What should I use?

[RJD2]

I am new to woodturning with less than a year experience, and currently own a Nova Precision Midi chuck. However, I am interested in turning some smaller projects that will ultimately be the handles for fly tying tools that are basically 3/8" or slightly smaller diameter wooden dowels that are embellished with tapers and grooves when finished. The following link will show you a picture of what I am talking about. Would the 25mm jaws be a good choice for this, or could you recommend something else? Thank you.



http://www.flytyingtools.com/webpage...bBrushPick.htm

[final_t]

You'll probably just need a pen mandrel, since I'm willing to bet that those are going to have to have a lengthwise hole drilled to seat the matching parts (either a brass tube or a tapped brass insert that the brass parts screw into), just like a pen or letter opener. The mandrels are pretty cheap, $10 or so.
Do you have a link to where you're getting the parts, or are you going all alone?

[DonHo]

If the tools will have a hole thru the center that is the right size you could use the pen mandrel but if the hole is larger than the mandrel (about 7mm) you might be able to find pen bushings that would fit the holes but if not it would be hard if not impossible to keep the work piece centered. You could use a drill chuck on a morse taper to hold the work piece and this chuck is useful for other turning projects also. You could purchase pin jaws for your chuck that would allow you to hold the small piece but I think the jaws would cost more than the drill chuck.

Good luck,
DonHo

[RJD2]

The tools will not have any brass parts like the picture or a hole thru the center. I will need to reduce a pen blank to a cylinder with the correct diameter, and ultimately add such things a grooves, tapers, etc. to it. Also, at one point in the process it will need to be unsupported at one end to work on it. I didn't want to utilize anything that would make a hole in the end of the piece larger than what would be needed to attach the tool portion. So, that is why I asked about purchasing a smaller jaw set to accomplish this. What is typically used when dealing with small pieces such as this? Thanks for your suggestions.

[DonHo]

I have this chuck
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/cug3418c.html
as well as the nova precision midi. I use the #1 jaws which to me look alot like the pin jaws for the nova( I don't have the nova pin jaws). The #1 jaws are serated(?) both inside and outside and hold a small blank quite well. I use them for turning light pull knobs from 3/4" or 1" stock and have no problem. I do mark the center of the blank and use the live center in the tailstock to support the stock to make sure it's centered and running true then I move the tail stock away. I've turned using blanks up to 8" long without a problem so I think this would work for your needs.
DonHo