I've seen some references in a few different places to "wrecking" or "ruining" a chuck, mostly in the case of a 3-jaw. Some of the cases I've seen mentioned involved a cutoff operation going bad or some other general machining operation that somehow ended up ruining the jaws or the chuck to the point where it was replaced. None of these cases involved the tool or post crashing into the chuck or anything like that and none of them really described what "wrecked" meant.
So ok, now that I've given a vague description, what would constitute "wrecking" the jaws on a 3-jaw chuck (or the chuck itself).
The first thing I'll mention is that I'm relatively new to lathes and machining in general. I try not to do stupid stuff and I have a lot of respect for the power of these types of machines. I own a 14x40 ChiCom lathe and so far, the projects I've done have come out pretty well.
The reason I am asking the question above is that I was parting a 2" piece of steel (303 SS). At some point, the cutoff tool caught, twisted, and snapped off. After that, my 3-jaw seems to have a lot of runout. I tested a ground test bar in the chuck jaws and came up with a little over .006", which seems like a lot. I've also noticed that the scroll seems to be pretty tight in the same place as I open and close the jaws, whereas before, it was very free and easy. I pulled the jaws (indexed marked first) and thoroughly cleaned the scroll drive and the jaws themselves, but it still hits a spot where it takes a fair bit of effort to turn the chuck key. I'm wondering if I may have done something to the jaws in the aborted parting operation and if so, how it might be fixed. Do I need to true up the jaws with a tool post grinder? Or do I need to start shopping for a new 3J chuck (and maybe upgrade).
So ok, now that I've given a vague description, what would constitute "wrecking" the jaws on a 3-jaw chuck (or the chuck itself).
The first thing I'll mention is that I'm relatively new to lathes and machining in general. I try not to do stupid stuff and I have a lot of respect for the power of these types of machines. I own a 14x40 ChiCom lathe and so far, the projects I've done have come out pretty well.
The reason I am asking the question above is that I was parting a 2" piece of steel (303 SS). At some point, the cutoff tool caught, twisted, and snapped off. After that, my 3-jaw seems to have a lot of runout. I tested a ground test bar in the chuck jaws and came up with a little over .006", which seems like a lot. I've also noticed that the scroll seems to be pretty tight in the same place as I open and close the jaws, whereas before, it was very free and easy. I pulled the jaws (indexed marked first) and thoroughly cleaned the scroll drive and the jaws themselves, but it still hits a spot where it takes a fair bit of effort to turn the chuck key. I'm wondering if I may have done something to the jaws in the aborted parting operation and if so, how it might be fixed. Do I need to true up the jaws with a tool post grinder? Or do I need to start shopping for a new 3J chuck (and maybe upgrade).