A technique for holding round stock

One of the best ways to hold round stock in the lathe is to bore the diameter of your round stock into a set of soft lathe jaws. To do this you'll need to change the hard jaws of your lathe chuck to soft machinable jaws. A "plug" or peice of small round stock will be needed to create a positive clamping situation. The plug is set in the center of the 3 jaws near the rear of the jaw so there is no interference during machining. The jaws are then closed onto the plug to create pressure in the same direction as will be used when machining your round stock. Once you have this task accomplished, ensuring you have enough room to create the diameter you need, you can begin boring your soft jaws to ensure that your round stock is held true to the spindle. It is very important that your newly machined jaws are NOT removed for any reason until your work piece is finished or you will see runout in your work piece exactly where the jaw grips it.