Would I be able to drill and tap holes in the jaws on my JET lathe?

[winchman]

Seeing some of the soft jaw arrangements in another thread got me to wondering about drilling and tapping some homes in the chuck jaws on my late-'70s vintage Taiwan-made JET 1024. The chuck has two sets of jaws, so there are no holes now.

Has anyone tried that?

[Dr Stan]

The short answer is no, the jaws are too hard. That said you could have internal threads cut with an EDM (die sinker or vertical type). It will not be cheap so you may be better off buying a new chuck with reversible jaws.

[gr8life]

I think the good Dr. is correct. Buy an import or used chuck if you are going to make soft jaws, since soft jaws are always a good way to go. If you go this route make a bunch of top jaws and make them so you can cut & recut many times.
just my opinion
thanks
ed

[topct]

I want to do the same thing. Having used them before on a Taig chuck I want them on a new 3 jaw that I got for my SB.

I don't see a problem with trying to anneal them except for maybe having them warp?

[SGW]

I doubt they are drillable,let alone tappable. You could try annealing, drill/tap, and reharden, but if it doesn't work you could be out a set of chuck jaws. If I wanted to try this, I think I'd find, if I could, another set of jaws that fit the chuck and experiment on those.

Have you any idea who made the chuck, and whether or not it complies with any chuck standard? You might be able to get ready-made two piece jaws for it.

[gwilson]

The hardening of those jaws is most likely only 1/16" deep. If you get a straight flute carbide drill,you can drill through the hard crust. Then,you can drill deeper and tap as you wish.

I have seen this done with American chuck jaws,and am pretty sure you won't see Taiwan chuck jaws hardened any deeper.

I drilled right through the 1/16" deep case hardening on Thompson linear bearing rod just fine. Then,drilled and tapped the soft core. Must have drilled a dozen holes in it with a carbide starter drill.