# Quick Change Chuck for Chinese Lathe?



## Steammodels (Feb 9, 2022)

I have a 7 x 14 Kommberg Lathe, which is similar to the general clones that we all know and love/hate. I'm quite happy with it, but for the stuff I do I have to change between my 3" 3 Jaw, 4" 4 Jaw and ER32 Collet holder seemingly a lot. Changing chucks is a fiddly process, spinning the 6mm nuts on and off, generally dropping them into the chip tray and having to fish them out etc. 

Does anyone make, or have a design for, a quick connect system that would let me switch chucks easily? Preferably something that doesn't cost more than the lathe, and still allows full spindle access?


----------



## markba633csi (Feb 10, 2022)

Yes it's called either a camlock spindle or a threaded one, neither of which you can have with that particular lathe unfortunately. 
Maybe time for another lathe?


----------



## Aaron_W (Feb 10, 2022)

I think camlock is out, at least not without a great deal of effort, plus there really isn't a camlock I know of that would be appropriate for a lathe smaller than 10" (smallest D1-3 chuck I can find is 6").

I would think a threaded adaptor would be possible though at the cost of an inch or two of centers distance. Maybe a little added run out, but if the adaptor was made on the lathe accuracy should remain pretty good. I would think 3/4"-16 or 1"-10 would be preferred since there is a lot of small lathe tooling for those threads (Sherline, Taig, 6" Atlas / Craftsman etc). 1"-8 is used on some older Craftsman and is a common wood lathe spindle so depending on needs might be desirable.

Of course the existing chucks you already have will not be compatible with a threaded spindle. You could of course still use them, but then you are back to the bolt on solution you are looking to get away from. 

I'm kind of surprised that with the popularity of the 7" lathes and all the mods out there, that nobody has addressed this issue.


----------



## markba633csi (Feb 10, 2022)

Simply put, these lathes are marketed (I think) to folks who intend to use the supplied chuck most often, with infrequent chuck swaps. 
You might could make an adapter, but like Aaron said you would need to buy new chucks


----------



## kd4gij (Feb 10, 2022)

What is the spindle taper on your lathe?


----------



## Steammodels (Feb 10, 2022)

kd4gij said:


> What is the spindle taper on your lathe?



MT-3


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## Steammodels (Feb 10, 2022)

“I'm kind of surprised that with the popularity of the 7" lathes and all the mods out there, that nobody has addressed this issue.”


Exactly!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## matthewsx (Feb 11, 2022)

Just get two more lathes and set each one up with one of the chucks. 

John


----------



## ErichKeane (Feb 11, 2022)

Steammodels said:


> “I'm kind of surprised that with the popularity of the 7" lathes and all the mods out there, that nobody has addressed this issue.”
> 
> 
> Exactly!
> ...


I wonder if there would be a market for replacement spindles with a different chuck interface on them?  Even one of the threaded chucks, like the old Atlas' that had a 1"-10?  Would one of these spindles need to be hardened, or do we think that 4140 HT would be good enough?  Might be interesting to see what it would take to turn something like that...


----------



## Aaron_W (Feb 11, 2022)

ErichKeane said:


> I wonder if there would be a market for replacement spindles with a different chuck interface on them?  Even one of the threaded chucks, like the old Atlas' that had a 1"-10?  Would one of these spindles need to be hardened, or do we think that 4140 HT would be good enough?  Might be interesting to see what it would take to turn something like that...



I think the problem may be by the time people have recognized the problem and have the skill to make an adaptor they already have chucks for the flange mount. I bet a person could sell more than a few threaded adaptors though.



matthewsx said:


> Just get two more lathes and set each one up with one of the chucks.
> 
> John



I had the same thought.    Actually not a crazy idea. Maybe not 3, as how often are you going to use a 3 jaw, 4 jaw and collets all on one project,, but the lathes are not that big and watching for a deal on a used second one could actually be handy.


----------



## ErichKeane (Feb 11, 2022)

Well, thread adapters are easy enough to turn, I'd presume the mini lathe itself could make one of those!


----------



## kd4gij (Feb 11, 2022)

If you aren't running parts through the spindle you could make back plates to fir an mt3 shell mill arbor.








						MT3 Arbor for G2861 at Grizzly.com
					

This MT3 Arbor is for the G2861 Face Mill. For use with 3/8"-16 TPI drawbars.




					www.grizzly.com


----------



## homebrewed (Feb 12, 2022)

Another approach would be to make it easier to use the current fastening system of your chucks.  I made a little nut starter that works pretty well:











A small super magnet is glued on the back to hold the nut in place.  To use it, insert a nut into the slot, then use the tool to push the nut against the rear of one of the studs and rotate.  Once the nut has been started, just spin it down with a finger.  Tighten as usual.

Since the nut is held in place using magnetism, the tool can't be made out of steel.  I used aluminum.


----------

