Cushman 12" Lathe Chuck - Resurrected!

Bob Korves said:
Nice job, Martin. Here's hoping it work as good as it looks!
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Thanks Bob,
It was frozen solid with rust when I bought it...would not budge. Now it behaves like new with no play or slop...! I was holding my breath when I finally opened it up and was delighted to see very little rust or pitting inside. I gambled and it worked out.
 
I have a cushman 6 1/2" chuck for my 9" south bend wide bed. I made mine into a adjust through, works good just like my 5" buck.
 
Good lookin' chuck, and this comes from another good lookin CHuck.
What did you use to re-rustify it, obviously a lot of hand work, but chemically what did you use?
Glad to see that someone cared enough to keep the innards oiled and the water out.

CHuck the grumpy old guy
 
chuck10.jpg
ch2co said:
Good lookin' chuck, and this comes from another good lookin CHuck.
What did you use to re-rustify it, obviously a lot of hand work, but chemically what did you use?
Glad to see that someone cared enough to keep the innards oiled and the water out.

CHuck the grumpy old guy
Click to expand...

I used only WD40 to loosen things up for disassembly, then varsol for cleaning. The rust was eliminated thru wire wheels (various mounted on angle grinder, die grinder and bench grinder). I turned the OD and removed about 0.010", then trued the face on my surface grinder, which only has 6" Y travel so I mounted it on my rotary table, then ground from the center outward. This gave it a nice sun rays pattern from center outward. This chuck has a grease nipple installed and the inner parts were pretty caked in dry grease. Based on the degree of rust and pitting on the exterior, this chuck spent some time in a junk pile outside...can't see it getting that rusty inside. I also reground the side and reference faces of the three jaws. My priority was to attain trueness and functionality - making her pretty was a bonus and quite unexpected.
 
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