Used Albrecht chuck - when to give up

[jwmelvin]

How did you make the spacers?

I should have shared in the first place but it was dinner time around here.

I clamped down squares of brass shim sandwiched between some 1/4” aluminum, drilled and bored a hole in the stack, then moved to the lathe where I turned a quick arbor with a shoulder so the arbor was shorter than the stack, then pressed it together with the tailstock while I turned the OD (using a parting tool because the tailstock pressure pad was too large). Inspired by one of Joe Pie’s videos I remember seeing.




Maybe I should have made more than two, or thought about a reusable jig; at least the arbor is.

 

[mmcmdl]

Nice Skoda

 

[jwmelvin]

Little update on this chuck - while runout is improved, the added space from my shim is no good. The chuck slips more readily than it should and there is a looseness that is not normal. I think what I've done is shown that my chuck needs a new hood, not that I can fix it with a brass shim.

My other Albrecht (on the lathe) is so good that I still want to get this one back to good condition.

 

[Winegrower]

An Albrecht chuck I have was unusable because it would not tighten...it immediately twisted backward as soon as tightening pressure was released. Somewhere I saw some comments that grease on the ball bearings could cause this, so I took it all apart, polished the interior of the hood, cleaned everything and reassembled with just spindle oil. The thing is now night and day, you can almost literally spin it and it coasts a bit. It locks extremely well and does not seem to over-tighten, so here's a data point. It makes me realize why people like these chucks so much.

 

[jwmelvin]

Yes they are great when they are right. I can try resurfacing the hood but I’m pretty convinced wear is the issue with mine.

I was careful to avoid lube on the screw, which is what Albrecht says. I lightly greased the balls and the jaw-jawguide interface.

 

[mikey]

I have serviced a lot of chucks and I have never seen the hood cause a problem before so this is interesting. The wear lines shown in the picture of the hood in post 12 are simply friction wear marks, not divots, right? If this is so then the hood should not be causing a problem. All the hood does is constrain the jaws so that they close evenly on the bit; it should not influence run out.

Now, if the body and jaw guides are good and the leadscrew is okay and the jaws are new and the hood has had its inner surface cleaned up with Scotchbrite then the chuck should function just fine, assuming grease goes only where it should go. If you then install a good arbor properly then run out should be pretty close to 0.002" or less.