# Revisiting the Cheap eBay Collet Chuck | It's Pretty Bad



## PeterT (Jan 29, 2022)

Interesting teardown of 5C chuck after short, easy lifespan. Not saying they are all like this but shows where they cut some major corners. Unfortunately with chucks, you live & die by the scroll & pinion assembly. I've seen some similar vids where people open up & say 'oh they left grinding dust in there'. Maybe that too, but you often can see shiny irregular wear surfaces once its been cleaned kind of implicating the 'dust' is probably the parts consuming themselves over time. A clean & lube job is always good, but it won't harden parts or correct geometry. My one Gator chuck was intermittently sticky. There were machining burrs here & there & the threads were not awesome. Fortunately the surfaces were not very hard as evidenced by a file so I worked it with abrasives & Dremel. Runs better now. Sometimes they are kind of like a 'kit' you have to work on. Mostly it sits on the RT but I think I'd get a little grumpy if it were my everyday lathe chuck.


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## Darren (Jan 29, 2022)

Saw that this morning. Those gears are pretty horrible, but it was the cheapest 5c chuck on ebay... Problem is, those gears will strip, and it'll happen in the middle of a job. Just absolute garbage.


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## deleted_user (Jan 29, 2022)

PeterT said:


> Interesting teardown of 5C chuck after short, easy lifespan. Not saying they are all like this but shows where they cut some major corners. Unfortunately with chucks, you live & die by the scroll & pinion assembly. I've seen some similar vids where people open up & say 'oh they left grinding dust in there'. Maybe that too, but you often can see shiny irregular wear surfaces once its been cleaned kind of implicating the 'dust' is probably the parts consuming themselves over time. A clean & lube job is always good, but it won't harden parts or correct geometry. My one Gator chuck was intermittently sticky. There were machining burrs here & there & the threads were not awesome. Fortunately the surfaces were not very hard as evidenced by a file so I worked it with abrasives & Dremel. Runs better now. Sometimes they are kind of like a 'kit' you have to work on. Mostly it sits on the RT but I think I'd get a little grumpy if it were my everyday lathe chuck.



I haven't seen this video yet, but I saw James' original.

I guess I should make my drawbar and 5C to MT5 adapter after all because my brothers chuck wont last as long as he'd hoped  I figure I can make mine for far less than the cost of the chuck too. In fact I can make two adapters and drawbars for less than the cost of the chuck and then have one handy in case I buy a 1216GH lathe


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## Tom Kitta (Jan 29, 2022)

I have similar 5C Chinese chuck. No big issues. It could be machined better but once I have a grinding setup I grind it to few tenths so runout is minimal. Had it apart, I do not have the needle bearing. I had collets in and out a lot, I spin the chuck with a drill so the actual gear must have moved few hundred times, maybe a 1000+ so the pinions have moved round maybe 10,000 times each. 

Main deal is not to use it too hard i.e. the pinion is not made of something super - if you man handle it you may deform the teeth. They are delicate. The whole thing has mechanism of a 5" chuck so I don't see why anyone would think its like "hard to kill". 

Overall for the price I paid new it was a great deal, highly recommended, great buy. Just don't expect miracles for the price. I suspect it will have long life in a home shop as long as its not abused. 

The scroll I do not think is cut at all, I think it is pressed or similar - there does not seem to be any tool marks.


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## PeterT (Jan 29, 2022)

I think they vary & that's the problem. All we know for sure is they come from over there. Some look decent & others not. I think the pinions & scroll are die forged. Sometimes the scroll is ground on the edges & others I've seen are not. Mostly the pinions are not finished beyond forged. Which is OK if the finish is good, but that varies too. Clough42 scroll is badly messed up, a real Monday model. You could do better with a hand grinder blindfolded. Maybe just unlucky.


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## PeterT (Jan 29, 2022)

TorontoBuilder said:


> In fact I can make two adapters and drawbars for less than the cost of the chuck and then have one handy in case I buy a 1216GH lathe


Show me what you have in mind for drawbar. I don't know much about them. I assumed the lever styles were quick acting like for chucker mode but when I tighten my 5C collet block I can see it takes a bit of gronk so maybe its a cam principle? Does yours tighten by threading? What keeps the left side concentric with the spindle tube to mate the 5MT/5C adapter part?


