Other Attachments

Cole Jaw plates are useful and versatile. Over the years I have made jaws for specific projects and general use, the two pictures below show examples.

The picture above shows nylon jaws with a step that enables an axial clamping force to be applied to the work.

The picture below also shows an axial clamping force being applied to a bowl rim. The stilts allow the stem of a platter to pass through so that the rim can be glued in place.

This lathe steady will take work up to 9” in diameter. The main body was made from 2 thicknesses of 18 mm marine plywood. The guides are 0.5” x 1.1" aluminium with 10 mm milled slots to take the locking nuts. The tyres are ‘o’ rings sit on an acetal collar with a ‘u’ groove retaining ring. This was CA glued to a 1” sealed ball bearing. These wheels were then mounted on brass stub axles to the guides. The whole assembly sits on a 0.25” steel plate.

January 2021 I used this recently on a piece that had to be supported to be turned and it was extremely useful. I made it several years ago and this is the first time it has been needed and I could think of no other way to do the job. The rubber tyres did not work well and so I taped the work to protect it and ran the ball bearing races directly on the tape. I worked at the lowest speed my lathe would run at and it worked ok but I hope only to use it when I'm desperate. Any port in a storm though and it did the job very well.

This is a slightly modified doughnut chuck for bowls up to 7.5" diameter. The load here is taken by the main body of the workpiece rather than the top, which in this case is a delicate neck and lattice assembly not able to take the clamping loads in a basic doughnut chuck.

This, rather more accurately made doughnut chuck, will take bowls up to 11.5" diameter, has accurately machined spacers for the support ring and an aluminium disc screwed to the backplate so that it can be mounted accurately in a chuck. All surfaces that touch the work need to be taped.

This is not a pretty bit of kit and there is a better way to do the job using a sticky chuck to mount the work from a surface already finished, so the base does not have to be turned after the piece is otherwise complete. I have not used this one for years and would not recommend their use under any circumstance that I have come across. Use a sticky chuck!

The top and bottom sides of a Longworth Chuck, with metal plates to allow attachment to a Masterchuck. The jig is used for reverse chucking bowls to turn the base.

It was fun to make and I used it several times, but if you have a chuck that works over a large range, like say the Robert Sorby Patriot or Nova, Supernova 2, then Cole Jaws are a better solution, but much more expensive.

I made this attachment so that a router could be mounted on the lathe bed at spindle centre height. The platform opposite provides a guide and some useful work can be done this way and I used it on a few pieces. I originally thought I could do some ornamental turning with it, but to cut a long story short it felt like using a broadsword when I really wanted a rapier for the job. I note that there are several people doing what looks to be very fine lattice cutting with better arrangements than mine.