All is well most of the time.

Easy to make your own. Take a look at the Make a Screw Chuck video.

As you can see I don't find getting a jammed blank off that tedious. It's simply a matter of setting up your lathe so it's easy to lock the faceplate in place. A strap wrench usually makes it easy to remove small jammed pieces if you can't grip them by hand.

I use a couple of bits of non-slip cloth to increase grip. Thanks for all your videos, always glad to see them.

Rather depends on the size and weight of the blank. Generally in the 400-800 rpm range, but in the pre-variable speed days, I throw 10-in plates on to a 150mm diameter screw chuck at about 1800rpm. A small light blank needs a higher speed, but 1800rpm is fast enough.

Rather depends on the size and weight of the blank. Generally in the 400-800 rpm range, but in the pre-variable speed days, I threw 10-in plates on to a 150mm diameter screw chuck at about 1800rpm. A small light blank needs a higher speed, but 1800rpm is fast enough. For screws with a cylindrical shank the pilot hole I drill is a fracton larger than the shank.

Worm screws do vary in length and design depending on the manufacturer. Why would you want half a dozen worm screws when you can use one with spacers. Spacers are so much more convenient, especially if the blank spins on the screw when all you need to is remove a spacer rather than change chucks.

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning just curious. I agree that spacers are a simpler more convenient option. Thank you for all the help you give us through your videos. I haven't yet summoned up the courage to try back turning the end grain in spite of your excellent tutorial and how easy you make it look :)

Horses for courses: Is the ring tool classic? I recall Vin Smith applying for a patent in the mid 1980s, I suppose as a variant of the hoook tools, but did it ever take off as a turning tool... I've never heard of a cup tool but plenty of people still use hook tools although not on hard timbers like gidgee or African Blackwood, at least not as far as I know. Robin Wood uses them to turn bowls on a pole lathe and Scandinavians use them on their soft woods and softer hardwoods and on KZfaq you'll find quite a few Eastern Europeans using hooks tools on softwoods. Personally I find back-hollowing and scrapers a lot faster on endgrain.

It pays to get the grain orientation set when cutting the boards or blanks. Fine adjustments to grain orientation within a bowl is easy enough at the next stage. When turning or roughing 30 to 50 12-in bowls a day throwing bowls on a screw saves a lot of time, which to a professional bowl turner means money.

@@RichardRaffanwoodturning So you're doing your "fine adjustments" after it has dried and your finish turning it?

@@davidshaper5146 Yes. You can shift a bowl quite a bit come the final turning although I rarely bother, being more concerned with the final proportions and shape than grain or colour variations. Eventually the colours fade and the grain isn't so obvious, so what remains is the form. With grain alignment I usually find near enough is good enough except when it comes to natural edge bowls which I want the rim to look balanced. I make a lot of green-turned bowls when I want some warping so grain alignment has to be set when cutting the blank.

I learnt to do this at about 1800 rpm, years before woodturners had variable speed lathes. Time was too valuable to change pulleys too often.