10" Cushman Chuck

[slodat]

I recently bought the CME 8” three jaw for my Pacemaker. I originally ordered the 10” but they were out of stock and called to see if I was ok with the 8”. I have no complaints about the chuck. Backing plate fit well and chuck seems to work well.

 

[Mgdoug3]

That's reassuring to hear. I looked for reviews and I didn't see any bad ones. I thought about trying to find a used one but that could be a gamble. The used ones I found were also twice as much as the new chuck.

 

[slodat]

I found a used Cushman 8” with the right taper for my lathe in the classifieds on here. It’s a much nicer chuck. Absent of a readily available used chuck, the CME seems alright to me.

 

[Mgdoug3]

I gave it one more try. I don't have any runout on the chuck surface but when I put a piece in I have a lot of runout. If I flip the jaws around and grip a big piece, the runout is very low. If the new chuck isn't satisfactory, I'll buy new jaws.

 

[slodat]

Why not buy jaws?

 

[Mgdoug3]

My main hold up on getting new jaws is grinding them properly. I would either need to a tool post grinder or spend time making a die grinder mount. If I made a mount and screwed up the jaws, I wasted more time. For the price of the new chuck, I think it's just better use of my time and money.

 

[Mgdoug3]

New chuck came in. Trued the backing plate up, disassembled chuck to clean plus lubricate and then installed. Six inches away from chuck has 0.0015 runout. I can live with that. The new chuck did have some rough edges but it was only $350. Can't complain about that.