World Wide Wood Turners shares easy offset weed pot project
A small fan weed pot shows how offset turning can be practical, repeatable, and worth trying when the setup starts with a Dux Chuck.
The quickest way to get comfortable with offset turning is to start with a project that does not overwhelm the setup, and Bob Grinstead’s fan weed pot fits that brief neatly. World Wide Wood Turners frames the build as an easy, fun way to work with Jim Duxbury’s Dux Chuck, and the real lesson is bigger than the finished piece: a compact blank and a homemade fixture make a tricky-looking off-center turn feel manageable.
A small project with a real shop lesson
The post, published on May 25, 2026, points turners to a starting board size of 3/4 inch by 3-1/4 inches by 4 inches. That matters because it keeps the project approachable, repeatable, and cheap to start, without asking for a large blank or a complicated hardware setup. A weed pot is also a smart teaching piece because it is useful, small enough to control easily, and forgiving enough that the maker can focus on the effect of the offset rather than wrestling with scale.
That is the practical appeal of the fan weed pot. It gives you a finished object with a clear purpose, but it also forces you to think about geometry, presentation, and how the cut changes once the spindle is intentionally moved off center. In other words, the project is not just decoration, it is a compact exercise in understanding what offset turning does to form.
Why the Dux Chuck changes the equation
The Dux Chuck is the tool that makes this project more than a one-off novelty. World Wide Wood Turners’ FAQ describes a duxchuck as a homemade jig intended to let the user create offset turnings, and the site notes that several variations have been developed since the original design. That evolution is important, because it shows the chuck has become part of a working shop vocabulary rather than a curiosity that only appears once.
The value of the Dux Chuck is in control and repeatability. Instead of improvising a risky off-center setup every time, the turner has a dedicated fixture that supports the offset in a consistent way. That makes it easier to return to the same geometry, compare results from one piece to the next, and keep the project process practical for club demonstrations or repeat builds.
World Wide Wood Turners also hosts plans for making the Dux Chuck, which turns the weed pot into a gateway project. A turner can make the pot now and come away with enough interest to build the chuck later, or build the chuck first and use it across future offset and multi-axis work. That dual purpose is part of the project’s appeal: it gives you a finished piece and a reusable solution for later.
How the chuck is built
The club’s FAQ gives a straightforward build method. Start by drilling a tenon-size hole, then drill 1/4-inch dowel holes on both sides, slice the block in half, and glue the dowels to one side. The method is simple enough to understand at a glance, which helps explain why the design has spread through club demonstrations and project notes.
That kind of shop logic matters because the Dux Chuck is not trying to be fancy. It is a practical homemade jig built around a clear purpose, which is why it resonates with turners who want offset work without turning the setup into its own long project. The build itself is almost as instructive as the weed pot, because it shows how a small amount of geometry can open up a larger range of shapes.
A tool with club roots, not just an online afterthought
The May 2026 weed pot post sits inside a longer pattern of Dux Chuck use in club woodturning. In a February 2025 newsletter, World Wide Wood Turners said Jim and Rita Duxbury demonstrated how to turn and embellish a multi-axis bowl using the Dux Chuck during the February 12 meeting. A June 2024 newsletter also described a cherry off-center bowl turned with the Dux Chuck. That history shows the fixture has already been used for more than one form, more than one project, and more than one club teaching moment.
Other woodturning groups have reached the same conclusion from a different angle. A South Carolina Woodturners handout described Dux Chuck-style turning as a medium-tech way to mount work off center safely, while a Wilmington Area Woodturners event listing called the Duxbury Chuck simple, intuitive, and almost free to make compared with commercial offset chucks. Those descriptions point to the same practical advantage: when a homemade jig is good enough for repeatable off-center work, it becomes a serious tool rather than a stopgap.
The people behind the method
Jim Duxbury is identified in profile material as a woodturner and inventor based in Graham, North Carolina, and his company bio says he was born in Cleveland, Ohio. That background helps explain why the chuck has stayed visible in club settings and demo culture. It is not just a clever idea attached to one project, it is part of a broader hands-on approach to turning that keeps showing up in bowls, weed pots, and multi-axis demonstrations.
That is what makes the fan weed pot worth attention. It is small enough to start without hesitation, but the lesson behind it reaches much farther: if you want offset turning to become part of your regular shop work, a simple stock size and a Dux Chuck can turn the whole process from intimidating to repeatable.
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