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Here's a quick and easy repair for those costly ONEWAY (or similar) live centers we all covet.

Step 1: Oops!

I'm sure I'm the only one that's every nicked a tool or God forbid cut into the cone on my live center, right?

Step 2: Lock Live Center

Well, since ONEWAY doesn't sell replacements of this part, I was either going to have to machine a new one or figure out how to fix it. Luckily, I posed the question on a couple turning forums before I disassembled the live center... One reader reminded me of the locking hole in this center that is used to install/remove the cone center and bull centers that are supplied with the tool! I coulda kicked myself for not remembering this!

I grabbed a roll pin (1/8" x 1" I think) and commenced to drive it into the center, effectively locking the live center so that it wouldn't rotate. Once this was done, I chucked it up on the large diameter of the live center's body and ran the lathe around 100-200 rpm. With a file, I gracefully (yes, gracefully) reshaped the cone to it's current profile.

This didn't take long to do as the metal is remarkably soft. Oh, don't forget to remove that roll pin once you're finished or else you have an expensive dead center...