Reply by Bertha

Did you say you have a drill chuck? You could always turn your piece into a tenon and grab it in the drill chuck. You could also glue this tenon into a harder piece of wood that mounts onto your stopper chuck. Soft woods and a threaded chuck often don’t get along. You could turn the entire piece as a spindle piece then just clean it up by hand. I still don’t think the lack of a jawed chuck is holding you back. I suspect it’s the softness of the wood. Good luck!

-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog