# Mouting a 4" 3 jaw chuck on a rotary table



## Jcwood (Sep 21, 2013)

I want to mount the chuck from my little Enco 3 in 1 lathe on my Phase II 8" rotary table and use on my milling machine. I would like to buy an adapter or face plate rather than make my own. The center hole in the RT is a Morse 3 Taper and using that would simplify set ups. The chuck has three bolt mounting and the RT has four T slots. What are my options in commercially available mountings? How are chuck mounts classified? TIA

John


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## TOOLMASTER (Sep 21, 2013)

make a plate


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## Jcwood (Sep 22, 2013)

Yeah, I'll probably have to. Seems I've seen plates with multiple pre-drilled holes to accommodate lots of combinations in an old Enco catalog or somewhere. Can't find them and wondered if they ever existed.


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## SEK_22Hornet (Sep 22, 2013)

I am making a plate to mount the 3 jaw chuck from my mini-lathe to a 4" rotary table.  I just used a piece of 1/4" plate and used flat head socket screws to screw into the back of the chuck. It has a three hole pattern as well. the plate is a piece of scrap from a fabrication shop that does laser cutting - it was about the right size and already round.  If you have a shop like that locally you might see if they have something.  It will save a lot of work. Once you have the chuck hole pattern drilled, you could bolt it to the lathe spindle to true things up and bore a center hole to fit some sort of alignment pin to center it on the table.


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## Jcwood (Sep 22, 2013)

*Re: Mouting a 4&quot; 3 jaw chuck on a rotary table*

I might be able to bore the center hole and use the MT dead center for mounting to help with set up, then tighten it down.

- - - Updated - - -

Don't know how I'd get the dead center out before tightening it down. Hmmm


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## SEK_22Hornet (Sep 22, 2013)

*Re: Mouting a 4&quot; 3 jaw chuck on a rotary table*



Jcwood said:


> I might be able to bore the center hole and use the MT dead center for mounting to help with set up, then tighten it down.
> 
> - - - Updated - - -
> 
> Don't know how I'd get the dead center out before tightening it down. Hmmm



How about turning a tapered alignment pin from mild steel that would approximate the MT taper (or duplicate it).  Leave the large end without taper. Center drill the plate the same size as the straight portion of the alignment pin.  Place the pin in the center of the table, slide the plate over it and clamp it down.  Then you could just pull it out - Aluminum would work for this too, I suppose.


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## Ray C (Sep 22, 2013)

I would take a small plate, true it up slighlty oversize in the lathe, drill/bore a center hole and weld a stump of metal big enough to cut a 2.5" long segment of Mt2 taper.  Stick it back in the lathe, cut the MT2 taper and true-up the back side of the plate then, flip it around and clean-up the other side.  Drill some holes to mount the chuck and call it a day...  The only thing to be mindful of is to cut the taper so the plate will sit flat once it's inserted in the rotary table.  Err on the side of big as you can always put a little shim between the plate and the table.


Ray


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## Jcwood (Sep 22, 2013)

Thanks guys, both very good ideas. Im off to search how to turn a MT. Thanks again.


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## Ray C (Sep 22, 2013)

Hold your horses... In about 30 minutes I'm going to show how to turn a Brown/Sharpe taper.  Same procedure but different angle.  It will be in the "Moderators At Work" section under "Brown and Sharpe Taper Reamer".  Gimme 30-40 mins to finish the post.


Ray




Jcwood said:


> Thanks guys, both very good ideas. Im off to search how to turn a MT. Thanks again.


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## Jcwood (Sep 22, 2013)

Thanks Ray, I'll be here.


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## Ray C (Sep 22, 2013)

OK, its all there and I added a little section on how to cut a Morse stump.


Ray



Jcwood said:


> Thanks Ray, I'll be here.


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## SEK_22Hornet (Sep 22, 2013)

This thread reminded me that I had seen plates somewhere when I started making mine - my Scottish heritage (and my wife) would not allow me to go out a buy one, so I opter for the "thrifty" approach.  Hey,  what can I say, I'm of both Scottish and Swedish decent! Anyway, LMS has some - maybe one will work either as is or with a little modification. I found them by searching for "rotary table".

http://www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_search.php?critFast=rotary+table&B1=Product+Search


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## AlanR (Sep 22, 2013)

SEK_22Hornet said:


> Anyway, LMS has some - maybe one will work either as is or with a little modification. I found them by searching for "rotary table".


Shars has one for the same price, doesn't look the same but they give the chuck bolt pattern (Lathe chuck Bolt Circle Diameter: 3.307")

http://www.shars.com/products/view/8103/Face_Plate_for_lathe_chuck_and_rotary_table


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## itsme_Bernie (Sep 22, 2013)

Drill through-holes, counterbore them, to match two of your T-slots on your rotary.  As mentioned above, make a plug to quickly align it on center.  Someone posted a video using a plug like this.  Was it Tom G?  I have to look it up again now


Bernie


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## Jcwood (Sep 23, 2013)

Thanks guys. I looked at the adapters from both LMS and Shars. I think I could make either work. I was pretty sure I had seen them before. Now I'm kind of thinking about the center pin or registration MT that Ray just posted about. That would be very handy. I'll do some more thinking and measuring. I also thought about machining my extra MT3 dead center to get the cone off and accept a bushing for the chuck hole and alignment. I'll bet that's pretty hard stuff. Anybody machined that on a light Chinese lathe? I'm also  thinking this may be my chance to get a 6" 3 jaw chuck for my lathe and then not have to do this exercise again. Thanks to all for the help. I appreciate it. 

John


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