Holding a barrel arbor in the lathe
When winding a new spring in the lathe, there is very little plain outside diameter to hold in the chuck, as holding on the bearing journal is a no-no. What I do is to chuck a short length of 20mm OD dowel and drill three holes (see sketch). Now press the shank of the winding arbor into the wood, or tap it in with a soft mallet.
The square shank will cut into the wood at three points, thus giving plenty of torque to wind on the spring.
Then just feed the barrel wheel over the tightly wound spring. This way also eliminates the need for an outrigger support arbor from the tailstock which would also have had to be made.
William Maysey