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## deleted_user (Jan 30, 2022)

PeterT said:


> Show me what you have in mind for drawbar. I don't know much about them. I assumed the lever styles were quick acting like for chucker mode but when I tighten my 5C collet block I can see it takes a bit of gronk so maybe its a cam principle? Does yours tighten by threading? What keeps the left side concentric with the spindle tube to mate the 5MT/5C adapter part?


Tightens by threading the drawbar over the 5C collet thread, and will use a wide hand wheel to provide leverage rather than a cam lever. I prefer simple. 

However, with electric torque wrenches becoming ubiquitous I may just use one of those. I'll first test on a cheap collet though


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## deleted_user (Jan 30, 2022)

PeterT said:


> Show me what you have in mind for drawbar. I don't know much about them. I assumed the lever styles were quick acting like for chucker mode but when I tighten my 5C collet block I can see it takes a bit of gronk so maybe its a cam principle? Does yours tighten by threading? What keeps the left side concentric with the spindle tube to mate the 5MT/5C adapter part?



I thought I may as well add an image...

Of the business end where the drawbar grabs the 5C collet and pulls the collet and adapter tight to the spindle. Sorry I had to cut off the drawbar to fit in this pic. The other end just has a handwheel clamped on using a keyless hub. My favourite method of mounting anything on a shaft pretty much


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## PeterT (Jan 30, 2022)

You mean something like this? Drawbar goes through the spindle tube & gets tightened with some sort of wheel on LHS of head stock?


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## gerritv (Jan 30, 2022)

I bought my 5C chuck with backplate from All Industrial. Very happy with it, great improvement over using a MT3 ER32 collect chuck in the spindle.
It gets tedious when ppl buy the cheapest they can find, and then bitch that it is not great quality. You weren't forced to buy the cheapest, it was a decision. Live with it.


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## Susquatch (Jan 30, 2022)

TorontoBuilder said:


> I thought I may as well add an image...
> 
> Of the business end where the drawbar grabs the 5C collet and pulls the collet and adapter tight to the spindle. Sorry I had to cut off the drawbar to fit in this pic. The other end just has a handwheel clamped on using a keyless hub. My favourite method of mounting anything on a shaft pretty much
> 
> View attachment 20515



Although I probably could, I don't really feel comfy making an MT5 to 5C Collet holder like that. I'd prefer to simply buy one. But I have not found even a cheap one let alone a good one. So I may end up making one too. 

I don't see the drawbar as a big issue. But your hand wheel does interest me. How does that work?


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## deleted_user (Jan 30, 2022)

PeterT said:


> You mean something like this? Drawbar goes through the spindle tube & gets tightened with some sort of wheel on LHS of head stock?


Precisely.

IIRC a drawbar and adapter can be used on lathes that have a MT4.5 or larger. Of course the spindle bore also matters.  You'd have to have enough meat on your drawbar to machine internal thread and still have tensile strength


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## deleted_user (Jan 30, 2022)

gerritv said:


> I bought my 5C chuck with backplate from All Industrial. Very happy with it, great improvement over using a MT3 ER32 collect chuck in the spindle.
> It gets tedious when ppl buy the cheapest they can find, and then bitch that it is not great quality. You weren't forced to buy the cheapest, it was a decision. Live with it.


yeah on a lathe with a distance between centers of 24" or greater the extra chuck projection doesn't matter too much. I'm trying to see how I could maximize the usable distance between centers of just 16".


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## deleted_user (Jan 30, 2022)

Susquatch said:


> Although I probably could, I don't really feel comfy making an MT5 to 5C Collet holder like that. I'd prefer to simply buy one. But I have not found even a cheap one let alone a good one. So I may end up making one too.
> 
> I don't see the drawbar as a big issue. But your hand wheel does interest me. How does that work?


Our 5C chuck is okay on our larger lathe. We don't use it often enough to kill it quickly. My brother picked it up after watching a youtube video by who I thought was clough42 but it turns it was stefan gotteswinter.

I'm not sure what makes you uncomfortable making such an adapter. It is really not too difficult. I rely on Joe Pieczynski's method of setting precise angles on the compound. 






I've made an couple ER40 collet chucks that turned out really well thx to Joe.

Let me get a graphic for what I mean about attaching handwheel to shaft. I use same technique to mount 6" cylinder to 1" shaft.


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