Off-Center Chuck Type 2 - Amazing Off-Center Chuck

No Other Off-Center Chuck Can Utilize 4 Jaw Scroll Chucks for Work Holding! The Amazing Off-Center Chuck™ is now only available as a stand-alone chuck.

Imagine an off-center chuck large enough to hold full-sized plates, platters, wall art, as well as pendants, goblets, turned lidded boxes, winged bowls, candlesticks, chair legs and much more. Imagine that this full-sized off-center chuck is able to accept full-sized four jaw scroll chucks, faceplates, screw chucks; in fact, anything you can currently mount onto your regular lathe spindle can be mounted onto the Amazing Off-Center Chuck from the Amazing Doughnut Chuck™ people.

I have re-designed the original Amazing Off-Center Chuck and it is now more versatile and easier to use. The Unique Full Sized Amazing Off-Center Chuck is available with two different thread pitches, 1x8 and 1-1/4x8. Or, if necessary, a combination of the two spindle sizes.

Various off-center chucks are available in the marketplace but deal with smaller pieces for the most part. I offer a different off-center jig suitable for pendants and other smaller items. Robert Sorby offers an off-center unit, but it has no accommodation for using a full-sized scroll chuck as the Amazing Off-Center Chuck does. It is also quite a bit more expensive than the Amazing Off-Center Chuck™

This offering is intended for those who are already familiar with off-center turning and need little if any instruction. If you are interested in learning more about this fascinating technique, search the internet for videos on off-center turning, they are numerous. All off-center chucks are intended to be operated at much slower speeds when turning something which is unbalanced and not turning concentrically. SLOW DOWN! Begin turning dead slow and increase the speed incrementally.

The maximum off-center setting is slightly over 2" resulting in slightly more than 4 inches out of round. That is a lot! Each adjusting hole is designed at 10 degrees and will result in approximately 0.25" offset. For those times when one needs to index their turning (pendants and platter rims for example), I will be introducing a very affordable and easy to use indexing system shortly for use with the user-supplied 4 jaw scroll chuck.

Notes: The Amazing Off-Center Chuck is sold as a stand-alone unit. You no longer need to own an Amazing Doughnut Chuck to use the Amazing Off-Center Chuck Type 2.

Ray S. writes:

Hi Ron,

. . . So from little to large! Today was a 10” offset bowl. I turned the bottom using my normal 4 jaw chuck in the usual way. Though 10” wide it was only just over 2” thick so I decided on a recess. . .Fitted your AOC chuck with an offset that was two holes out. Pencil line informed that it was about right. I should add that I was using 100mm jaws to give me a good enough foot and centre on the bottom. These jaws are fairly big when compared with the 2” jaws, so both size and weight were a good test.

The complete set up extended some distance from the lathe spindle and the offset bowl I intended to hollow was pretty big so I decided on tailstock support and left a centre spigot until right near the end. Hollowing was a breeze, speed fairly low and light cuts. No difficulty other than tool access, and at these times I removed the tailstock. Finished with scraper and sanding. No difficulty and everything felt pretty robust (Lathe vibration tells you when you adjust speed too high!).

Next test: Could I burn a circle around the offset hollow as good as the one I had burned around the complete bowl? This can be a tad challenging when offsetting by other means. If it’s not consistently held then the groove one cuts varies in depth and width and the burn is inconsistent as a result. The fact that one is not removing the bowl at all from the 4 jaw chuck between facing off, hollowing and burning should provide for better alignment. The result? Good groove, great burn! Nice markings (important when wood is fairly plain).

Easy to use, flexible in the projects that can be applied, and more robust than one might think. The obvious thing is to just use it for the offset work. I’ll be working on some eccentric spindles soon with tailstock support provided in a slightly different way (home made padded disc threaded to revolving center)

I’m pretty impressed with your kit, my friend, and what’s more the stand you provide is a very thoughtful ‘extra’  which means when not in use it doesn’t take up so much space and is kept in good condition, away from possible knocks.

Best regards

Ray