Cheap soft jaws for a 3 jaw chuck

[bazmak]

I have wanted soft jaws on a no of occations but they are difficult/expensive to buy
and cutting the spiral teeth are beyond me.With buying the 3 myford lathes and restoring
i have collected a no accessories etc,one of which was a 5" 3 jaw chuck with no adaptor plate
and only outside jaws.I had been planning to incorporate in a box of bits and pieces with the
Myford sale. During one of my design sessions (in bed just before i fall asleep) i started toying
with the idea of fixing soft laws to the existing outside jaws. So today with the sun shining i
made a start.Dont know how it will turn out and what problems i will have,i may end up with egg on my face. The jaws are hard but can be cut with a file so i am hoping they will drill and tap
Rather than make all 3 ,i am going to make and fit 1 to see what problems i have.I am hoping
not to make too many changes to the existing jaws,so the soft jaws can just be removed from the front.Hopefully the chuck can be used with changing /removing the external jaws.Nothing to lose

 

[goldstar31]

I'm a bit of a Doubting Thomas but can you actually drill and tap these jaws?

Kindest regards

Norman

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Barry,

I've needed soft jaws on several occasions to use on my S7, this is how I did it...
I used some 40 mm diameter alloy bar, parted off slices thick enough to go on to the jaw teeth. Drilled a 16.5 mm hole for the jaw to pass through, then drilled and tapped for a 1/4" BSW screw. Fit to the jaws close the chuck so that it grips the new jaws and secure with the screw.

 

[goldstar31]

'Morning John

Now I can see the logic in your method. Actually, this is more or less one way of improving worn lathe jaws. Smaller diameters- of course.
Perhaps, I'm wandering off course a bit but I seem to recall a lot of Martin Cleeve writing in Model Engineer mag.
about altering the jaws by grinding.

Kind regards to you and Barry

N

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Norman, Barry,

Grinding three jaw chucks is OK if you want accuracy at one particular
diameter ! Otherwise the right way is soft jaws, even then the above
applies. The only difficulty I have with aluminium jaws is that they
soon get damaged, particularly if you are gripping a threaded
component.

 

[goldstar31]

I really need a thin piece collet chuck but probably the next best thing is a shellac based glue- This was beloved of the even older brigade. I have some shellac , incidentally.

However technologies change things and there is easily available glue gun guns and sticks. However, I've been replacing a polyethylene drive belt on my Quorn T&C which is almost all de-rusted and with the addition of some lost parts is usable.

So that's the preamble because going the belt was a right 'bar steward.' I finished up with a jig made from my VBlocks and a clean soldering iron-- and a modicum of choice French swear words.

So what is today's choice to 'stick things down' but easily removed on completion?

Regards

Norman

 

[abby]

Superglue ,Loctite , Araldite all work if used correctly and a little heat removes all!

 

[Blogwitch]

Getting away a bit from making your own, if ever you buy a new chuck, either a 3 or 4 jaw self centering you should be able to buy ready made soft jaws for them at very reasonable prices (around £25, $35 bucks per set).
I have now well over 10 chucks in my collection (self centering) and all of them have soft jaws, from the small myford sized up to the larger ones that came with my lathe. I won't buy a chuck now unless soft jaws are available for it.
Because I stick with one make of chuck, it means that I have duplicate soft jaws that will fit several chucks, but this really works out well when boring them out to fit the job, usually I have something in one of the sets that is very close to what is required, so not a lot of boring needed. I also bore and use soft jaws on my mill when using the RT, dividing head or spin indexer as well as the lathe. It makes gettting precision machining well into the range of the beginning user for very little money or experience.
I just wish that I could get soft jaws for my cheap chinese six jaw SC. That would make high precision work available for very thin wall components.

John

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guys,

The method of making soft jaws as I described is ideal for holding very thin work pieces. You just need to close the chuck jaws, then turn a recess just a little smaller than the work, say 100 thou, 1/10" inch to what ever depth you need. I have done this a number of times to make thin items thinner.

