although the All the appropriate size to tap your Wood Collet Chuck doesn't headstock thread in the middle have the holding power and of one of the circles. Kind range of wooden jaws mounted snuck that in on you didn't I? in a scroll chuck, it does have That's right, you have to have a adequate power for turning tap that matches your headstock tops, wine stoppers, and the odd thread. You might have a bit of bit of dowel. The All Wood trouble picking one up at your Collet Chuck also has the local hardware store, but an advantage of being much faster Industrial Supplier will have to mount on the lathe and to one. I use J&L Industrial Face convert to different sizes. Supply at 1-800-521-9520. Big Once you've tapped the hole, Another advantage is that it's taps aren't cheap, but all you cut the circles out on your band virtually free. need to tap wood is "quality saw. Preparing the Chuck Body import". For example, a 1x8 tap Layout that will fit most Delta lathes Start by finding some suitable J&L part number TAP 15146C stock for the Chuck Body. I is $22.81. A 1x12, TAP used some 5/4 maple, but any 15153E, is $22.81, and a 1- fine grain hardwood in the 1/4x8, TSP 20801A, is $44.85. neighborhood of an inch thick Okay, $44.85 is a goodly would do. Draw two circles on amount to spend on a "free" the wood. I used 2-1/2 inches, chuck, but once you have one Now mount the tapped circle on but again, it's not critical, as you'll find it to be very useful. your lathe. Wind it on until it long as it's bigger than the You can make all sorts of makes contact with the spindle diameter of your headstock special purpose accessories like facing or the end of the threaded thread. Mark the center of one quick mount jam chucks, square area, but don't jam it on hard. of the circles. drives, and light duty faceplates. After drilling clamp the wood in Unless you've done a really your workbench and tap. I'm good job of tapping it will be a using a homemade wooden little eccentric. Take a small handle, as an industrial handle bowl gouge or scraper, and big enough to take a big tap isn't using light cuts, true up the cheap. Try to keep the tap as face. chuck body glue to cure, you can work on the stub morse taper gauge. I got this excellent way to make a Morse Taper Gauge from a One-way Newsletter. Find a drive center or tail center that is in good condition and fits the way you like. Go to your scrap bin and find some small pieces of hardwood. For a #2 Morse taper If your headstock has an you'll need two pieces about unthreaded portion on the 3/4x3/4x1 inch, and one piece Make Stub Morse Taper spindle, you can use a side- 3/4 inch thick by 2-1/4 inch To turn a stub morse taper on cutting scraper to turn a recess wide by 1 inch long. at this time. Next reverse the the collet, mark it an inch from circle on the headstock. It the tailstock end. Set a caliper should fit much better this time. to the major diameter of your True the second face, and mark morse taper, use it and a parting it so you know which face to tool to cut down to the major glue the other half of the body morse taper diameter at the to. point marked on the collet. Use Glue up your skew (or what ever you're After facing the threaded circle, comfortable with) to turn the spread some glue on the second Find a couple of more C-clamps end of the collet to a tenon the face and clamp it to the and glue the smaller pieces to same diameter as the major untapped circle. the larger one using the fat end diameter of the morse taper. of the drive center taper to Now unclamp your stub morse space them apart. Set aside to taper gauge, hold it in one hand, cure. and hold your skew in your Preparing the Collet dominant hand Angle the larger Turn round end of the gauge towards the The first step in making the tenon and test the fit. collet is to find a small piece of hard wood. I used maple again. It should be about 3 inches long, and big enough that you can turn a cylinder that will be just smaller than the root I've used a big homemade diameter of your headstock clamp, but a few regular C- thread. For my 11/4 x 8 clamps and a scrap wood will threaded headstock, that is do just as well. Set it aside to about 1-1/8 inch. Mount the cure. If it doesn't fit, take a light cut piece between centers and turn the length of the tenon. Making Stub Morse Taper round. Leaving the diameter a Gauge Alternate light cuts of the skew little big at this point would be and test fits until the large end While you're waiting for the prudent. fits. Now rotate the gauge a Taking light cuts, true the about 1/16 inch below center. little bit more parallel with the collet. Once it's running true, Mount a 1/8 inch bit in a drill tenon and test the fit. Make a test to see if you can slide the and drill through the colett mental note of where it starts to threaded portion of the chuck about 1/2 inch from the stub get too tight and take a light cut body over the collet. If not, take taper. with your skew from that point light cuts and retest until it fits. to the end. Continue this way You want a loose fit, but not a until the whole tenon fits. sloppy one. Taper If you're not comfortable Once you have the collet body holding a skew with one hand trimmed to fit inside the chuck you can test with the gauge, body, taper it over its length then put it down and pick up the with your skew. I tapered mine skew, etc. If you find the about 1/8" over the 2 inch body. occasional event where the It doesn't matter exactly how tenon grabs the gauge too much you taper it, but if you disconcerting you can turn the want to make other collets later lathe off to test the fit. Both of it will be easier if you pick an these modifications will easy to measure diameter. Then turn the collet 90 degrees lengthen the time required Drill and drill another hole. These considerably, but of course you Mount a drill chuck in your holes are to stop the collet from only have to do it once. tailstock and mount a drill of splitting. On some collets I Drilling and Shaping the Collet the size stock you want to hold. made later I omitted this step, Mount and turn to fit inside A useful size to start with is 3/8 and they haven't cracked. Yet. Body inch. Forstner bits are more Cut on Band Saw Remove the collet from rigid than twist bits and are less The next step is to cut slots to between centers and remove likely to drill off center. The the drilled holes in the collet your drive center from the downside of Forstner bits is that body. You could use a hand headstock. Slide the tapered end they don't drill deep well. saw, such as a hacksaw or of the collet into the headstock dovetail saw, but it's easier on and give it a good whack to seat the band saw. This is it properly. You can bring up considerably safer if you make your tailstock to steady the a simple jig first. Take a short collet, but if you've gotten a piece of scrap wood or plywood good fit it won't be necessary and cut a Vee notch the length for such a short piece, and will of the piece. You can do this lengthen the time for the next easily on a table saw with the step. I wanted to be able to mount blade tilted to 45 degrees. Then longer dowels completely cut out a notch in one side a through the chuck, so I drilled little past the center of the Vee. the first inch or so with a Clamp the jig to your band saw Forstner bit, and followed up table so that the blade lines up with a twist drill. with the bottom of the Vee. Drill slot stops Now all you have to do is slide Next lock the indexing head and the collet up the Vee into the adjust the tool rest so that it is blade to cut the slots. up, tearing down, and moving my tripod and camera that I'm cutting the wrong way. It wasn't fatal, just gave the chuck a little extra texture to grip.

