# Lathe And Chuck Thoughts



## unclejonboy (May 15, 2011)

Forgive me if this is the wrong section, but being an incorrigible tinkerer...

After recently cleaning up a badly chewed and scratched caseback on the lathe I thought I 'd share this tip and also ask a question.

I have a small but good quality hobbyist's lathe That I mostly have used for turning spacers and shafts and adapting bits in my other passion of messing about with bikes...and cars and allsorts of things really...

The lathe is true and the toolpost accurate and fine, but it is designed for heavy ish stuff and the chuck is basically hefty with slightly chamfered jaws that make holding anything flat, like spacers and washers, difficult.

Maybe others have done this before me but to hold the watch case back securely I superglued it to a piece of round bar about 30mm diameter faced up and sized so the case back sat perfectly centred. This allowed me to securely grip and centre the job in the chuck and have the job far enough out to not have the toolpost foul the whizzing bits. When done, the case popped off the bar by light finger pressure to break the glue bond. Don't use epoxy!!!

What I am wondering, is as I don't want to invest in another smaller lathe, does there exist a fine chuck maybe aperture up to 40 or 50 mm, that is, say, shaft mounted and could be slipped into the existing chuck without taking the lathe to bits...

Whaddya think? UJB


----------



## bry1975 (Feb 6, 2004)

Industrial strength double sided tape works a treat on a facing plate! :cool2:


----------



## Guest (May 26, 2011)

unclejonboy said:


> being an incorrigible tinkerer...


This is cool 



unclejonboy said:


> Maybe others have done this before me but to hold the watch case back securely I superglued it to a piece of round bar about 30mm diameter faced up and sized so the case back sat perfectly centred. This allowed me to securely grip and centre the job in the chuck and have the job far enough out to not have the toolpost foul the whizzing bits. When done, the case popped off the bar by light finger pressure to break the glue bond. Don't use epoxy!!!


An old school method is to sweat a workpiece to a faceplate with shellac.

...But dont ask me how to remove :lol:



unclejonboy said:


> What I am wondering, is as I don't want to invest in another smaller lathe, does there exist a fine chuck maybe aperture up to 40 or 50 mm, that is, say, shaft mounted and could be slipped into the existing chuck without taking the lathe to bits...
> 
> Whaddya think? UJB


Make a mandrel/threaded adapter bar to fit the smaller chuck into the larger :smartass:


----------



## ketiljo (Apr 22, 2009)

littlealex said:


> An old school method is to sweat a workpiece to a faceplate with shellac.
> 
> ...But dont ask me how to remove :lol:


Easy. Just heat it slightly. And clean with alcohol.


----------



## unclejonboy (May 15, 2011)

thanks for the advice... didn't think of shellac, easily soluble in meths, ethanol, methanol, serious vodka,etc.

but the question was ' is there this type of chuck out there' the face plate and glue method is fine but the instant in-a-chuck into the lathe's chuck is the issue....


----------



## Guest (May 27, 2011)

ketiljo said:


> littlealex said:
> 
> 
> > An old school method is to sweat a workpiece to a faceplate with shellac.
> ...


 :swoon:

..... 



unclejonboy said:


> What I am wondering, is as I don't want to invest in another smaller lathe, does there exist a fine chuck maybe aperture up to 40 or 50 mm, that is, say, shaft mounted and could be slipped into the existing chuck without taking the lathe to bits...
> 
> Whaddya think? UJB


Have got you now.

Off the top of my head,i'm guessing myself that you'd be out of luck finding such a thing.

I think it's more a question of the mounting which would be specialised.You already have a lathe,The thing to do would be to turn up an adapter to casually fit a smaller chuck to the spindle/existing chuck I'd say.

...Or buy the smaller lathe


----------



## unclejonboy (May 15, 2011)

littlealex said:


> ketiljo said:
> 
> 
> > littlealex said:
> ...


HI littlealex thanks for the input... I think I found what I want after trawling for hours, grizzly.com in USA have a 'mini chuck 2 inches' (wha' ees eenches), catalogue H5934, at 49 $ usd mounted on a shaft exactly as I imagined, I think anyway....bit cautious about buying from the dam' janquis, import taxes an' all, but i will see if I can find a yurpeen supplier or brit even...


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

One solution instead of another chuck which will have hard jaws again is to purchase a set of soft machinable jaws for the existing chuck. They will be readily available from most proper engineering suppliers. Just machine them to suite they are also less likely to mark or damage whatever it is you are gripping.

A bit on the big side but gives you the idea.


----------



## unclejonboy (May 15, 2011)

Well done that man...!

That could well be the answer... just showsya hours on the internet can be wiped out by one good knowledgeable contact... when your next in Lisbon the beer's on me, well, one anyway


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

unclejonboy said:


> Well done that man...!
> 
> That could well be the answer... just showsya hours on the internet can be wiped out by one good knowledgeable contact... when your next in Lisbon the beer's on me, well, one anyway




I'll be in Majorca next week if that's any good :lol: :lol:

You can machine them for either internal or external gripping, I use both depending on the parts we have to machine, you could also have watch case outer profile machined into a set and grip cases to repair threads and grooves or the like.

Let's have some pictures when you get set up.

Cheers

B.


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

You can also get plastic and aluminum jaws and inserts as well which might be better for finer parts.


----------



## unclejonboy (May 15, 2011)

it's the 'proper engineering suppliers' is the the tricky bit,, thanks all the same and Majorca can't be on next week .. have a San Miguel for me anyway and if you find the Galician beer ..diametrically opposed to the Balearics geographically I know,... think its called Estrella damm or somesuch, but its the fuller's or wadsworth's compared to the supermarket stuff.. not that it's real ale, just a whole lot better than the normal Spaniard in the works...night night


----------



## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

unclejonboy said:


> it's the 'proper engineering suppliers' is the the tricky bit,, thanks all the same and Majorca can't be on next week .. have a San Miguel for me anyway and if you find the Galician beer ..diametrically opposed to the Balearics geographically I know,... think its called Estrella damm or somesuch, but its the fuller's or wadsworth's compared to the supermarket stuff.. not that it's real ale, just a whole lot better than the normal Spaniard in the works...night night


I'm strictly a Vodka Red Bull man, not enough alcohol in beer for me :lol: :lol:

If you can't source anything locally try these guys "Cromwell Tools" obviously based in the UK but they will ship anywhere and I've used them for years. Don't be put off if you don't see what you want in their online catalogue just give them a call, in my experience they can get you just about any engineering product you want. The picture above was from a catalogue supplied by them.


----------

