When I get logs from people or even the ones I cut, some don't have 90 degree cuts. Most are acceptable for mounting onto my Chuck Plate, but at the tail stock, there might be too much angle to turn it safely. Before I made the Nose Ring, I would launch maybe 1 in 10 blanks from the tail stock. When the piece usually came out, looking at the end , there would always be what looked like the number 9 scratched into the end.. If you picture where the bottom line on the 9 that connects with the right outside line, that would be the center point from the live center. To the left of the 9 is where the angle of the wood is less than you have on the right side of center. Since it's being driven by the Chuck Plate or any other holding device, when it comes out it usually leaves the mark that looks like a nine..
After I started losing pieces, and since I made my live centers with long noses, I went back the my friends shop, and made a ring with 4 screws in it just like the ones I use in my Chuck Plate. It will allow me to mount pieces with about a 75 degree cut on the ends. I adjust the screws in and out to match the angle of the wood at the tailstock.
It's a real good tool to have if you do a lot of natural edges because getting a good bite at the natural edge will usually make the tailstock side of the piece angled, no matter how careful you were when cutting the blank.
The biggest problem with the nose ring is the live centers that most people have aren't designed for something like it. Better yet, that type of tool hadn't even been thought of yet, until I made mine a couple years ago. There might be about 5 people in the country that have one because they bought one of my live centers and I included it.
I'm toying with designing a few to fit other live centers. It looks like it might be pretty easy. I'll do a couple pictures today as I must be out all day, and don't have any that I can find easily. .................. Jerry (in Tucson)