Improvised woodtuurning chucks

[Philip Davies]

Chid’s recent post, with his socket grip invention, prompts me to post this, because all I am doing is wedging small blanks into old sockets, which are then held in the 3 jaw chuck. (Perhaps I’ve got the socket Chid is missing!)
I became sick of blanks popping off the pronged drive, or good wood chewed up by it. It’s at the back of the drawer now.
With all the old sockets I’ve accumulated, it’s easy to prepare a dozen or so blanks at once.

If I may, I’d just like to pay a tribute to a superb craftsman and great humanitarian, the late Don Gill. He specialised in making woodwind instruments and had several articles published in the Woodworker magazine. We began clearing his workshop last week: a lot of his hand tools will go to Africa. I salvaged some rejected parts he’d turned and converted them to 12 or more woodturning chucks, holes already conveniently bored through.