Ideas for Storing Very Heavy Lathe Chucks?

erikmannie said:
I ended up buying 2 of these, one cart for my 4J independent, and one cart for my 6J scroll:

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I tried to search around for a better price, but they are only sold on one website. I also failed to find a coupon code.

Shipping was only $15.76 for both. Order total was $256.07.

Looking at the photo, I am going to have to make a wood, foam or Delrin insert. I don’t think Delrin is a smart choice due to the high cost of Delrin.

I would like to make a wooden box with a yoga-mat foam D1-6 “6 camlock pattern” insert.
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From your yoga-mat comment, sounds like you intend to tip the chuck over.
I’d suggest setting it up so you can just leave the chucks in the same orientation. Otherwise your hoist process will get more complicated and probably involve a manual rotation step. Sure it is more stable on its back, but they’re heavy enough to sit solid on the outer edge.
 
projectnut said:
Either you got a bad cart, or they're made far differently today than they were a few years ago. I have both the 500 lb. and the 1,000 lb. cart. I regularly use the larger one to haul loads of 750 lbs. or more with no problems. I used it to move my power hacksaw (750 lbs.) and my Sanford surface grinder (650 lbs.) from the truck to the garage. It's also used regularly to haul machine parts from the garage to the truck.

The 500 lb. one resides in the shop and normally has a 225 lb. rotary table and a 125 lb. chuck on it. I use it to transport tooling to and from the mills and lathes.
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Might be a bad cart. Honestly, wasn't impressed that the polyurethane wheel coating crumbled under less than half the rated load. Made for tough rolling until I realized what was happening. Had the cart for over 10 years and it was stored in a toolshed so it has seen lots of temperature swings.

On smooth ground they're not bad, especially considering their cost. Great for unloading vehicles.
 
A lot of big chucks have lifting eye holes. Where I have worked before chucks up to 24" in diameter were lifted off with a crane by such lifting eye and set on a rack, with appropriate sized pipe (about 1/2 diameter) to go thru the center of the chuck. A small tab was welded on to the face of the pipe so when the chuck was setting on the pipe it could not be pulled off until it was lifted up a 1/2" or so to be removed from the rack.
 
I received the order that was supposed to contain both carts.

One problem is they shorted me one cart. I contacted customer service, and I do believe that they are sending me out the other cart soon.

The other problem is these carts are made in China and not very impressive at all. I wouldn’t call them flimsy, but they are getting there.
 
rabler said:
From your yoga-mat comment, sounds like you intend to tip the chuck over.
I’d suggest setting it up so you can just leave the chucks in the same orientation. Otherwise your hoist process will get more complicated and probably involve a manual rotation step. Sure it is more stable on its back, but they’re heavy enough to sit solid on the outer edge.
Click to expand...

I’m going to make a cradle out of wood thats sets in the cart.

I don’t know why having yoga mat foam on the bottom of the wooden cradle would make the chuck more likely to tip over. It does make it easier to rotate 90° (see below).

When I was referring to “tipping over” above, I was concerned about a heavy chuck on a narrow welding cart tipping over onto the floor.

My Sky Hook tool post crane has a hoist hook that connects to the chuck. This chuck hook makes the process a lot easier.

CA92F5F5-6DE4-44FB-8813-83E9834EC3D8.png

What I have done is store the heavy chucks “camlock-pin side” down. This is a low center of gravity choice. The yoga mat foam protects the camlock pins.

When I want to use the chuck, I insert the chuck hook (while it is not on the chain). Then I connect the chuck hook to the chain; as I begin to raise the chuck with the crane, the chuck hook forces the chuck to rotate up to the desired mounting orientation.

The main concerns that I am addressing are:

(1) injury to my back
(2) damage to the equipment.
 
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@erikmannie
Threw that out as food for thought. I meant that I hadn’t found stability to be an issue despite the higher center of gravity and therefore personally find it to be a more compact and convenient way to store them. Especially if you pick the distance between rails (boards) to be wide enough that the chucks sit low between them. All of my chucks except the big 20” 4 jaw have backplates so that does make them deeper and more stable. The 20” doesn’t yet have a storage solution.

I certainly agree that protecting your back and the equipment make a hoist a near necessity.
 
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I made 1-7/8” thick plywood squares to put under the chucks. I have yet to drill the holes in the wood (but I have the holes marked out!).

The last little cart is arriving tomorrow so the 5C collet chuck can be rolled around & stashed somewhere.

E2C9BC59-99E6-4279-8180-ADD73F7BF603.png

I don’t have any good ideas yet on how to organize the 7 lathe chuck keys.
 
I have 5 metro carts with 5” urethane casters, and these are unbelievably good. They are about 6’ high, 48” long and 18” wide, as I recall. I use them like file cabinets, filling up all the shelves with stuff I use a lot. I line them up along the wall, long dimension out, with no space between. They roll so easily, even on my rough and cracked concrete floor, that I can pull them out with one hand, and get access to both sides.

They are rated for 1200 pounds, and they can actually do that. I keep a couple chucks, 12” faceplate, 12” rotab, dividing head, etc. on the adjustable height shelves, and set them to match the lathe bed (higher shelf) and the knee mill at as low as it will go, on a lower shelf.

I just roll the whole cart to the equipment and transfer at the same level. Maybe someday I will have to add a track and hoist, but for now I can slide them onto the mill table or onto a wood lathe bed platform, and manipulate them from there. I’m still old man strong. :)

Find them used on Craigslist for cheap. I think I’ve paid around $100 for each, and added their brand of casters for another $60 per cart. So much better than HF. Yes, I have not been compensated for this post.
 
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