 

[BaronJ]

Norman, for round solid polythene belts, I use a flame to melt the ends and a "V" block to square them up.
Melt the ends and shove them together using the "V" block. Trim as needed with a scalpel.

 

[Anatol]

On the subject of adhesives, what about some of the varieties of double sided tape or 'snail trail' ? (essentially the adhesive without the tape)?

On the subject of soft jaws - what about HDPE, Nylon, Delrin? (I've made such for vise jaws, but not chucks) Easily milled to fit.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Anatol,

Essentially you can make soft jaws as I described from any suitable material. Many plastics could be used, indeed most metals not just aluminium. I only used that because it was handy.

With regard to adhesives, I've used various things to stick workpieces to mill tables, faceplates and each other. Solder is particularly handy when machining con rod ends.

 

[goldstar31]

I took time off to look at Tubal Cain's ( T.D.Walshaw') articles which appeared in Model Engineer and now have been amalgamated in in his Simple Workshop Devices book.

I did find the recipe for the watchmaker's/ woodturner's glue but also the quite extensive use that he made of 'bits of wood'

Which all prompts me to make his Gibraltar tool post for which I have the casting( somewhere)
\
Cheers

N

 

[bazmak]

Thanks for all the input Guys. I have seen the common method of making bolt on pieces for the jaws but wanted to
make full soft jaws without having to cut the spiral teeth. Just finding a use for this oddball chuck without letting
it go for nothing.Time will tell if i can drill and tap the jaws Norm.They do appear soft enough to file.More important
things to think of at the moment ,my computer is playing up and had to empty and reload windows.Just got back to
this site,having difficulty remembering passwords etc.Next problem is to find my old emails and addresses

 

[goldstar31]

G'morning Barry. It certainly would be interesting to learn if you can drill and tap. Please keep us or me posted!

As for computers, I got utterly fed up with newer Window s and especially Windows 10. I've gone Apple, Apple and more Apple. I still don't understand the so and so things apart from an emergency phone call perhaps but it does seem better. I liked the old Windows which suited my old thoughts etc.

Incidentally, I'm now approaching the Quorn T&C working again- de-rusted most of it and sort of more or less agreed with Baron about the belting. The old belting simply frayed, I'm afraid.

I've bought one of these posher 2nd hand cameras and eventually I might understand it too.

Back to my mound of medications

Cheers

N

 

[BaronJ]

Good Morning Guys,
Barry: You might find that you have to anneal the jaws to thread them ! Drilling holes might not be so much of a problem, particularly with a carbide drill bit. You might have to resort to grub screws through the sides.

Norman: I dumped Windows years ago ! I use Linux and have never had any of the problems that plague other operating systems. One really big advantage of Linux is "Live CD's". You simply boot from the CD and surf the net from there. You can do many other things too ! But since you cannot write to a once written CD, nasties are pretty much irrelevant.

The Apple OS is based on a Unix system, not unlike Linux, as is Android.

 

[goldstar31]

John

Thanks but my 'surviving' Windows7 laptop hasn't got a CD facility. Clearly, I'm clueless.
I actually used the W7 thing as 'library' to help solve some of the Apple mysteries.

N

 

[DJP]

Plus one for Linux. Your avatar of the cartoon penguin gives you away.

My general rule for on-line health is to avoid doing any financial transactions and to delete anything that asks me to open a file.

 

[DJP]

Barry, instead of drilling your chuck jaws another approach might be to weld or braze on a piece of steel that is already threaded to hold your aluminium covers. If you don't like the results just grind the attachment off and start again. Drilling hardened jaws my be possible but tapping is sure to cause a problem. At least for me it's a weakness of the taps that I have. They break too easily.

Take care.

 

[bazmak]

The jaws are solid mild steel with the intension of just unbolting them.If tapping is a no no then alternatives
will be to grub screw clamp from the sides or even stitch weld as a last reort.Just going out to the shed now to do a little more