Handwheel 3C collet closer for Atlas 10"

[Dutch]

I made this collet closer many years ago for an ancient Atlas-Craftsman 10" lathe. I had lucked into a set of South Bend 3C collets for $5 each and the 3MT to 3C adaptor at a used machinery dealer so I was hot to have 3C tooling functional.

The draw tube is 1/2" pipe. The threaded end was silver soldered in, bored and single point threaded for the 3C collets.



You can barely see the silver solder joint on the draw bar end. Its about 1" from the end.



A piece of scrap aluminum about 2.5" diamter, knurled and held to the drawbar with 2 setscrews.



A piece of delrin served well for a thrust bearing. This drawbar setup served over 20 yrs with nary a single problem.

 

[wa5cab]

Looks quite decent.

For the information of those who don't already know, although 1/2" tubing is nominally 1/2" OD, by long convention, pipe is specified by the ID, with 3/4" Schedule 40 pipe being about 1/2" ID.