Turning Coasters

[crokett]

I was thinking one of my first projects would be to turn a set of coasters. It should be simple to true up a cylinder then start parting coasters off of it. One question regarding grain direction - should I turn the cylinder as a spindle or should I turn it like facework for a bowl? If I turn it like a spindle then I am parting off end grain pieces and I am not sure how long they will last.

edit - to make them fancy what I was thinking of trying is a rabbet around the top edge and a recess in the bottom face so they stack together.

[BigguyZ]

I think going the spinle route would the the most efficient use of the wood, but would be a tough one on your tools- having to cut end grain and all.

[jking]

Assuming you have either a face plate or a chuck to hold the material, I would turn it like facework. I think you would get a more attractive set of coasters that way. If you are going to part the coasters off the main cylinder, you probably need a chuck. Parting exerts a fair amount of side pressure; you want the cylinder held securely.

You might also consider turning your cylinder & then slicing sections off with a bandsaw. If you have a way to hold the thinner piece to make the coaster, a bandsaw cut would be much easier than parting on the lathe. It might mean a little more time at the lathe, though.

[crokett]

The only thing I have right now is a faceplate, no jaw chuck. Would double stick tape be strong enough to hold one of the coaster slices to the faceplate? My other option would be to glue the slice to a waste block and screw that to the face plate.

Thinking about it, what I might do is just make glueups for each coaster, face glue those to a waste block then when I am done use the bandsaw to slice off the waste block. That way I can turn a recess into the bottom and turn a small rabbett on the top.

[shoottx]

Build a couple of Jam chucks and turn them as face plate turnings.

Being new at turning this maybe, less than credible advice but here is how I would approach it.

End grain will nor provide the visual appeal of a given wood. It you are only concerned about utility that direction would work.

But for flat turning use the faceplate create a template that would hold the blank in the template and woulds allow you to turn one side of the coasters. Turn all the coasters and then remove the template and screw jam chuck on to the face plate and turn the other side.

I am not sure I explained that very well but I may go do the experiment to see if it works.

[crokett]

No, you explained it just fine. I didn't think about a jamb chuck. I could actually turn the shoulder on the top of the coaster between centers, then use the faceplace + jamb chuck to turn the recessed bottom.

thanks for the idea.

[shoottx]

Here is an approach similar to what I tried to eplain http://www.davidreedsmith.com/Articl...ebookCover.htm