best place for your lathe chuck key

[road]

simple but effective.

it is a learned behavior to replace the chuck key
the more you do it the easier it is to remember, so practice practice ..... :lmao:

 

[TOOLMASTER]

Yea they are all made by same peeps

That is extremely similar to the Emco, even down to the "casette deck" electrical control.

As for where I keep my chuck key... I keep it on the wall directly behind the lathe. If I don't see it hanging on the wall, I don't start the lathe.

Paul.

 

[pineyfolks]

My chuck key is hanging behind the lathe. For my smaller lathe and drill chuck keys and small wrenches I use those a magnetic bowl. I don't care for a key hanging from a cord on a drillpress, to much swarf

 

[Analias]

I started keeping it on the magnetic strip on this shelf. I like the idea of having a spring loaded sleeve that makes it impossible to leave in the chuck. That's one of my future projects.

 

[samthedog]

Yea they are all made by same peeps

Enco maybe, but not Emco. Emco are Austrian and they stopped making the Maximat V10 quite a few years ago.

 

[Codered741]

The best place for a lathe chuck key, is its home, which should be the same place every time, unless it is in your hand. Make it a little ritual to check, or even touch the chuck key in its holder, before starting the spindle. When you take it out of its home, it should not leave your hand until it goes back into its home.

I have a hole in the bench, next to the power switch for my mini lathe, which I check every time I start it. I know a guy that actually wired a switch to sense the key being in its place, which would stop the lathe from starting if it wasn't there.

I am very wary of chuck keys, had one fly out of a 15" lathe, across the room, bounce off the mill that I was working on, and into my face while I was in school. The safety glasses I was wearing are the only reason I still have both eyes. :whistle: It embedded itself into a 1/2" piece of plywood after bouncing off my face. It is still there as a reminder to everyone who walks into the room.

-Cody

 

[furpo]

Why hasn’t someone built a holder with a proximity switch built into it so the lathe will not operate without the key in the proper holder?
Would be easy to do!

After thinking about this I think I will implement this at work tomorrow. I know exactly which guy is going to get the assignment!
The only one that has ever left it in the chuck! To my knowledge!

 

[donthack]

has anyone figured out how to power up thier machine through a treadmill switch, should be a few left over from drill press conversions. Then all you would have to do is attach the chuck key to the treadmill key.

 

[jbrubaker911]

Like a few other people on this post have experienced, I had a chuck key make a very hurried departure. Happily only a sore finger and a bruised ego. My solution isn't pretty but it works. I fabricated an arm projecting out from the wall behind the lathe, two small pulleys, some parachute cord, and a counter weight. Reach up, grab it, pull it down, tighten or loosen the chuck, release it, and it parks itself up out of the way. Works for me.

 

[pestilence]

The best idea I've seen here is the spring collar. I'm doing that to mine. I am trying to make a habit of always lifting the cover on my Logan to release the belt tension and spin the chuck by hand to ensure I have clearance before starting it. I've been pretty good so far but that didn't stop me from starting it with the spindle locked the other day. If the belt hadn't slipped, I'd have had to replace some gears, I'm sure. I assume some day I will eventually launch a chuck key without something to ensure I don't.