So, I Have This Rather Large Chuck......

Get some Evaporust and disassemble and clean up that chuck. Then oil everything well. You will be amazed at how nice it will look and operate afterwards.
 
Olddaddy said:
Just curious what you guys turn that you need a chuck that large? Does the rotating mass help with the turning somehow? All that weight spinning against the tooling?
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Today I got to work facing a flange surface of a 7" long slice of A36 structual H-beam. I needed every inch of my 9" chuck, too!
 
I've had to get rid of tooling and material and it pains me to this day. only if you can get something for it that you REALLY need, then it may be worth considering, but even then it has to be thought through from many angles :)
 
My only reason for maybe selling or trading it off was that I thought it was too big for my lathe. Now that I know it is fine I will hold onto it. I still need to sort out all the larger bits and the taper stuff, but time will take care of that.
 
Second the opinions of others, I would hang on to the chuck. From what I have heard from old timers, certainly with light to moderate size lathes, a chuck one size under your maximum swing would be the largest size chuck you might want to turn. For example, I have a 7" Dalton built in 1919. The Dalton Gang members recommend a 5" 4 jaw max size chuck for the lathe, because of weight on the spindle. So for your 12" lathe, probably a 10" chuck is the maximum weight you would want to mount. Your 8" chuck would be perfect for larger work holding. Just clean it up nice and put a coat of oil or wax on it to keep rust at bay - keeps the contact surfaces smoother and more tightly citing with your work...
 
I have a large 16" Chuck that is even to large for my bigger lathe. I keep it and use it on my mill for parts that won't fit in my vise. I've also used it on my welding table as a fixture. You may find a lot of uses for it other than on your lathe.
 
The chuck on my 9X20 is a Cushman 8 inch 4 jaw. Please define too big?

"Billy G"
 
Depends upon circumstances, including the weight of the chuck. I would probably define the largest chuck that one should use on a given size machine as the smallest one whose jaws strike the bed before they get farther out than it would be safe to run. Anything larger is too large. On a 12". the largest is probably a 10". However, some 10" might be heavier than you would want to run. That might depend upon whether the spindle bears were sleeve, babbit, ball or tapered roller. And also on the effective diameter of the bearings.
 
image.jpg Curiosity got the best of me.....so I swapped out the small chuck for the large one and it turns fine, egads what a beast !
What I can't figure out though is how to swap the jaws around. My small chuck jaws just thread out till they release and can be turned and re-installed for inner/outer holding. The big one stops short and won't go any farther than the edge of the chuck diameter. I pulled the two screws out of one jaw thinking it would release, but no dice. Can anyone enlighten me?
 
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