lathe chuck back plate

[naijin]

Hi there, long time since I last posted here, I am about to purchase a new chuck for my grizzly metal lathe, I will be making a new back plate for it and was wondering if aluminium would be a good material to use rather than cast or steel? the reason for this is I have a good supply of aluminium but none of the other materials, has anyone made a back plate from aluminium? any ideas, cons and pros would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Nick

 

[bazmak]

My opinion No

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Nick, Barry,

Nothing wrong with making a backplate from aluminium as long as you use the full hard stuff. Just be aware that it is more likely to bind on the steel lathe mandrel threads, particularly if there is any oxidisation.

Realistically I would use cast iron first, mild steel next and stainless steel last.

 

[Chiptosser]

I don't think that it would be very durable for long term.

 

[JC54]

I have turned an aluminium face-plate for my little lathe and had real trouble with it binding onto the spindle. Have now turned one out of mild steel that I found in friends bit box no problem now. I used ally originally as I had a noggin of round bar left over the right diameter.

 

[goldstar31]

I have an unused three jaw chuck with an aluminium backplate. i bought it- perhaps on a whim but was assured that it had come from a cnc machine setup. The whole gubbins was a mere £30 that is with bearings and whatever.
Possibly I had a yen to put in on to the saddle of my Sieg but it came with a rather nice toothed pulley wheel.

Having said all this, there is a school which states that things ought NOT be done and I have a rather nice Stent tool and cutter grinder which was of welded construction but running on steel to steel on all the slides.

One has to be so careful about trusting people

I'll leave it at that and tick Barron a like

N

 

[Nibby2226]

Probably not the best material as it will wear and loose register with spindle nose, cast iron or steel would be better.

 

[reubenT]

Try it if it's too hard to get something better, use antiseize on all points of possible seizure. While aluminum is not as strong as iron, (I think there's an aircraft alloy that's real close) if it's not in a application that is all that critical it won't hurt to try it. It's not like someones life depends on it's flawless performance. I made mine from a mild steel plate with home made bar ring welded to it. The lathe is ancient lineshaft driven FEReed, the original scroll chuck was cracked and almost worthless. So I bought a 6 jaw 8" scroll chuck from Grizzly with reversible jaws and made a custom backing plate that would bolt on the threaded hub that fit the lathe. The ring was for the centering set screws to tighten against so I can adjust it to precision center.

 

[Apprentice707]

The faceplates supplied with a Myford ML8 wood turning lathe are made of aluminium and now being over 50 years old the threads have seized up on many occasions and have to be reshaped with a tap. I made my backplates out of steel or cast iron. Try online shopping sites for seasoned cast iron backplate blanks.

 

[naijin]

Thanks to all who replied, after reading all the posts I have decided to go with cast iron, I have found a couple of places that sell the blanks, I will be purchasing one very soon..... once again
thank you to all who replied.

Nick

 

[BaronJ]

The faceplates supplied with a Myford ML8 wood turning lathe are made of aluminium and now being over 50 years old the threads have seized up on many occasions and have to be reshaped with a tap. I made my backplates out of steel or cast iron. Try online shopping sites for seasoned cast iron backplate blanks.

I have had exactly the same issues with the faceplates on my ML8. I got sick of them getting hammered onto the mandrel and having to use a bar and rubber hammer to loosen them. In fact I have only recently fitted new bearings to mine and have already sold the 1Hp SP motor, the rest to follow.

 

[tractor162003]

What model is your grizzly metal lathe? Does the back-plate bolt to the spindle.

 

[Noel Gordon]

Hi there, long time since I last posted here, I am about to purchase a new chuck for my grizzly metal lathe, I will be making a new back plate for it and was wondering if aluminium would be a good material to use rather than cast or steel? the reason for this is I have a good supply of aluminium but none of the other materials, has anyone made a back plate from aluminium? any ideas, cons and pros would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Nick

Yes a good idea

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Noel,

It might be interesting to read the whole thread !
The consensus is that it would not be wise to use aluminium.

 

[dkwflight]

Do you know the spec for your spindle.
My enco has a 39 x 4mm thread spindle
I can buy pre threaded back plates from Little Machine shop, Wholesale tool. New England Brass and tool. and others as well
I know LMS has 6" partly machined in 6"

 

[Blogwitch]

I will tell you now, forget the ali one, the threads and locations are liable to distort under pressure as you use them. If you take the chuck off your spindle, you want it to go back onto the spindle exactly how it came off, the amount ali deflects and bends, after the first time of mounting, the chuck won't go back in the exact same position.

I have made my own backplates before now out of free cutting mild steel or cast iron, but by the time you have bought the material and got it machined to fit your machine, it just isn't worth the bother, buy yourself a pre-machined one and all you have to do is gently cut it down until it fits your chuck.
I use my lathe in two modes, D1-4 and Myford, even the heavily machined D1-4 only costs about 40 bucks and the Myford backplate about 20 bucks.
So as I said, by the time you add material costs, postage and machining, they are not worth making yourself.

John

 

[BaronJ]

Hi John,

Hope you are keeping well !

Like Norman, I do sometimes wonder if the advice we give is ever acted upon, folks rarely come back with updates.

 

[JC54]

BaronJ I really agree with that statement.
OK I am a "newbie" but have given a dimension (spindle nose thread) in a post and find person has completely disregarded it and is still asking for information/dimension???? You just cannot help some people,, usually HWMBO.....

 

[Wizard69]

While it has already been said I wouldn't do aluminum for a permanent solution. It just does not have the right wear characteristics, issues with thread pull out and other ills in this sort of application. On the other hand back plates are not welded on and can be changed at anytime.

Personally when I went to mount a a new 4 jaw chuck on my 9x20 I made a point to buy a back plate. Funny thing is that back plate fits better that the original 3 jaw that cam with the lathe. In this case the back plate I used was big enough in diameter that I will be able to drill indexing holes into it and not mess with the chuck itself.

 

[goldstar31]

There is a little known fact now but during WW2 in the Libyan Desert, proper Merlin engine bearings were non existent. Aluminium for bearings was a substitute. Was it any good? Well, we DID win.What more can be said?

Norm