Made a mental note where stock Save the jig, you might find it needs to be removed, remount useful to cut dowels lengthwise, the body, and remove more cut squares to rough octagons, wood where needed. Then etc. remove the body and check Shaping the Chuck Body with the gauge again. Continue Rough Drill in this fashion until you've got a Make Taper Gauge Mount the chuck body on the fairly good fit. Take a piece of thin cardboard, headstock and turn it true with a such as a cereal box, and slide it bowl gouge. Mount a drill into one of the slots in the collet chuck in your tailstock and body. Trace around the body, mount a drill bit about the size then cut on the lines. This of the end of the collet taper. makes a gauge to turn a Drill through the chuck body. matching taper in the collet Do try not to hit the headstock body. with the drill, as it's not good for either. To make this less likely, put a plywood washer on the headstock first to move the body out a little.

Using the Collet Chuck To use the collet chuck mount the collet body solidly in the headstock Morse taper. The first time you might want to apply a Taper Body Inside little wax. Then loosely screw Taper the collet body using a the chuck body to the side cutting scraper. You can headstock. You may want to rough it out to follow an even shorten the collet body a bit if it Taper Body taper from the root diameter of sticks out to far or true up its Using a bowl gouge taper the the threads to the edge of your end. Mount your work by chuck body so that it will be drilled hole. Then dismount the sliding it into the collet and slimmer near your eventual chuck body and check the fit tightening the body. work and not get in the way. If using the gauge. Fred published this photo, you'll notice that by this time I was so confused by constantly setting

When taking heavy cuts, such as roughing a wine stopper (it's a pity whine stoppers aren't as easy to make) to round it's best to have the larger stock up against the collet end. You can easily loosen the chuck and slide your work out a bit to true up the end after the heavy work is done.