I have this small WO bowl blank I was playing with. It had a crack in it, though I had no idea how deep it went...so I kept turning. Anyway, I had a catch on the bottom of the bowl while I was shaping it and this chunk broke off. Can I glue this back together and continue playing with it? Notice the chunk took out part of the mortise where I would eventually use my chuck to turn this around and hollow it out.

I'd glue the piece back on and put it back on the lathe. Turn away the mortice and then re-mortice or tenon the bottom into the more solid wood. The glued piece would be partially turned away but may hold. Worth a shot.

It can be glued back together.  Clamping may prove difficult.  Remount the blank, cut the area flat and install a hose clamp for added support and finish the area when you turn the bowl to finish the bottom.

 

I personally would chalk it up to lesson learned but I am a coward and hate surprises of the spinny kind. It's a perfect example of why I prefer a tenon on a bowl blank.  Just an observation but that mortise looks really deep.

Could always put a worm drive screw or face plate on the other end and turn away to bad end if you haven't hollowed it yet. 

 

.40

I will go with the conservatives. Yes I have glued pieces back on and most of them even with careful cuts did not make a turned piece. Like 40 said worm screw or faceplate are the best bets. Then reshape and the design opportunity becomes a reality.

Steve, that mortise was measured to fit the height of the chuck fingers such that everything seated tightly. That aside, this is just a practice exercise, since I'm not even a beginner on this stuff. The other end of the blank is mounted on a faceplate. I did get the thing glued back together and may putz around with it today, my intent is to cut it back to where there is no crack and then keep playing with it. If it looks wonky while I'm doing this it will be tossed into the burnpile. Thanks to all for the input when you know as little as I do about this stuff it's always good to have a bunch of advice.

Just an update. I put the glued blank back in the lathe and trued it up, then shortened it so I could recut the mortise to get past the crack. The crack is deeper through the center than I hoped. While everything went well (🤞) I think I'll shorten the blank even more and maybe go to a tenon....which will make any bowl I get very short I guess. Or I might just toss it and write off (as Steve said) lesson learned.

2 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Steve, that mortise was measured to fit the height of the chuck fingers such that everything seated tightly.

 

Fred, just want to make sure you know, the bearing surface on wood chucks  is the face of the jaws, not the base. A mortise actually only needs to be deep enough to seat 1/4" or so into the mortise or onto the tenon. A little more or less as necessary won't hurt anything but there needs to be a gap between the wood and the chuck body

 

I did not realize that, I thought the surfaces should mate on the bottom as well as the top of the jaws. Thank you.

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

I did not realize that, I thought the surfaces should mate on the bottom as well as the top of the jaws. Thank you.

 

I would guess 90% of bowl turners, or more, learned this the same way you just did. I know someone had to tell me.

Looking at Steve's picture a thought occurred to me as I cannot tell from Fred's picture. Did you cut a dovetail in the expansion to match the chucks external dovetail. Would not help with the crack but could make a difference in solid wood later.

At this point I had not, but I would have if I had kept going. I don't have a DT scraper but figured I might be able to do it with an EZ wood detail tool....I have one of them (I think).

Fred You do not need to purchase a tool.

    1. you can make a tool. Mike Peace has a video on doing this from a scraper or flat bar.

    2. it can be done with a parting tool cutting with the tool swung to the far side at an angle. Can also use a detail gouge but is harder to do.

 

 

6 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

At this point I had not, but I would have if I had kept going. I don't have a DT scraper but figured I might be able to do it with an EZ wood detail tool....I have one of them (I think).

That’s what I use most of the time. 

Not all chucks employ dove tail jaws.  Oneway is one is on the list.  They do have the dove tail jaws available as an option.

 

 

 

The Easy Wood Tools chuck jaws have dovetails on the inside and outside 

My chuck is a One Way talon, I'll need to look at the jaws I have but I'm fairly certain I didn't buy a set of DT jaws.

Oneway makes both with and without dovetail jaws. Some of the jaws have dovetails inside and outside.

Well, I did get this bowl finished...without finish (yet). Here it is, still in the chuck because I haven't sanded it yet. I shortened it up to remove as much of the broken chunk as I could, cut a new shallower mortise and then hollowed it out. The hollowing was not all that smooth, I kept getting catches. I tried a couple of different bowl gouges I had and none were perfect, so it has to be my lack of technique. Anyway, I got this cut out and there was another crack in the blank so the sanding and finish i apply will be in the spirit of the turning exercise...just practice. Anyway, I circled the second crack that appeared (left one) as well as the original one that glued back in.  BTW, I couldn't determine whether my chuck jaws were DT jaws or no, but I think they aren't so I left the mortise straight sided. It seemed to work very well, though I was careful with light cuts and a slow lathe speed.

Edited September 6, 20214 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr