I have an old wood lathe that my Father owned. It is a Montgomery Ward lathe which gives you some idea as to the age of the unit. The question that I have is were can I buy a chuck for it? The chuck will have to take a 1/2" shaft with a set screw,i.e. not a screw on chuck.
I hope I have made myself clear as to what I'm looking for, not very good with words.

Bill, Fishing The Chesapeake

Check out Penn State Industries.

[www.pennstateind.com]


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Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Bill,
In summary, probably the very best thing is to give the lathe away and pick up a new one.
About the most important thing about a lathe is the ability to turn an object with near 0 run out or wobble.
With a plain shaft with a set screw type chuck it is very very difficult to get a chuck in perfect alignment.

The other issue is the size of the shaft. A 1/2 inch shaft is a bit on the light side to have good long term chuck stability.

You can buy one of the small mini lathes from some of the sponsers on the left or some of the big box home building stores for a bit over $100.
You can get an outstanding midi lathe with an mt2 chuck for about $200 -- $250.

If you don't want to spring for the cash, then the next best thing is to either have a new head stock shaft made, or - if there is room on the end of your current head stock shaft - have a good machhine shop put 1/2 X 20 threads on the end of the shaft.

Then, you will be able to at least do one of the following:
1. You can obtain an inexpensive 1/2 inch drill chuck with a 1/2 X 20 threads on the inside of the chuck and screw it to the end of the head stock shaft.
or
2. You can obtain any of several different small 2-3 inch chucks and which are either plain backed chucks and orger a 1/2 X 20 backplate for it or search the @#$%& sites for an older Sears or Dunlop chuck which have the 1/2 X 20 threaded back on the chuck.

3. Your third option - depending the lathe construction is to redo your head stock - with larger bearings and shaft and use a shaft of 3/4 inch so that you could put on any of the very common chucks of today which use the 3/4 X 16 back.
In my first example of picking up a mini lathe from one of the sponsers on the left, this thread size of 3/4 X 16 is the common thread size for the smallest common mini lathe sold today.

Good luck.
Roger

Remove the chuck you have now and look at the spindle. Most likely, it has a Morse Taper for holding a drive spur. But what about outside of that? Do you see any threads on the spindle?

Sometimes a set screw is simply for locking the threaded chuck in place. My OneWay Talon chuck threads onto the spindle, but has 2 set screws in addition.

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Bill; you have E-Mail

Thanks Everyone for your help: I need to think about this i.e. should I spend the extra money and get a new lathe rather than trying to use my Father's Old Old lathe by getting a new chuck for less money and have something less than satisfactory. However, if I do opt for a new lathe what horsepower motor should I be considering? So, what horsepower do you recommend?

Bill, Fishing The Chesapeake

I doubt that any of the newer under $500 lathes will be the equal of your old one. They don't build them like that anymore. Not sure what model you have, but just like the old Craftsman lathes, some of the MG models are gems.