Need an easy way to finish the bottom of your woodturnings? Tired of continually screwing in and unscrewing the screws of your Cole jaws? Hate having to heat the glue gun up again? If so, then you need to make a Longworth chuck!

The Longworth chuck was developed in the late 1980′s by Leslie Douglas Longworth of the Hunter Valley Woodturners in Australia. It features a self centering mechanism that easily and quickly adjusts to the size of your turning.

The concept is quite simple – a pair of disks rotate against each other drawing in, or out, eight rubber ‘jaws’ on a series of opposing arcs. Yep, it’s that simple.

Here, let me explain how I made mine and you’ll see how easy it is to make one.

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Here’s a new tool handle that I recently made for a woodturning bowl gouge. Now, I know that a tool handle isn’t all that interesting but what I want to show you is actually the brass ferrule that I used.

The ferrule is basically used on tools like chisels and gouges to stop the wood handle from splitting. The brass ferrule I used is actually a brass nut used for plumbing but when turned makes a very substantial and attractive end for a woodturning gouge.

In the past I have always used copper pipe (as you can see here) for my ferrules. However, because of the size of the shaft for the 5/8″ gouge I needed something a bit larger. Brass, like copper and aluminum, is a fairly soft metal and can be easily turned.

Here’s some more photos of how I made the handle:

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For a recent woodturning project I required a spindle steady rest. I couldn’t find anything locally that would fit my lathe and the ones I found for sale elsewhere were lathe specific or way above what I was willing to pay so I decided to build my own. Boy, was I glad that I did because it was really easy to do!

A spindle steady is used to steady a long spindle while turning. The smaller the diameter and the longer the spindle is the more likely it is to vibrate and ‘whip’ back and forth, making it pretty much impossible to turn. The spindle steady, using clamping pressure with a series of wheels, tames this erratic motion allowing you to turn your piece as normal. Basically it minimizes the distance of support on your workpiece.

Making your own steady rest is rather straight forward and easily finished in a day, though an afternoon and a few hours the following morning is preferred since this will give time for the glued pieces to dry.

Here’s how I built mine:

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Well, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I had to make a new zero clearance insert, or throat plate as it is also called, for my table saw. My old one was worn so bad that it no longer offered the safety and esthetic benefits that a zero clearance insert offers.

If you are not aware, a zero clearance insert’s saw blade opening is cut to the exact width of the saw blade’s kerf. This helps prevent thin slices of wood from jamming in between the blade and the insert, as well as helps to reduce the amount of tear-out that can happen with the stock insert that comes with your table saw.

Being able to cut thin strips of wood safely and minimizing tear-out are enough reasons to install one of these throat plates on your saw. While I use the term, ‘minimizing’ in reference to tear-out this is only to err on the positive side of a statement. My own experience has shown that tear-out is virtually eliminated.

You may wonder why a zero clearance throat plate isn’t a stock item on your table saw but this is because a wider opening is required for different blade angle cuts, and since a zero clearance insert is not required for most general construction use the added cost for including an additional throat plate would be cost prohibitive.

But this is really no problem because making your own zero clearance throat plate/insert is such a simple process that you’ll be surprised that you didn’t make one sooner. Let me tell you how I made mine:

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