Survey question of the day! 

What is your favorite style of spur drive? 

I've probably seen a dozen different variations....  two prong, four prong, round with no prongs!  All types out there....

IF I were to suggest we develop a spur drive to mount in our Easy Chuck...  what style should it be?  I'm not that smart, so pictures help...  a lot!  :0)

 

GO!

I have one similar to this.  The spring loaded center is the greatest.

 

 

 

So the center point is spring loaded....  why is that a good thing?  What does that do for you?

 

I think mine came from Woodcraft.

5 minutes ago, Jim from Easy Wood Tools said:

So the center point is spring loaded....  why is that a good thing?  What does that do for you?

  All that is needed to line it up is a small mark and then there is not the big deep mark left by the standard center.  The point holds the center but retracts as the tailstock is tightened.  When making small items a substantial amount of wood can be saved because of it.

4 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

  All that is needed to line it up is a small mark and then there is not the big deep mark left by the standard center.  The point holds the center but retracts as the tailstock is tightened.  When making small items a substantial amount of wood can be saved because of it.

Thanks!  Learn something every day!

It depends on what I'm doing,  I have one very similar to what Dan posted for spindle work. I like working with a chuck so I use that drive to turn a tenon and then mount the piece in the chuck. Saves me removing the chuck. If I'm rough turning bowls I like to start between centers so I use a two prong(originally 4) drive for that with no chuck.

 

Steve

Another nice this about this type of drive spur- if a major catch occurs, the tiny teeth will slip rather than tear the wood apart- which could happen with the 2/4 prong drives.

It depends on what I'm doing,  I have one very similar to what Dan posted for spindle work. I like working with a chuck so I use that drive to turn a tenon and then mount the piece in the chuck. Saves me removing the chuck. If I'm rough turning bowls I like to start between centers so I use a two prong(originally 4) drive for that with no chuck.

 

Steve

The Steb center I use most is a morse taper Sorby I think and also have one like Dan showed which makes it easy to remove the Steb and mount in chuck. As was stated It depends on what I am making and from what. For dry wood under 4 inch diameter the Steb. For green wood the 4 prong. When turning a imbalanced piece with bark I will use a drive called Elio drive which has a MT and kindof like a faceplate with screw holes.

 

https://screenshots.firefox.com/3zso8glzVdJ3ql6Y/www.onegoodturn.ca

 

Thank you all for the feedback...  I have a great job.  I get to play with tools and think about which tool I want next!  ....and then...  they pay me to do this!

Thanks

Jim

I've used hole saw's for bigger jobs...