Massive Runout on my new D1-4 5C Collet chuck. Suggestions???

FWIW, my cheapo collet chuck from shars runs within +/- 0.0002 or better. I like chucks with a separate backplate because they can be tapped into perfect positioning....

George, what I meant by all other areas not really being important was the outsides and nose of the chuck. The critical part is the how true it is measuring off the 5C taper area. If that wobbles, it needs work. If the outside of the body is off a little, it doesn't matter much. As long as the back is flat and the taper is true it should be OK with the exception that if the whole thing is off center, there could be vibration problems at high speed.


Ray
 
You might just have gotten lucky,Ray. I have several old those Metal Lathe Acccessory kits. They are so nicely designed! One I have is the loop (loopy?) collet chuck. I have absolutely no need for it,and it isn't as handy to use as a chuck that takes a normal chuck wrench. I'm just a sucker for those kits. I may never get around to putting these kits together. I hope to gain more energy with some injections I hope to begin soon.
 
In a way George, I did get lucky. The chuck is a shars brand but I bought it from a fellow on eBay who was convinced it was bad. He said it needed machining because it wouldn't hold the 6 tenths advertised accuracy. I sent him all kinds of emails explaining how to check and adjust it but, he wanted no part of common sense... So I bought it for 50 bucks. I had a 6" backplate, trued it up, tapped it to center and it's fine. Honestly, I could probably get it closer to zero but I got tired of messing with it. +/- 2 tenths is fine because you never really know how the collets are running anyhow. Usually when I chuck-up a good shaft, it's within a half thou and that covers the bases pretty well.

That's why I'm concerned about this OP's chuck. Usually, if you check everything from back to front, the problem (or problems) will show right up and it's usually not too hard to set it straight.



Ray



george wilson said:
You might just have gotten lucky,Ray. I have several old those Metal Lathe Acccessory kits. They are so nicely designed! One I have is the loop (loopy?) collet chuck. I have absolutely no need for it,and it isn't as handy to use as a chuck that takes a normal chuck wrench. I'm just a sucker for those kits. I may never get around to putting these kits together. I hope to gain more energy with some injections I hope to begin soon.
Click to expand...
 
Advertised to 6 tenths is not bad for a Chinese chuck,for sure. You made out for $50.00. I need to get off my duff and true up my big Cushman chuck that takes 513(?) collets(which are rare as hen's teeth,and I have all but 1 or 2.) I bought a whole 2 cubic foot cardboard box of them with the chuck. When I got them sorted out,I found I had a good number of duplicates. I didn't know they were rare,and was going to take back the duplicates. One day in a classified,here are 2 guys BEGGING for those collets. I sold them at a good profit,and enabled someone else to start using THEIR Cushman!!

So far,I haven't needed to turn stuff larger than 1 1/8"(the largest 5C,but it has a stepped hole). I just use the HLVH. I make 18th. C. thread spools,which are the most unusually delicate things to turn. The originals have edges as sharp as a knife blade,and are made of dogwood. So easy to shatter as they are end grain. I don't know how the old timers did it,but it took me a while to figure out how I could do it. I still can't make mine as sharp as they did!! I swear,I think those old craftsmen tortured each other with the high peaks of quality they got to in making even simple stuff like thread spools.Apparently the ladies back then were aware of the best quality and insisted on it. But man,those little spools are so easily shredded on their edges if everything isn't done just right.

Don't knock these if you haven't tried to make them!!

These are a good project to have a collet chuck for.. They also have a hole through them less than 1/8",however they drilled that(probably a small D bit or a small spoon bit.) Can't have been easy for them,but I'm sure the specialists who made them did it with great deftness.

spools 1jpg.jpg
 
Last edited:
Well, I think I missed my mark on returning this chuck. I guess I made me keep it for two reasons: 1) I would have miserably wasted about $40 in S&H to keep only the knowledge on what a piece of crap I had acquired and 2) it will be a welcomed challenge to true this bastard!

At the moment I am liking one of the suggested ideas, namely to mount it into a back plate. I will look into how this would be done and if I get stuck will come back and pose the question again. To be honest, I am having a hard time seeing how you add any kind of working set screws from the back when clearly all you have access is the side. I mean, I know how you would add them, but it seems to me you would lose your adjustment if you have to remove the chuck to tighten it into submission. I wonder what would I be missing...
 
Hi there,

I came across this post and it seems I'm in the same unenviable position and wanted to check in with you to see if you'd had any luck since getting it to true up?

I have the exact same kind with the exact same problem: the back half is within 0.0005" TIR but the moment I move the DTI over to anywhere on the front half it jumps to like 0.004". I measured both the outside as well as the inside taper and it's the same runout all the way around. When I move the DTI back and forth on the inside of the 5C taper, it gives the same 0.004" TIR regardless of where it is . So I'm convinced it's parallel to the axis of rotation but offset. Did you guys ever have any luck?

Thanks!
 
badiozam said:
Hi there,

I came across this post and it seems I'm in the same unenviable position and wanted to check in with you to see if you'd had any luck since getting it to true up?

I have the exact same kind with the exact same problem: the back half is within 0.0005" TIR but the moment I move the DTI over to anywhere on the front half it jumps to like 0.004". I measured both the outside as well as the inside taper and it's the same runout all the way around. When I move the DTI back and forth on the inside of the 5C taper, it gives the same 0.004" TIR regardless of where it is . So I'm convinced it's parallel to the axis of rotation but offset. Did you guys ever have any luck?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You might take a look at this thread
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/rant-5c-collets-chuck-d1-4-cam-lock.23838/
 
The only reason I can think of that anyone would want to waste their tme with a collet chuck is because they have a lathe with a small spindle bore. If the machine has 1.375 or bigger bore I wouldn't even consider a collet chuck. The import chucks for the most part have so much runout they defeat the purpose of using a collet. The brand name chucks are priced pretty much out of the hobby market. Drawbars are easy to make, or if the bore is too small, soft jaws work well for multiple parts. Just my .02.
 
I bought a 5C collet chuck from PM when I bought my lathe. It is a Chinese import. D1-4. I put a mark on it so I always have it oriented the same way when installed. Mine has the knock-off "Run True" design having 4 set crews that allow me to adjust the front 1/2 to run true to the spindle. I used a good Japanese DTI in the collet bore moving fore & back to be sure it was parallel to the spindle axis. Then I carefully adjusted the 4 set screws until I was within about .0002 in the taper. It takes a lot of fiddling to get to that level! If you go to Stefan Gotteswinter's YouTube site he shows how he got a cheap collet chuck to line up nicely.
I use this collet chuck more than I thought I would. I can hold quite short parts and quickly change them out and always be running pretty true. The disadvantage to this type is the time it takes to change collets, partly offset by using a battery impact driver on it. Watch out for Chinese collets they seem to have considerable variations of quality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top