Lathe chuck jaws

I often wish I did have a 6 jaw. I do a bit of work that is relatively thin walled and it would be nice. I just end up working with soft jaws when needed. About the only other downside to a six jaw is that the contact points are a bit narrower than a comparable sized 3 jaw, allowing them to hit the small diameters, so you may see contact marks a little easier on really soft material. That is, if you are not really taking advantage of the 6 jaw load spread and tightening it like a 3 jaw. That's a minor downside IMO. I'd probably trade up for one given a chance, but never have one on hand just to swap out. I have had the original 3 jaw on one of my lathes since new, it holds 0.001-0.002 all day, and I'd probably never see that if I put the 4 jaw on. I have 2 other lathes for that, which have had chucks changed many times. I guess I could leave a 4 jaw on one of them, but I do very little square work, or need to offset a part. And it's rare that I can't bump a part in close enough to meet TIR specs.

Oh, and Buck? Top shelf, premium chuck. None better.
 
Wow, I had no idea chucks could cost that much. I went out and measured mine and it measure 9" diameter, does that make it an 8 or 10 inch chuck?

Thanks for all the info!
 
Buck made 9'' chucks, but they don't seem to be current production. I found one on ebay for $700. You have a fine chuck there.
 
One more thing, the chuck has alot of surface rust on it from none use for a few years. I got some steel wool and wd40 going to clean up the outside real nice, what else should I do with it without taking it off the lathe, like grease, lube, ect?
 
You could oil the scroll a bit, but stand to the side when you turn on the lathe or you will get an oil bath. Without a tear down and cleaning, there is not much you can do.
 
Cleaning it up on the outside wouldn't hurt. Main thing you need pristine tho is the taper and ref surface on the back where it mounts to the spindle. Always take care to wipe any chips/ monkey schnizzle from that area on the chuck and spindle when removing and replacing chucks. Also if its a D-xx camlock mount usually theres an index mark so you can mount it the same orientation every time. I like to remove the jaws frequently to brush out any small chips that work their way into the scroll and jaw slots. Had a debate here awhile ago with respect to grease/oil/dry in the chuck. My take is this: internally meaning the chuck key pinion gears and the back side gear face of the scroll, grease is good. The jaws, slots and scroll I run dry. Why because the chips cling to grease and oil, makes regular cleaning a pain and I hate oil or grease slinging out at me. With it dry i can remove the jaws and brush out the scroll, slots and jaws very easily after every use. My chucks run smooth as silk.
As far as "wear" goes running dry, this is hobby use. The amount of wear in a quality chuck kept nice and clean will be seriously negligible. The only thing better would be to very lightly grease the slots and scroll and clean frequently.
 
Sounds like very good advise and makes a lot of sense. Now I'm really going to sound like a noob and ask how can I tell how it is mounted to the spindle? I am assuming its threaded but I have never taken a chuck off before. Can someone explain the process? Thanks everybody for the help, I'm glad I joined the forum you guys are a wealth of knowledge.
 
What is the make /model of your lathe??
Maybe snap a pic of the chuck from the top and side by the headstock and post them here.
 
My lathe is a Rockwell 14". Cant get pictures at the moment.
 
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