# A trick for holding unwieldy items



## DICKEYBIRD (Oct 5, 2008)

A fellow on HSM suggested this solution to a problem I was having. Actually, the solution was posted here quite a while back by Bogs (thanks Bogs, wherever you are...we still luv' ya!) when he showed us how to turn flywheels from plate stock. If I could remember all the things he showed us here, I'd have far fewer machining problems!

Anyway, the task was to turn down the O.D. on some cup type brass core plugs to fit in a VIRE 7 hp auxiliary boat engine for a friend in Texas. He couldn't source the original parts without paying an arm & a leg to get them from Europe. He bought some that were a little oversize from NAPA and sent them to me to massage.

The elegantly simple solution was to turn a mandrel to fit snugly inside the cup and press against it with a live center in the tailstock. I happened to have a flat-faced adaptor that fits my live center so I didn't have to make a plug to fit over the sharp pointed center. It worked a treat!


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