Dear Friends:

My latest toy arrived last night and was it a Godsend. I have been shaping cork on mandrels for over a year now. I have various sizes, based on the diameters of the blanks. I drill out the center of the cork to fit the mandrel and then glue them up and compress them on the mandrel. I do take care to use the minimum amount of epoxy to wet the surface only. If it does not seep out, I have done my job. When dry, I chuck it up on the wood lathe, and thereby hangs the tale. ...

I use a Delta Midi lathe with a three-jaw chuck by Penn State. I would put some masking tape over one end of the mandrel and hold it with the 3-jaw. The other end was supported by a live center. Problem was that the mandrel would not be held firmly and would slip into the chuck. I was forever tightening the tailstock to keep the mandrel held firmly. A week ago, I was shaping a grip and the darn thing came loose from the tailstock. Fortunately, the damage to the grip was repairable. The damage to the chuck will necessitate replacement of the jaws. But that's another story.

What I did do was bite the bullet and purchase a Beall collet chuck for the lathe, with 1/4" and 3/8" collets. These are ER-32 collets, a standard in machine shop work. They hold the mandrels firmly and do not let them slip. Period. Well, my collet chuck came last night. I slipped it into place, put the mandrel into it, and tightened it down. NO movement. I set up the lathe and finished the shaping of the grip in question and did another I had waiting. This collet chuck is truly slicker than snot on a door knob.

At one point, the grip came loose from the mandrel. To solve that I apply some beeswax to the mandrel, and slide the cork back into place over the beeswax. It holds sufficiently to shape the grip, but allows me to remove it easily. I do not use any glues at this point.

Anyway, this Beall collet chuck holds the mandrel superbly. For those of you who form and shape the grips on mandrels, it is a great tool, and very specific to the task. It is worth the price. Now Axeminster has a new collet chuck out as well, but the Beall uses standard collets, so that I plan to purchase more of them through the used equipment market, rather than paying full price. There are about 18 in a full set of ER-32 collets, sized from 3/32" to 25/32". Not bad.

Doug Weber
Weber Rod Works

Collet chucks are superior for holding things like mandrels. There are less expensive alternatives, however.

You can face the jaws on your chuck by using a drill bit stop collar, or just building up a another slightly larger band of masking tape. Both will effectively stop the mandrel from working back into the chuck and withdrawing from the tailstock live center.

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For holding steel mandrels I use a 1/2" drill chuck that I got from Penn State Ind. Always has worked great for mandrels. Fairly cheap too.

Where to get the Beal collet chuck. Does Penn State sell them?

Packard Woodworks, Inc., at www.packardwoodworks.com


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What a great site. Thanks Tom.