I have a Chinese (Harbor Freight branded) 9x20 lathe that I purchased from ChicagoX (RIP? :() quite a long time ago (a year and a half at least?), and I finally want to get around to using it. It's finally down in my messy "workshop" basement.
One problem I have is that although the lathe came with a bunch of extra parts, I don't have inside jaws. Actually I have two sets of the outside jaws.
So my first question, of which there will be many over the next few months. is can I just purchase a set of these and they will drop in and be centered? $45 is hard to stomach considering I can get a whole chuck set for a little over twice that price.
If you open up the jaws all the way, they should fall out. At that point, you might be able to may be able to reverse them. I know that the Sherline and Taig chucks do that.
They can't be reversed. I've had good luck with ordering a part for the lathe before, but I read that each jaw is custom fitted for a specific chuck. It would suck to scrap the whole chuck because the jaws were misplaced though. I did find a 4" chuck with both sets of jaws on Amazon for $77 though.
Well I ordered up a whole new chuck after taking measurements of the adapter plate. Of course getting the current chuck off was a pain, and I managed to drop it on the ways A few nicks, but they shouldn't be detrimental.
if we could see better photos of the lathe, you might find the chuck Jaws there. ( i have the Combo Lathe/mill unit in my home shop, and the Chuck jaws looks the same as yours. )
good to see that you’re getting going with your lathe, I’m looking forward to seeing what you make with it. I personally would have suggested that you buy a 4 jaw independent for it first, much more versatile and not that hard to use with a bit of practice.
For everyday normal stuff a 4 jaw chuck is a serious pain in the ass. Nice to have available when needed, sure, but you wouldn't want to use it for everything.
comfy, we’ll have to agree to disagree. Takes me less than a minute to get something dialed in within a thou using the 2 key method. Given that even decent 3 jaw scroll chucks struggle to hit 0.003 runout and the fact that you normally need to do several operations on a single piece when making a torch/ flashlight (eg. facing, turning down and threading both ends), I would have thought a 4 jaw would be ideal. Plus being able to hold odd shaped parts and doing offset turning.
I’m not saying a 3 jaw isn’t useful (I’d like to get my ancient one faced and ground true at some point), but if you can only have 1 chuck, I’d go with a 4 jaw.
I got the new 3-jaw, seems nice. Came with a data sheet with runout data as tested. A 4-jaw would have been nice though. Ah well. I shouldn't need a precision face on both sides of the piece I'm going to be working on now.
So I have to clean and lubricate the chuck. I was going to use a high moly CV axle grease in the internal gearing, and just use oil on the scroll and jaws. I know opinions vary on the oil to use, but I had some leftover non-detergent air compressor oil that I used on the ways. Think that would be fine?
I have no idea. I dont recall ever lubricating mine. It always has coolant getting into it. i'd be hesitant to put anything to heavy where the jaws go in as swarf etc will stick to it making a good grinding paste. Just my opinion though.
I tell lies. On the mill chuck I just used heavy gear oil as I haven't used coolant on it.
one tip that I’ve read is to use a light(ish) oil, slather it everywhere, put a ziploc bag over the chuck and tap it in place, then run it at full speed for a few minutes. That’ll fling out all the excess but make sure there’s enough on the different surfaces. Grease I’m not sure about, at most on the back side of the scroll and pinions, basically anywhere chips aren’t likely to get.
Well I will have to make due with the way it is now and just get some practice in on the lathe. Got the new chuck greased up inside, oiled up, and spun it at the max RPM's with a box over it to catch the oil. The runout is horrible, like visually horrible. There's .003" at the start of the chuck, it's easy to see that the backing plate is the issue. So either it wasn't machined, or the bearings are bad in the headstock?
A few nicks, but they shouldn't be detrimental.