John,
When diagnosing chuck run out or wobble, be sure to concentrate on only ont thing.
i.e. the chuck and its jaws.
You are concerned with the chuck, the chuck mount and the chuck jaws.
You are not concerned with rod stands, the rod rests, nor the lathe bed. Of course all of these parts are necessary for a perfect rod wrapper, but none of these items have anything to do with chuck run out or wobble.
When working with such a situation, be sure to start from the beginning as Mary Poppins would say.
Start with the chuck head stock and its bearings. Is the head stock secure and not moving at all when the motor is turning the chuck. Do you have any runout or wobble in the shaft on which the chuck is mouunted. i.e. you need a solid stand with no movement and you need a solid shaft that is not moving sideways or up and down at all when the shaft is turning. If you have verified that you have a rock solid mount for the head stock and have 0 wobble in the head stock bearings, you can move on to the chuck.
At this point - do not worry about the jaws on the chuck.
Rather, now, work only on the chuck itself. If you have access to a dial indicator and stand, use it. For example:
[
www.amazon.com]
However, if you don't have access to a dial indicator, you can simply use masking tape and a marker. Use a stand of some sort. Place a layer of masking tape uniformly across the face of the chuck. Then, holding the marker on the stand, facing the masking tape on the rotating chuck, have the chuck turn at a slow speed with the marker held close to the chuck to find if the face of the chuck has any runout or wobble as it rotates.
If you have a wobble or runout on the face of the chuck, you need to resolve that issue before moving on. Is the problem in the head stock bearings, is the problem in the shaft that runs trhough the bearings. i.e. is there a bend in the shaft. Is there an issue in the way that the chuck is mounted on the shaft?
Once you have made sure that you have 0 run out or wobble in the head stock shaft, bearings and the mount of the chuck itself, it is time to move onto the jaws.
To verify this and you may also use it for your initial checking, use a piece of absolutely straight drill rod. Chuck the drill rod tightly into the chucks jaws and then check the runout of the long straight drill rod. Note: we are only speaking of the chuck and the chucks mount in this entire exercise. We are not considering rod stands or rod rests at all. Of course rod stands and rod rests are an important and necessary part of a power wrapper, but it is not germain to the issue of chuck wobble or run out.
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So, you have now checked everything on the chuck mounts and the face of the chuck itself. You are now checking for wobble or runout in the jaws. If you have a perfect head stand, a perfect set of bearings, a perfectly running chuck face with 0 runout or wobble, but have wobble in the end of a straight drill rod that is mounted in the chuck the problem has to be in the chuck;s jaws, the jaw mounts or the internal alignmnet of the chucks jaws. So, when it comes to the chucks jaws, you have to insure that each jaw is identical and that each jaw is mounted pefectly with - 0 slop or play.
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At the end of the day, if you have a wobble in your rod holder that is the chuck, head stock and stand assembly that you can't resolve and see no solution - then move on to an entirely different setup.
Consider emulating or dubplicating what Renzetti uses for its head stands and chuck. Essentially, Renzetti is using Machine Shop quality head stand, bearings, shaft, chuck and jaws.
When I built my first power wrapper a long time ago, I had issues with wobble, and simply lived with the wobble. One way to live with the wobble that simply works very well, is to take about three #64 rubber bands and wrap each one around the butt of the rod or around the blank if you are working iwth a multi piece rod and insert the rubber band wrapped grip in your chuck. With a cushion of rubber on the rod butt or on the rod blank, the chucks jaws do not need to be very tight to have a slip free setup to turn the rod. Then, just let the chuck wobble a bit and take care of the issue by simply aligning the rod stands and rod rests accurately so that as soon as one is away from the end of the rod, there will be no runout or wobble to worry about.
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p.s.
Years ago, on the same vein as the renzetti lathe, I moved on to a "Taig" set of hardware to hold my rods on my power wrapper. i.e. a Taig head stock and a Taig chuck with a 3 or 4 jaw setup with perfectly matched soft aluminum jaws.
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However, my current setup uses a custom built head stock that is made very simply from a block of nylon, two 1/2 inch bearings inset into the block and a 1/2 inch keyless drill chuck that comes with its 1/2 inch straight 1/2 inch shaft. On the end of the 1/2 inch shaft, I have a 2 inch timing belt pulley that is driven by a dc motor that has a similar timing belt mounted on the motor shaft that drives the head stock.
For example:
[
www.rodbuilding.org]
In this case, the small DC motor to drive the head stock is covered by the piece of pvc tubing that is directly below the head stock chuck which is the keyless 1/2 inch Jacobs chuck.
p.s.
I sold off my Taig head stock and other taig chuck as part of a power drive setup that was wanted by another rod builder.
p.p.s.
In the case of the jaws that you see on the taig chuck in the picture of my setup, each of the jaws were removed from the chuck and line matched with an inside countour having a 1 inch diameter to give a full grasp of the typiccal rod butt that I am working with. I keep a layer of painters tape over the face of the jaws to both soften and give a better grip of the jaws on the butt of the rod without having to use so much pressure that would leave marks on the new rod grip. The jaws were machine matched by a shop to have identical shape and length to essentially eliminate virtually all run out or wobble in the chuck.
Take care
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If you wish to purchase any Taig parts or accessories, here is a starting point: [
taigtools.com]
One can browse the catalog to get ideas on what might or might not be useful for you as a rod builder.
Little city Machine Shop is another supplier of quality machine shop parts that may be useful for a rod builder in some fashion:
[
littlemachineshop.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2023 11:49AM by roger wilson.
