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Lathe maintenance - Cleaning the chuck jaws!
Posted by:
Lynn Williams
(---.we.res.rr.com)
Date: January 14, 2013 03:02PM
I have received some question on this topic and I wanted to share the information.
Most of the people I've talked to about their lathe turning project being out of round never clean the chuck jaws and some never heard of doing that. It's a good practice to clean the jaws of the chuck before you start work on your lathe project, such as prior to installing a mandrel on the lathe chuck. It doesn't take much to cause run out on your mandrel, which will cause your grip, insert or any project your working on to be out of round. To clean the chuck jaws you can use a bottle brush, if you can find one small enough. I use brass gun cleaning brushes. I have 3 or 4 different sizes from a 22 caliber brass brush to a 12 gauge brass brush, depending on what size of mandrel I'm using. I use the same type of brushes on my metal lathe when turning and threading the TK Mandrels and sometimes I will use the gun cleaning mops to clean the chuck jaws after using the brass brushes. You can also use the same brass brushes on your drill press chuck or your hand drill chuck. Hope this helps Lynn Williams Re: Lathe maintenance - Cleaning the chuck jaws!
Posted by:
Andres Perez
(---.coastalsystemsint.com)
Date: January 14, 2013 03:45PM
Thanks Lynn. Great advice. I'm sure it will help many of us. Re: Lathe maintenance - Cleaning the chuck jaws!
Posted by:
roger wilson
(---.hsd1.mn.comcast.net)
Date: January 14, 2013 08:51PM
Lynn,
In addition, high pressure air is your best friend. Both before, during and after, I frequently use high pressure air to clean the chuck and general area of debris, turnings and dust. This is of course combined with a good vacuum system. Roger Re: Lathe maintenance - Cleaning the chuck jaws!
Posted by:
Billy Vivona
(---.dyn.optonline.net)
Date: January 15, 2013 11:07AM
Lynn, where exactly are you cleaning? The contact points where the jaws grip the mandrel? I had a chuck that a piece of debris got into teh keyway an dI was unabl eto move teh jaws, they were locked and no matter wha tI did I couldn't get it out. I was lucky that I was able to retun teh chuck for a new one at no charge less shipping. Re: Lathe maintenance - Cleaning the chuck jaws!
Posted by:
Lynn Williams
(---.we.res.rr.com)
Date: January 17, 2013 10:53AM
Hey Billy, yes your correct I was talking about the chuck jaws where they grip the mandrel.
I just talked to a guy a few weeks ago that thought he had a bad mandrel. I ask him to check and clean the chuck jaws and he found a piece of the acrylic shaving stuck to the chuck jaw. He had been turning acrylic reel seat inserts just before he started to turn his grips. Removing the acrylic shaving took care of his mandrel run out problem. About a year ago I too had a chuck to lock up, but I was fortunate enough to be able to take the chuck apart and get the piece of cork that was wedged in the gears. Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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