Truing work in the 4 jaw chuck

[thestelster]

Now I position the indicator tip into the part, with at least several revolutions of the dial. And put it to zero
-finger in the chuck, rotate it 180 degrees, what does the indicator read, in this case its 20, therefore center is half way between 0 and 20, which in this particular case is 35. (Dont worry about the numbers too much, just know you have to move half of the total movement)
-go back to the zero, finger in the chuck, and adjust the jaw until the needle moves to 35
-just keep your finger in the chuck and keep rotating the chuck 180 degrees, loosening and tightening until the needle points to 35 at both opposing jaws.
- adjust dial indicator to show zero
- now work on the opposite set of jaws, finger in the chuck, back and forth adjusting to zero
-Now that everyting is at zero, or within a couple thou, start tightening, only working on one opposing set of jaws at a time, and adjust to zero.
The whole process should take less than a couple minutes.

I think we need to do the 4-jaw Challenge. No 3-jaws allowed for a month!!

 

[Susquatch]

I think we need to do the 4-jaw Challenge. No 3-jaws allowed for a month!!

Count me in! Only 4 jaws allowed for one month!

Nah.... Two months!

My collet chuck won't be happy though..... Can I at least keep her oiled?

 

[PaulL]

Count me in! Only 4 jaws allowed for one month!

My chucks are so annoying to change that the 4-jaw basically lives on the lathe.
If there's any center mark on the work I start by getting it close using the foot stock center. Then I move to an indicator on a magnetic base on my carriage. That makes setting the dial to zero easier, especially with a DTI. It's pretty quick splitting the differences.

 

[Susquatch]

My chucks are so annoying to change that the 4-jaw basically lives on the lathe.

My 5C collet chuck lives on my lathe 80% of the time. I put the 3 jaw on mostly to use bigger stock than a collet can handle. I use custom spider chucks more than I use my big 4 jaw so this will be fun!

 

[140mower]

Count me in! Only 4 jaws allowed for one month!

Nah.... Two months!

My collet chuck won't be happy though..... Can I at least keep her oiled?

Put the collet chuck in the 4 jaw...

 

[trevj]

The method shown by thestelster, is really close to what I was explaining in print previously. I only see two things he does different, one is he has the indicator at the front, I like to have it at the back. Having a bigger lathe makes his set-up work, I just got used to planting the indicator out the back side of the lathe. Leaves the front clear to use the chuck key without interfering with the indicator and mount.

After eyeballing the work in, I like to move my cross slide until the needle points towards the chuck at mid swing, so the needle position is being adjusted towards 'center' as well as the amount of swing of that needle, is being reduced.

 

[trevj]

Put the collet chuck in the 4 jaw...

Put the 4 jaw in the three jaw, in the collet chuck!

What are ya? Some kind of wussy? LOL!

 

[Susquatch]

Put the collet chuck in the 4 jaw...

That would be cheating as it would only need to centered once.....

 

[140mower]

That would be cheating as it would only need to centered once.....

I can see you aren't a politician..... Lol

 

[Chicken lights]

I can see you aren't a politician..... Lol

I almost bit on that one...

but I’m behaving

 

[140mower]

I almost bit on that one...

but I’m behaving

Hmmmm, we were under the impression that wasn't possible...... Impressive!
..... back to hiding under my rock on the fringe of civilization.....

 

[trevj]

Hmmmm, we were under the impression that wasn't possible...... Impressive!
..... back to hiding under my rock on the fringe of civilization.....

Fringe?

Geez, man, it's not like it's an hour's drive to find a street light! LOL!

Though I might tend to agree, if you were saying that here, isn't very civilized!

Gotta say, when I moved away, we didn't have any of the big city ammenities, like a homless shelter or a food bank! No we do! Civilization is closing in!

 

[Chicken lights]

Hmmmm, we were under the impression that wasn't possible...... Impressive!
..... back to hiding under my rock on the fringe of civilization.....

When you’re trying to get away with shady things

The last thing you do is imply you’re doing shady things

Stay with us, grasshopper, we’ll be your guiding light

 

[trevj]

I k

When you’re trying to get away with shady things

The last thing you do is imply you’re doing shady things

Stay with us, grasshopper, we’ll be your guiding light

I know him well enough to suggest if he were doing anything in the shade, he'd bump his head, and be asking first aid questions!

 

[140mower]

I k

I know him well enough to suggest if he were doing anything in the shade, he'd bump his head, and be asking first aid questions!

 

[trevj]

View attachment 31788

He had hair, until the lights went out!

Just saying! LOL!

 

[a smile]

I was putting a pulley into the 4 jaw so I can bore out it's already oversized bore and make it fit my motor. The pulley has a 1" bore and the motor has a 7/8" shaft. Going to have to run the lathe in reverse pretty quickly to put that much back into the bore.....
I thought as we have quite a few new members I would start a thread on truing up parts in the 4 jaw, and hopefully we can find a few different odd ball setups to post up pictures of that will show how useful the 4 jaw is.
I'll start with how I pick up a bore or center punch mark (using a smaller center of course) and dial it in.
View attachment 31419
This is a good method for centering the bore, when the outside is out of round for whatever reason.

This is a very effective way to find out -- another good way to learn, thanks.

I rarely use 4 PAWS because it takes too much time to clamp, so I try to make the 3 PAWS more centered.

However, if the accuracy requirement is very high, must be 4 claws to do precision.

 

[a smile]

View attachment 31788

Is this a picture of you? I like to see my real mechanical friends -- handsome little old men ----

I have a slightly faster method, which can achieve a fast and more accurate way to find the center. It is difficult to describe the whole language. I will send another post to explain it briefly tomorrow, hoping to help you

 

[Susquatch]

This is a very effective way to find out -- another good way to learn, thanks.

I rarely use 4 PAWS because it takes too much time to clamp, so I try to make the 3 PAWS more centered.

However, if the accuracy requirement is very high, must be 4 claws to do precision.

I'm not sure you can appreciate the humour @a smile, but I think you wrote that specifically for me! I smiled and laughed and then laughed some more!

If you research sasquatch you might see the joke! I have claws and paws, but chucks have jaws not really paws. This has to be one one of the funniest translation things I've seen in a while! It's gunna show up all over the place from now on! This crowd loves a good laugh!

The joke is all on me of course!

And if you did it on purpose, it's even funnier!

 

[140mower]

Is this a picture of you? I like to see my real mechanical friends -- handsome little old men ----

I have a slightly faster method, which can achieve a fast and more accurate way to find the center. It is difficult to describe the whole language. I will send another post to explain it briefly tomorrow, hoping to help you

Perhaps not the best picture of me, but yes, that ugly mug is mine.