Monthly Archives: November 2013

How NOT To Remove A Lathe Chuck

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Well, it finally happened!

We’ve crashed machines, tools and such and luckily have never had it be catastrophic. While the EGO was hurt, that was about it.

Here’s a video clip of a 60# lathe chuck spinning at 1,000 RPM come loose and spin off the spindle, lathe bed, and vault onto the ground. Quite an interesting sight to see. More so to experience.

Mori-Seiki MS 850 / 1050 / 1250 lathes weighing in starting around 4-5,000 pounds makes this quite the little beast of a machine. Built to last is an understatement. Since this lathe has already been pretty badly crashed in the past leading to a broken high/low shifter gear fork and compound slide, we didn’t feel as bad as we could have had it been a “new” lathe with no major damage already to it. Still, it was a bit embarrassing… :(

Well, enjoy the video!

So, if you have a lathe spindle with a threaded collar L-00 or such, make sure to make some witness marks on the collar and chuck and inspect every once in a while – ESPECIALLY if you accidentally throw the machine into reverse just after going in the “forward” direction. OUCH!

Hardinge 30AHC Chuck Disassembly and Cleaning

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This is a test of a remote ie via mobile phone post with pictures of the disassembly and cleaning of a scroll Chuck. There are a few tips you’ll find useful!

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This is the aftermath of chuck removal and taking apart if the 5″ 3-jaw scroll chuck.

The first thing to do is to remove the jaws but before that you may want to mark the jaws to the chuck either by stamping or writing it down with a sharpie marker. Dykem markets are pretty nice too since they’re paint markers.

Once the jaws are removed just undo the socket head cap screws a wee bit and then place the chuck face down and tap the top of the bolts until the chuck body and mounting plate become slightly separated.

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Now you can operate!

You may have to use a screwdriver prying it apart but do it gently!. Oh yes and you may also want to make witness marks registering the two halves before you separate them.

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Once the halves are separated you can begin work on removing the opinion gears. Each gear has a capture pin. Just unscrew them out.

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At this point if you’re lucky enough the gears will just slide out. If not you may have to drive them out. We use a brass pin since the gears are not hardened.

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That was easy! Removing the scroll itself may be more difficult. Cross your fingers!

With the chuck body face up, use your brass pin to slowly drive it out. It’s a close fit and you may want to lube up the scroll and body before proceeding. Drive out the scroll if you can’t push out but do this carefully and gently!

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That’s all there is to it!. Clean it all up and be sure to grease or oil.

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You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby AKA What A Journey!

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We’ve just come back from a local DMG / Mori event and reflected on the trajectory that we’ve been on…

And it all started from the then sub-$500 Sieg X2 mini-mill:

Harbor Freight X2 mini mill

We began an acquisition streak that led to larger and subsequently heavier machines. As an example, our turning capabilities started from the 7x mini-lathe, onto the 8×12, then in a daring leap of faith for us at the time, bypassing the immensely popular 9×20 lathe and jumping right into the 12×36 G4003 from Grizzly. Well, it wasn’t long before we ended up with a few Hardinges (an HLV-H and DV-59) and then onto a Mori Seiki 1050 for a manual lathe and a SL-2 for a CNC.

As for mills, our path led us in a similar direction with an identical trajectory and we’re now looking at 5-axis and horizontal capabilities from machines made by DMG / Mori and Mazak to name a few names.

Our passion for tinkering with the benchtop machines hasn’t stopped, however. While we took a short hiatus from launching the X2 belt drive kit and other projects to focus on the launch of the Spindle-Lock and other hobby metalworking tools, we find ourselves being drawn back to the projects that we had a great time being involved with. Time, as it turns out, is the bottleneck.

Well, it seems this look back in time was brought about by the reposting of the original and older content dating all the way back to 2006!… And, as the season is upon us to be thankful and appreciate what we have, it only seems appropriate that we spend time looking back and being thankful for this journey that we started on and continue to be thankful for the great community of like-minded hobbyists and metalworking enthusiasts who keep this tradition alive.

Happy Holidays! :)