General Question

Ok! We are getting somewhere now!! I made it home for one day before heading out for another week or so and I just HAD to take that 3 jaw apart. Man was it full of gritty grease and chips! There were even chips between the chuck and mounting plate! I cleaned everything up, checked for obvious wear as instructed above (found none) regressed and put it back on. I turned a piece of stock between centers the other day and when I chuck it in the 3 jaw now I get very little runout. I have a video of it running I will try to post. Looks much better. How often should I be needing to clean that chuck in that manner?

Thanks again
Jason


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You're welcome. I didn't expect disassembling the chuck and cleaning it to solve the majority of the problems but I'm glad to hear that it did.

On how often you should do the major cleaning, it's hard to say for an intermittent use machine now in hobby service. Best that I can guess is every 5 or 10 years.
 
There is an old school way to keep it close in concentricity when you turn the bar around in the chuck. Mark the bar and the corresponding chuck jaw with a magic marker. When you turn the bar put the mark on the bar and chuck jaw together, That's as close as you can get. Depending on the chuck it can be pretty damn close.

"Billy G"
 
It really depends on how oftem you machine & what you machine. I'm just a hobby guy & I fully disassemble my chucks every year or 2. However I do often remove the jaws to clean the chips out of the scroll. You can usually feel them when they get in there.

If I do any heavy sanding or machine nastier stuff like cast iron, fiberous composites, etc, or even just showering it from fine chips, I'll take the jaws out & clean it right after. I have a dedicated chuck that I use whenever I do heavy sanding, etc. That dust gets sucked right in there when the chuck is spinningbat moderate speeds.
 
Great. That gives me an idea of when to take a look at it. It was really embarrassing just how much junk and funk was in there. Life in a wood shop is rough on oily things! I will DEFINITELY clean the 4 jaw before I do anything with it. It's probably just as bad. I now understand that I am not going to get a perfect setup every time I remove and reinstall the work but it was way off! It's not perfect now but it's close enough to make me feel better. I imagine if I mark my work and reinstall with the marks I will be much better off. Thank you again for all the help.

Jason


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Use oil instead of grease in the chuck and it will not attract and retain as many chips.
 
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