# New Convert



## wdcav1952 (Feb 9, 2008)

A couple of weeks ago I bought a 1MT and a 1MT dead center at Grizzly.  They lay around the shop until tonight, and didn't get lost, which is amazing!!  I was touching up the cap end of a Perfect Fit, and decided "Why not?"  I put the 1MT dead center on my CarbaTec and started to sand.  The blank was obviously not concentric.  I touched it up with a skew and was surprised to see that the skew was only touching about half of the circumference of the blank.

You between centers guys win!!  I am now a convert!!


----------



## rlharding (Feb 9, 2008)

hummmm, so what is it that I need, just a new live & dead centre & that's it???


----------



## Proud_Poppa_of_2 (Feb 9, 2008)

<center>*WE WIN!!!  WE WIN!!*</center>

What did we win?  

Seriously, though, I was helping the wife the other night turn a Classic American.  Since I only have purchased the 7mm bushings from JohnnyCNC, I have not yet programmed my brain to remember that store-bought bushings also can be used between centers.  

Anyway, my basic job when helping the wife is to be on call to check on her progress as she reaches various stages in the process.  So, I get called at checkpoint X and notice her blanks are horrendously not concentric.  I immediately took out the mandrel and put in the dead and live centers, took a skew to her lovely work and got everything to where it should have been.  No fault of hers, of course.

It just goes to show you.


----------



## rlharding (Feb 9, 2008)

yeah, I have read all the comments of course, however, I just have seen them as another excuse to spend more money...which even though I don't have I keep spending on pen turning.....to be honest I am also getting weary of turning on my mini now that I am doing a lot of pens.  I think I will move to my big lathe which has better light.  since I will need to buy a mandrel for it I may as well go B2B.


----------



## Proud_Poppa_of_2 (Feb 9, 2008)

Ruth, I think you can get a dead/live center combo for less than $20.00.  And, except for the 7mm bushings which you have to have custom made, all of your other bushings will work between centers.


----------



## rlharding (Feb 9, 2008)

I looked at KMSTools and they were about $30 each.  Guess I will look some more.  Thanks Michael.


----------



## rlharding (Feb 9, 2008)

Oh Goddess save me!! Now I am in agreement with Cav!! argggghhhhhh


----------



## Proud_Poppa_of_2 (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by rlharding_
> 
> I looked at KMSTools and they were about $30 each.  Guess I will look some more.  Thanks Michael.



I was wrong.  JohnnyCNC has the pair for $30 total.  $6.00 for the dead and $24.00 for the live.  http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29489


----------



## leehljp (Feb 9, 2008)

The Little Machine Shop has both 60Â° live centers and dead centers at $12.95 and $4.95 respectively for MT2. I saw a few posts here questioning the quality of the live center recently. I have one from 2 years ago and it is going good.

http://www.littlemachineshop.com

Type in "live center" and "dead center" for the results.


----------



## jwoodwright (Feb 9, 2008)

I need to get some of the 7mm ones.  Do they fit inside the tubes?


----------



## leehljp (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by jwoodwright_
> 
> I need to get some of the 7mm ones.  Do they fit inside the tubes?



Yes they do.


----------



## wdcav1952 (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by rlharding_
> 
> Oh Goddess save me!! Now I am in agreement with Cav!! argggghhhhhh





I know, Ruth.  Trust me, it is not easy on me either!!! 

I used the live center I have been using for the last couple of years.  I got the dead centers at Grizzly for not much;

http://www.grizzly.com/products/HSS-Lathe-Center-MT2/H5789

http://www.grizzly.com/products/HSS-Lathe-Center-MT1/H5788

BTW, I know nothing about mailing north of the border, but I live 15 minutes from Grizzly.  If you want me to make a run there for you, just let me know.  (OMG, Ruth and I are playing nice!!!!  )


----------



## Firefyter-emt (Feb 9, 2008)

Bwahhaaahaaaa  Soon, all your base are belong to us!  [}]


----------



## DozerMite (Feb 9, 2008)

I have the centers from johnnycnc and they are worth the $$.I guess he found some of higher quality. You can't even tell the live center is spinning. 
Also, if not using bushings with the 60 deg. inside, I see the potential for creating a groove in the centers from the stock bushings digging in. Just my thought from trying one.


