Set Tru Gloat + Machining

[The Metal Butcher]

dayum, now that is a beautiful chuck! Your local machinery dealer wouldn't happen to have a 6" 4 jaw that he'd be interested in swapping for wishes and warm feelings would he?

As a matter of fact we do have one. Buck, 6". Has a 1 3/4-8 backplate currently on it. Looks to be in pretty nice shape. Downside: it needs an jaw screw with internal square built. If that doesn't scare you, send me a PM. Jaws and hardware exist, just stored in a gojo can and not pictured.

[Ironbearmarine]

“So yeah. Now we've got a giant ass 6 jaw I guess. It does have a few downsides. One being that I cannot lift it. I barely got it on there without the backplate, which is like 27 lbs or something. The whole setup is probably at least 140 lbs. So building a chuck-lifter is in order. Need one of those fancy skyhook style scroll chuck lifters as well. The other disadvantage is that the lathe really struggles to get it up to speed, especially with an undersized phase converter. Should prove to be useful though. Both the chuck and backplate are steel, and are rated to 1500 RPM, so that's a nice advantage. Doozer what says you? I know you think 6 jaws are overrated. “

i once made an overhead trolly using sliding barn door track and skates with a little electric cable winch to move chucks and material from lathe, to mill, and to a tool cart. Load capacity was about 400 pounds but i rarely exceeded 200. Cost about $50 but that was 30 years ago.

[mattthemuppet]

As a matter of fact we do have one. Buck, 6". Has a 1 3/4-8 backplate currently on it. Looks to be in pretty nice shape. Downside: it needs an jaw screw with internal square built. If that doesn't scare you, send me a PM. Jaws and hardware exist, just stored in a gojo can and not pictured.

that would be totally awesome, thanks! No worries on the jaw screw, that'll be a neat challenge. I was going to say that I was good, until I got my "package" in the mail. The Buck chuck that was supposed to be in there was gone and the Skinner chuck is damaged almost beyond use So, let me know what you want for the Buck and I'll get a check/paypal/venmo on its way. Really bummed right now - who would have thought to put 2 6" chucks in a medium flat rate box with a couple of sheets of newspaper as padding?





I thought it was too good to be true, looks like it was..

[The Metal Butcher]

Oof. That is some shameful packaging. Ouch. Sorry you had such a lousy experience. Ebay seller?

[mattthemuppet]

yes, sadly. Looks like I'll be getting a full refund, so that's taken the sting out of it. Maybe I should look for good condition Skinner 4 jaw chuck bodies

[The Metal Butcher]

So round two on the set-tru quest and a little more home shop sized. This one is truly po-boy **** this time.

To start with, the chuck is a 7.5" Buck 3 jaw set-tru this time. Didn't really have a need for it, but too nice to sell. Dad and I figured we'd make a backplate for it for the Rockwell.

Didn't have any cast iron or steel stock that big, but did have a 15 lb weight plate.

Rough turned it in the Sidney



Yummy



Pretty good weight plate. Definitely some porosity in the center, but doesn't matter much.

I also threaded it in the Sidney. First time internal threading (somehow), first time using leadscrew reverse. I love the auto-stop. Home made boring bar, ground HSS. Maybe it was just the cast iron, but this is one of my best ever threads. I lucked out I guess. No juicy macro shots as I forgot my camera.



(I of course finish turned it mounted on the Rockwell.)

I test fit the size with a crappy go/no-go gauge I'd made for our spindle.



The backside didn't exactly clean up, but I wanted to leave as much metal on there as possible. I guess it's origins will forever be known. :O

[The Metal Butcher]

Did a little hole-patterning with the DRO. That's gotta be my favorite feature.



And done! That was a fun project.





The result was a way better than I expected. For doing much of the machine work on the worn out Sidney, this thing runs great! I found it repeatable to within 3 tenths on an endmill shank, whether I remounted the chuck or the part. I'm sure it doesn't hold that over various diameters, but damn, that's alright! I think that might even be better than our six.

It's kinda big for the Rockwell, but I've got other plans as well for this thing. I really want an MT4 revolving tailstock chuck, and I think this is the perfect candidate. I'll have to see how much Clark Easterling wants for a casting. Otherwise find a big hunk of steel or cast.

[mattthemuppet]

very cool! Funny that the set-tru boss on the backplate gives you enough depth for the spindle threads that the register is flush with the back of the chuck. Makes it look like the back plate went on backwards

[The Metal Butcher]

Yeah, I probably could have turned a bit more off the back to make that characteristic boss. I figured I'd leave it thick for maximum rigidity. Which, thinking of it now, is probably a joke on that little 1 1/2-8 spindle. I could always remove some if I wanted to. It definitely looks a little funny being totally flat back.

[macona]

Nice. I use my 6” buck 6 jaw for everything. There was some people here that said just save them for special things so you don’t wear it out. I will never use this chuck enough to wear it out.