Thanks Don and I need Craftsman lathe help

M

Mike23

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Hi all. I just got back from Florida a couple weeks ago and started packing up. The wife and I decided to move down there after years of kicking the dirt about it. And I need some lathe advice. But first Ide like thank Don from the youtube site Don's Engine. He said if I was ever down that way to drop in and he'd show me how to weld with plasma. In case you haven't seen his weld with water and plasma video yet. Its on the up and up. Real amazing stuff. Anyway, Don and his wife are very easy going and hospitable people. Invited my wife and I for diner and even had me come by a couple more times to hang out an even go see what he does at work. AMAZING is all I can say there. SO Don, thanks and we'll see you in a few weeks when I get moved down there

As far as the Craftsman is concerned. I'm trying to crate it up for the move and have tried removing the chuck. Its been on the spindle over 30 years and it will not budge. I really don't want to ship it in place. Has anyone had experience getting a real stuck chuck off?

Thanks Mike
 
Mike23 said:
Hi all. I just got back from Florida a couple weeks ago and started packing up. The wife and I decided to move down there after years of kicking the dirt about it. And I need some lathe advice. But first Ide like thank Don from the youtube site Don's Engine. He said if I was ever down that way to drop in and he'd show me how to weld with plasma. In case you haven't seen his weld with water and plasma video yet. Its on the up and up. Real amazing stuff. Anyway, Don and his wife are very easy going and hospitable people. Invited my wife and I for diner and even had me come by a couple more times to hang out an even go see what he does at work. AMAZING is all I can say there. SO Don, thanks and we'll see you in a few weeks when I get moved down there

As far as the Craftsman is concerned. I'm trying to crate it up for the move and have tried removing the chuck. Its been on the spindle over 30 years and it will not budge. I really don't want to ship it in place. Has anyone had experience getting a real stuck chuck off?

Thanks Mike
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good time and congratulations on your decision to move.

YES, many of us have tried removing stuck chucks my adventure started here:

www.hobby-machinist.com

Just added a 101.21200 to my shop out west

OK. And what I can see of the spindle under where the cone pulley and small gear go loos much better than most. But I wonder why the Timken Cup came out with it? The cone should have come out but not the cup. Something hinky there.
www.hobby-machinist.com www.hobby-machinist.com

If you're moving in a few weeks it might have to stay there till you get to your new shop.

Good luck with your move.

John
 
Although there are a few who for some reason don't agree, if your Craftsman lathe is a 12" (or an Atlas 10" or 12"). I think that the safest and easiest way to lock the spindle in order to remove a really stuck chuck is to use one of the spindle lockers that are currently being sold on eBay. The locker slides into the teeth on the bull gear from the tailstock face and meshes with (I think that I remember) 11 teeth engaged and then has a shoulder that stops the rotation against the top of the headstock casting. Then you can apply adequate torque to the chuck to break the threads loose. Just be sure to check that the set screw locking the gear to the spindle is tight first. In fact, I would recommend first loosening the set screw, installing the locker, taking a slight torque on the chuck and re-tightening the screw just to make sure that the slight clearance between the key, spindle and gear is taken out in the proper direction. Then unscrew the chuck.. If you manage to break the gear doing this, it wouldn't have survived the first interrupted cut while in back gear anyway.
 
From the old books...

Unplug lathe

Put it in the lowest BELTED speed NOT in back gear.

The book states to place key in chuck and rotate to where key is facing front.

Some prefer this,

Rotate chuck to where one jaw is horizontal towards front and place large adjustable wrench on jaw.

With left hand grab the belts so they lock up the spindle.

With a large hammer just tap the chuck key or wrench.

Not small hammer, requires large swing to get energy transfer, larger one just needs a tap.

Or rotate chuck until wrench is vertical and give it a yank while holding the belts.

Last option is get the largest round scrap that the chuck can hold.

Put a cutter in upside down and put lathe in reverse and take a cut, start light and increase until it lets go.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
If you do the cut to.remove, you should.add something to keep it from completely unscrewing! Like a live center a tiny distance from the part ;-)

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
Another pitfall to be aware of if trying the inverted cutter method is that if/when the threads break free, the chuck will probably stop rotating and start to move toward the tailstock. If the feed direction was toward the headstock, the effective feed rate will significantly increase and the cutter will try to bury itself in the piece of round stock., trying to move to the left with the chuck not rotating. If the direction if carriage travel was toward the tailstock, the cutter would at least at first be moving over already cut stock and you would have at least a few milliseconds in which to stop the motor before the crash occurs.

So all things considered, the spindle locker method would be far safer.
 
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