----------



## Aderhammer (Feb 9, 2008)

Bah! Who needs bushings?  Dial calipers are the way to go! +or- about 5 thousandth's of an inch for me!  can't even feel a seam!


----------



## Firefyter-emt (Feb 9, 2008)

Andrew, you miss the point. It's not diameter, it concentric blanks. You can have a perfectly measured blanks, but if the tube is not centered to the wood, you will have a new entry for next years "ugly pen" conetst.

If your bushings are "loose" in the tubes it can flop around and not run true.  You may "think" the original bushings are good, but until you have see the bushing on the other side of the blank pushed out from the air in the blank, you have not seen properly fitting bushings.  When you pull out a bushing from a blank and hear a "plop" THATS when you have a good fit. 

However, you are right on the ball about the calipers.


----------



## IPD_Mrs (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by wdcav1952_
> 
> You between centers guys win!!  I am now a convert!!



With you Cav, convert, convict not much difference.[]

Mike


----------



## wdcav1952 (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by MLKWoodWorking_
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yep, a LOT of grinding both ways!! [^]


----------



## IPD_Mrs (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by rlharding_
> 
> Oh Goddess save me!! Now I am in agreement with Cav!! argggghhhhhh




The sky is falling, The sky is falling!

[:X]


----------



## GoodTurns (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by wdcav1952_
> 
> You between centers guys win!!  I am now a convert!!



would that count as a "new trick"????

I tried between centers a few weeks ago and can't imagine going back!
Now get some of Johnny CNC's bushings and we won't be able to knock the smile off your face for a month!


----------



## RussFairfield (Feb 9, 2008)

This is like the discovery of an ancient wisdom. Guess how we turned the first Slim-Line kits?? Between centers. Those were the good old days before someone discovered that it was faster to turn both barrels at the same time on a mandrel, and and gave us eccentric tubes and barrels. An early innovation was the stub mandrel that was a short piece of wood dowel in a Morse Taper in the headstock, a live-center in the tailstock, with the pen blank held between them. We turned the wooden plug piece in the headstock to fit the pen, and it was always true with the lathe. If it wasn't, we turned another one of them. I still have and use a couple of the MT adapters with a 3/8" tapped hole for holding a short length of dowel. 

I know of at least one woodturner who made larger versions of the theme for the new and bigger pens, and never quite fell for the idea that faster was always better. 

Packard still had a 2-piece mandrel for turning SlimLines, one barrel at a time, in his catalog up until a couple years ago.  Oneway dropped their Pen Weasel from their catalog at about the same time. Maybe our desire to make batter pens, rather than just faster ones, will bring them back


----------



## Firefyter-emt (Feb 9, 2008)

I have heard this Russ, Just curious because it was "before my time".  When exactly was this??  What was done for bushings, did they have something or was it just center to tube?


----------



## IPD_Mrs (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by RussFairfield_
> 
> Those were the good old days



Russ was that back in the day when you had to peddle to make the lathe go?[:0]

Mike


----------



## rlharding (Feb 9, 2008)

Cav, Cav, Cav....have you checked your temperature? Did you fall and bang your head?  Did you sniff to much funny gas at teh office? 

I know something is going to jump up and bite me![B)]

Thanks for the links Cav.  I appreciate your offer, however, I think it is probably just as easy for me to go on-line and order them.

thanks,  just give me some time before you are so helpful again OK?  I almost hit my head when I fainted!


----------



## DocStram (Feb 9, 2008)

> _Originally posted by Proud_Poppa_of_2_
> 
> <center>*WE WIN!!!  WE WIN!!*</center>
> 
> ...



