Cheap soft jaws for a 3 jaw chuck

[bazmak]

I would like to try annealing the jaws Norm so i can drill and tap the other 2 as the first
What sort of heat do you think i would need.Dont have oxy acet but have a mapp gas bottle
Dont think it would be sufficent to heat the jaw to red heat but maybe local to the tapped hole
Its something i was going to try.Maybe drill with a carbide drill,try to anneal around the hole
before tapping.What are your thoughts.would the jaws be case hardended with maybe a softer centre
Your thoughts and others would be appreciated

 

[goldstar31]

The old classic way was to heat things up until they were carroty red and leave them in the dying ashes until next morning. My long gone father would have done that.

In a more sophisticated age, my guess is not oxy/acetylene( although I can find lots of others uses for it) is probably the barbecue set and to keep the heat going in the charcoal- until next day.

I'm going back a bit but recall in West Cumberland the Workington Beehive Cooperative Society. It was nothing to do with bees but beehive ovens where cast iron was kept heated until it could be converted to wrought iron.

Digressing further, I recall going down the copper mines on the Great Orme in Llandudno in North Wales. My father had been a sapper on Anglesey in WW1. I was intrigued to learn how the Romans smelted the copper as there was little sign of charcoal making. Apparently, they used local brushwood which got higher temperatures suitable!

Hey, Baz, I'm supposed to be an-ex bean counter. Mr Bean( same village in Durham)= dear Rowan and I sort of moved away from such things!

Anyway, hope this helps

N

 

[BaronJ]

Good Morning Guys,
I would just throw them into a forge or similar let them get to red heat and then bury them in dry sand, leave to go cold. The likelihood of them been just case hardened is low. In fact I would guess that the odd jaw had been missed at the factory and just slipped past QC.

I wouldn't try to re harden them, they might distort. Actually there is a risk that they might distort when they get upto red heat. Your call...

 

[Hessel Oosten]

Hi Barry,

Thanks a lot for the pictures of making your soft jaws.
Please could you do me (us ?) a favor and post one other photo:

The situation with these soft jaws mounted in your chuck.

I've still some problems how this looks/functions "in situ".

Thanks in advance,

Hessel

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Hessel,

The pictures you want are in post 31 !

 

[DJP]

I still like the idea of welding a stud to the jaws then retain the soft jaws with nut and lock washer. Heating steel relieves stresses which is a good thing just before final machining. However, if there are stresses still in the jaws they may not fit as well ever again once heated.

However, if you are serious about heating, charcoal in an hibachi BBQ with forced air from a small blower should get things to the colour you need.

I am assuming that this chuck was worn out before your change to soft jaws. I have a couple of chucks with worm scroll that only work for a fixed size of round stock after I bored the jaws for that size. I thank you for the idea to repurpose my worn out chucks.

 

[goldstar31]

DJP

You are missing the point at which I took great pains to explain. There is NO quick fix or one that I - or a world of older proper iron workers found.

Laughingly, there is no one who has suggested using a hot chisel! Obviously, I learned a great deal as child who could barely look over the anvil. Than both in time and thank my lucky stars that my father refused the last of the family then to go into engineering-- as it was.

In a real world, the cost of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear is £20 and no further energy is needed to be expended. What the REAL cost in time and energy do something 'questionably' workable remains to be ======admitted.

Regards

N

 

[bazmak]

Thanks for your comments.Just to reitterate.The chuck is good quality with little wear.I had little use for it as it only had outside jaws
and no adaptor plate. I am not taking the expensive/time consuming way to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.If successful then
a dedicated soft jaw chuck would be valuable/useable to me. To anneal the 2 jaws to red heat with my available equipment i feel
is beyond me,however i will give it try.More photos when i have finished Regards barry

 

[Piston_Broke]

I have had very good results just using paperboard, as in, the thick paper from the back of a note pad or cereal box. I can tighten the chuck and not leave marks in the material. It holds well enough for heavy cuts and parting.

 

[DJP]

DJP

You are missing the point at which I took great pains to explain. There is NO quick fix or one that I - or a world of older proper iron workers found.

Laughingly, there is no one who has suggested using a hot chisel! Obviously, I learned a great deal as child who could barely look over the anvil. Than both in time and thank my lucky stars that my father refused the last of the family then to go into engineering-- as it was.

In a real world, the cost of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear is £20 and no further energy is needed to be expended. What the REAL cost in time and energy do something 'questionably' workable remains to be ======admitted.

Regards

N

Norman, I defer to your age and experience but I don't understand what you are saying. Barry's project to add mild steel jaws (soft) to an existing chuck looked to me as a solution to a worn scroll where the jaws need to be bored for every job. Once used enough times they can be replaced and the chuck lives on. Changing the scroll and rebuilding the chuck doesn't make sense at prices for new chucks and I'm not suggesting that a set of add on jaws will make a worn chuck look new again.

A clarification of you parable is appreciated.

Regards

 

[goldstar31]

Probably I should 'chuck it'.

