Sherline Lathe Chuck

[Corradob]

The Sherline Lathe is a good product...but the 3 jaw chuck is it's weak point. I've had enough of Hex stock working loose and jamming up the motor/cutting tool.
It only happens with Hexagonal rods...interrupted cut and vibrations throw the jaws outwards and boom! It happens no matter how tight the jaws are.
So...has anyone made an adapter and fitted a "proper" chuck?

 

[petertha]

I don't have a Sherline lathe but I use one in a Sherline rotary table which I hold in my 5" mill vise as an expedient way to make fiddly parts vs breaking out my bigger RT. If there is what I'd call a limitation its the low height of the jaws, there just isn't much grip surface. You can buy taller jaws / soft jaws but they are not cheap & I think you have to measure your existing for them to match properly... something along those lines. If you are throwing hex parts I'd say maybe pushing it beyond its limits or the scroll has possibly become distorted if it was gronked.

I have purchased a 100mm chuck brand name Harlingen which I use for fixturing & also using their 5C backplate arbor for my SpinDexer. Its actually quite accurate & much more meaty jaws & chuck body. Also comes in 4J independent & 4J scroll. This may not d you any good if adapting to Sherline thread/spindle or whatever but just mentioning. BTW similar looking 100mm chucks on Ali & Ebay can be real garbage so its a bit of crap shoot. Which is why I mention this specific name. Anyway, check the return policy beforehand.

 

[ChazzC]

The stick-out and significantly higher mass of a conventional 3- (or 4-) jaw chuck is a concern. Have you tried reaching out to Sherline to see what they recommend? Perhaps the chuck is faulty?

Also, are you using the Sherline tommy bars the tighten the chuck (they’ll probably ask this also)?

 

[djc]

So...has anyone made an adapter and fitted a "proper" chuck?

It could be possible to make the argument that proper chucks have four jaws and are not self-centring.