Attention: Two Chops Mike

There are several obvious incongruences in your report to the members. First of all, you declared yourself a "winner" . . . which is, in fact, a serious contradiction in terms.  A winner is one whom wins something, whether it be animate or inanimate, regardless of value. You, my friend, really didn't win anything other than some sort of self-proclaimed prize. Let's not lead members astray with a sensationalist post designed to lure the membership into thinking that you won something. Your post borders on yellow-journalism.

Secondly, you state that you turned a Classic American. I find this statement to be particularly contemptible since the only true Classic American was John Wayne . . . and, as we all know, the Duke has been dead for quite some time. 

Thirdly, you state that your basic job when helping your wife is "to be on call."  It is patently clear to all of us that your real job is to be at her beck and call.  Quite a difference, I would say. 

Most absurdly, you describe your wife's blanks as being "horrendously not concentric."  I strongly advise you not to let your wife see your post. Such descriptions of a wife "blanks" hardly lends itself to a "happy" Valentine's Day . . . if you get my drift.


----------



## GoodTurns (Feb 9, 2008)

[/quote]
Secondly, you state that you turned a Classic American. I find this statement to be particularly contemptible since the only true Classic American was John Wayne . . . and, as we all know, the Duke has been dead for quite some time. 

[/quote]

When the Duke heard that Cav had agreed with someone, was being helpful and encouraging and all that...he turned in his grave!  So, effectively, the Classic American did in fact turn... Two Chops is merely claiming the credit[}]


----------



## wdcav1952 (Feb 10, 2008)

Here I am trying to play nice and I get blamed for fainting spells in Canada and John Wayne turning over in his grave!!  Where is my Grammar Police uniform?!?!?!?[}]


----------



## IPD_Mrs (Feb 10, 2008)

> _Originally posted by wdcav1952_
> 
> A couple of weeks ago I bought a 1MT and a 1MT dead center



Hey Cav when you going to graduate to big kid tools?[]


----------



## wdcav1952 (Feb 10, 2008)

> _Originally posted by MLKWoodWorking_
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Crap, I meant to type a 1MT and a 2MT dead center.

BTW, Mike I don't have to buy a big tool!!!!


----------



## Proud_Poppa_of_2 (Feb 10, 2008)

> _Originally posted by DocStram_
> 
> Attention: Two Chops Mike
> 
> ...



Al, my posts frequently are littered with incongruencies.  Your discovery is nothing new as others have been pointing this out to me for weeks now, the only difference being that they have had the good taste to do so privately.

I would like to address one of your statements, though.  You said, "[T]he only true Classic American was John Wayne . . . ."  That statement is an oxymoron if ever I saw one.  If John Wayne were the only one, then how could he be a classic?  I think what you were trying to say was that John Wayne was an American original</u>.

Having just opened up that big ol' can of whup-a#@ on you, let me give you credit for getting one thing right.  It is true that, when participating in my wife's pen turning activitities, I am not "on call" as much as I am "at her beck and call," as you so astutely surmised.  This is because I am a spineless, lily-livered lapdog of a husband whose role is to fulfill every wish - spoken and unspoken, meritorious or not - my wife might entertain.  It has been like this for the however many years of our marriage and it seems to have worked rather well - for her.  I appreciate your bringing this to the attention of the IAP membership lest they be unable to figure it for themselves.

To recap, John Wayne was an American Original, the color of my liver is the same as a lily's, the Between Centers Faction won another convert, and Jr. won the Budweiser Shootout.


----------



## IPD_Mrs (Feb 10, 2008)

> _Originally posted by wdcav1952_
> 
> BTW, Mike I don't have to buy a big tool!!!!



Cav,
working in the prison system I can understand why you would not WANT a big tool![:0]


----------



## Proud_Poppa_of_2 (Feb 10, 2008)

We're talking about working on the rock pile, right?


----------



## Firefyter-emt (Feb 10, 2008)




----------