N

 

[bazmak]

Will answer again your comment Pisrol Broke.Any chuck can have a variety of materials in different sizes to be used to protect
items being turned. Soft jaws are a totally different concept for holding thin ring washers and pre turned parts securely
and accurately for machining.They are designed to be machined many,many times before being replaced. They can be made from a softer material
as a complete item with the scroll machined in them or they can be a bolted on item as i am doing.The external jaws were ideal
as most of the future machinable meat is in the correct area at the front internal diameter. Please dont confuse true soft jaws
with clip on metal protective covers

 

[bazmak]

Norm ,in answer to your dillema with a worn chuck.Using soft jaws should overcome the wear/inacuracy of the chuck
When the soft jaws are tightened on a piece of bar and the jaws machined to a certain dia to be turned then the chuck will
be accurate AT THAT DIAMETER only. Please comment if i am incorrect.But i think you can use your worn chuck
and fit soft jaws. If you can anneal the jaws then they can be machined flat and with a groove for screw fixing on a mild steel jaw
Just like the Sanou image i posted.Waste not want not Norm

 

[bazmak]

SUCCESS. Using a Mapp gas with oxygen i managed to heat the 2 jaws to cherry red local to the tapped holes
and

allowed to cool slowly while i played the flame on for about 10mins before the oxy ran out
Reading the instructions it says that the oxy will last 10 to 20mins.Dont think i will be buying many more
cylinders. However the jaws had annealed and i drill and tapped them.The front fixings are much superior than the side grubscrews
I skimmed the jaw pockets to get about 6 thou clear between the jaws and the face of the chuck.Then i mounted it in the lathe
and skimmed the jaws face an I/D and machined a 19 dia x 1mm deep pocket for the thrust washer to be opened up
Milled a rad and tidied up the jaws.Jobs a good one. This chuck will be stored away and only used as needed

 

[goldstar31]

Barry

Thank you but 'I' don't have ANY worn chucks. I bought the two sets of soft jaws to fit my Sieg4 simply because I wanted to hold thin disks for machining.

Again, regarding annealing and whatever, I was brought up in the blacksmith's shop literally out of a family which had been in engineering since the days of Stephenson. My great grandfather, grandfather, 2 uncles and my father all worked in metal.

I didn't! I studied and studied- when the rest of my herd were sort of enjoying themselves. I became a 'bean counter' and seemingly an extremely successful one who was able to retire at 55 years. I DID go back to school on retirement.

I did a City and Guilds in Motor Vehicle Restoration and became a Certified Welder on retirement. I should add- for the Hell of it!

I'm sorry if you have become somewhat confused. I'm playing with 'Model Engineering' as a way to keep my grey cells working.

The other way that I adopt to try to keep dementia at bay is that I work for much of my life concerned with charity.
I've just managed to get the local Ex-Forces half their immediate needs to stop closure. On Monday, I was having my usual check up, injections and whatever and got around to my Doctor's and his wife's thing about mental difficulties in young and under privedged young people in the area. There is a need- I know how they can get financial help in these difficult times.

I'm going to do it. Somebody pulled me out of the gutter many years ago, I'm trying to return the help that I received.

As for chucks and whatever- it's a game.
REAL life has greater needs.

Let's be clear

Regards

Norm

 

[clevinski]

SUCCESS.

Basmak, congrats! Really nice job!

 

[DJP]

Barry

Thank you but 'I' don't have ANY worn chucks. I bought the two sets of soft jaws to fit my Sieg4 simply because I wanted to hold thin disks for machining.

Again, regarding annealing and whatever, I was brought up in the blacksmith's shop literally out of a family which had been in engineering since the days of Stephenson. My great grandfather, grandfather, 2 uncles and my father all worked in metal.

I didn't! I studied and studied- when the rest of my herd were sort of enjoying themselves. I became a 'bean counter' and seemingly an extremely successful one who was able to retire at 55 years. I DID go back to school on retirement.

I did a City and Guilds in Motor Vehicle Restoration and became a Certified Welder on retirement. I should add- for the Hell of it!

I'm sorry if you have become somewhat confused. I'm playing with 'Model Engineering' as a way to keep my grey cells working.

The other way that I adopt to try to keep dementia at bay is that I work for much of my life concerned with charity.
I've just managed to get the local Ex-Forces half their immediate needs to stop closure. On Monday, I was having my usual check up, injections and whatever and got around to my Doctor's and his wife's thing about mental difficulties in young and under privedged young people in the area. There is a need- I know how they can get financial help in these difficult times.

I'm going to do it. Somebody pulled me out of the gutter many years ago, I'm trying to return the help that I received.

As for chucks and whatever- it's a game.
REAL life has greater needs.

Let's be clear

Regards

Norm

Congratulations on your 'Give Back' work. We must be at the same stage in life when health issues, staying mentally creative and giving back to society are important. I do the same.

Take care.

 

[bazmak]

Your play on words that you should chuck it maybe gave me the wrong impression that you had
a worn chuck.Buying 2 sets of soft jaws gave me the impression that you were more playing at it
Hope i have not upset you Norm

 

[goldstar31]

Actually, I'm off to see china, which might be a play on words or it might not. Obviously it is not everyone's cup of tea.

I want to come back to proper work refreshed.


Regards

N

Well before I even start 'holidays', I have just received an e-mail inviting me to a Chinese Wake.

It came with a set of instructions/recommendations on how to conduct myself at this sad time.
I'd been with my friend both here in the UK and then in HongKong.

Tomorrow, I sort of have to appear - bright eyed and bushy tailed for a sports car event. It'll be nice to see my son's Lotus Elise SE and my late wife's now my daughter in law's Mercedes SLK230

How do people have time for their own hobbies- or have a proper holiday?

N

 

[BaronJ]

Congratulations Barry, I seriously doubted that the chuck jaws would anneal at all, let alone enough for you to tap them. I took a good look at the pictures you posted and they look very nice. I wish that I would have had the confidence to have done that. So forgive me if I stick with my bits of aluminium bar.