# Wax Chuck.



## BaronJ (Aug 18, 2018)

Hi Guys,

After reading a post on another forum about "Wax Chucks",  I decided to make one for myself.  This kind of chuck solves a number of problems that my soft jaws can't.

I made mine from an off cut of aluminum bar 55 mm in diameter.  It actually had an 8 mm hole in one end, not that it makes any difference.  I faced it off and turned a step into it about 7 or 8 mm deep and 10 mm wide.  Turned it round and faced off the other side.  Before removing it from the three jaw chuck I marked the position of jaw ! with a center pop and then using an engraving tool put rings in the face every 1/10" inch.  These are simply to act as a guide when placing work.



This is a view of the chuck face with the guide ring marks.


I used a center pop to mark the position of jaw 1 and used a red marker to make it stand out.  You can see the mark left by the three jaw chuck just above.


This is the back of the wax chuck.  I didn't quite face enough off to get rid of the saw mark.

In use shellac is used as a glue to secure the workpiece to the chuck face for turning.


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## Eddyde (Aug 18, 2018)

Looks good, would like to see some pictures of some work mounted to it.


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## rgray (Aug 19, 2018)

Looks like a good candidate for painters tape and super glue.
like this: 



I still have not tried it but those guys seem to get a lot of use out of it.


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## BaronJ (Aug 19, 2018)

Hi Guys,

Wax chucks are common in horological workshops.  Not much so in machine shops.  They can allow you to do tasks that are simply not possible or very difficult any other way.



This is just a random piece of 3 mm (1/8" inch) thick brass plate that I fastened to the chuck using shellac.



You can see the shellac layer between the two pieces.



This is a piece of the dark button shellac that I used.  Though there are different types.  But all will work in this application.






These two pictures are of the chuck secured in the lathe three jaw, waiting to be machined.



This is a view of the brass turned into a disc.  From a ragged piece of brass to a disc, with interrupted cuts.  Demonstrates how robust this method can be.  Obviously this is an extreme example.  You wouldn't normally do this, you would trim the work piece close to size before hand.


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## Boswell (Aug 19, 2018)

rgray said:


> Looks like a good candidate for painters tape and super glue



Checkout the "Clickspring" Youtube channel. That guy uses super glue chucks a lot and does not use painters tape. Typically he uses Heat to release and a solvent to clean.  I have not needed this technique but I would not hesitate the next time I have  a work-holding problem that a superglue chuck can solve.


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