Q1. Anyone know a tool supplier that carries a decent one in the 10-11" diameter range? For some reason, I don't see them as much in tool catalogs anymore. Saw a few on Ebay & may have to go that route, but thought I'd try inquiring first. (Canada or USA shipping)
Q2. I've never had the need to mount the one up that came with my 14x40 lathe until recently. Something is wonky but I cant figure out what. I spotted some run-out & determined there was a bit of daylight showing between the plate hub & lathe spindle boss. The D1-4 pins are not clamping quite right & it took a slight bump to release the plate as opposed to my usual nearly drops off with D1-4 chucks after 1/4-turn release click. I measured all the pins, tried resetting the height 1 turn in/out in case they weren't set right. Even swapped all positions thinking they got mixed up. Nothing seems to be improving it. Then I removed the pins, blued the tapered spindle nose, pushed the plate on & gave it a slight turn. I was fully expecting to see a bad taper cut but it doesn't look too bad actually, decent blue transfer. Repeated with jiffy marker & now it shows some slight non-contact but not appreciably different than my chucks. My gut feel is maybe the nose taper is ok & the culprit is D1-4 pin pattern is either not concentric or something amiss with the pins/scallops. Maybe it shrunk sitting in the corner all those years! I figured for the price, maybe just get a new one & deal with how to remedy this later. Any thoughts?
Q3, I have a spare D1-4 unfinished lathe casting back plate adapter normally used for a chuck. It fits the spindle perfectly. Its not married to any chuck so I thought how about machine it true in-situ & then mount a plate to the front to mimic the CI integrated faceplate. I'd have to bolt it onto the adapter casting & then clean up face true, mill the 8 slots etc. Its a bit more project than I wanted to tackle but it brings up other ideas like say a tooling plate with an array of threaded holes for holding odd things that don't lend themselves to slots. Unfortunately I don't have CI slabs but have some 1/2" cast aluminum tooling plate. Would this be a not-so-good idea given the weaker & dissimilar material acting as the plate?
Q2. I've never had the need to mount the one up that came with my 14x40 lathe until recently. Something is wonky but I cant figure out what. I spotted some run-out & determined there was a bit of daylight showing between the plate hub & lathe spindle boss. The D1-4 pins are not clamping quite right & it took a slight bump to release the plate as opposed to my usual nearly drops off with D1-4 chucks after 1/4-turn release click. I measured all the pins, tried resetting the height 1 turn in/out in case they weren't set right. Even swapped all positions thinking they got mixed up. Nothing seems to be improving it. Then I removed the pins, blued the tapered spindle nose, pushed the plate on & gave it a slight turn. I was fully expecting to see a bad taper cut but it doesn't look too bad actually, decent blue transfer. Repeated with jiffy marker & now it shows some slight non-contact but not appreciably different than my chucks. My gut feel is maybe the nose taper is ok & the culprit is D1-4 pin pattern is either not concentric or something amiss with the pins/scallops. Maybe it shrunk sitting in the corner all those years! I figured for the price, maybe just get a new one & deal with how to remedy this later. Any thoughts?
Q3, I have a spare D1-4 unfinished lathe casting back plate adapter normally used for a chuck. It fits the spindle perfectly. Its not married to any chuck so I thought how about machine it true in-situ & then mount a plate to the front to mimic the CI integrated faceplate. I'd have to bolt it onto the adapter casting & then clean up face true, mill the 8 slots etc. Its a bit more project than I wanted to tackle but it brings up other ideas like say a tooling plate with an array of threaded holes for holding odd things that don't lend themselves to slots. Unfortunately I don't have CI slabs but have some 1/2" cast aluminum tooling plate. Would this be a not-so-good idea given the weaker & dissimilar material acting as the plate?