Cheap Mini Lathe Chuck Tear Down & Analysis

[The Aussie Shed]

Hey again Folks,
New Video up on my Cheapo Chinese Mini lathe Adventures.
Today I Take apart the Stock New Factory Chuck for a bit of a look.
Everything was as expected.
Hope you like it.
Cheers.

[marksbug]

I always pull appart all my chucks when I get them new or used and rebuild them, deburr them. but you have to be carfull on the deburring!! some places you can deburr to your hearts desire, but some places you just need to take a 400_600grit wet and go across it to knock off the sharp edge, not a file job. remember if you file it (like add a chamfer) to make a funnel....to funnel the crap into it.( witch is not what you want. but!! a sharp edge is more like a "scraper" to keep the crap out. your brain says debugger the hell out of it but thats not good on all places.some yes some no.down inside the "T" yes,but not the outer edge. just look at where it is and can it use a good chamfer or just knock off the sharpness of the edge oh so slightly. these are cheep iron, and machined fast... so they are jagged. I use moly lube to greessee mine. also remember greessee attracts debris/crap....and holds it there to eat at whatever it can... I also like using dry moly sprays&coatings.it attracts oil but not so much debris. Ive bought about 6 of the china chucks new from 80mm up to...160 I think and htere all the same, put together with grit.it may be chinas way of lapping the parts together....well Ive seen worse.. as for the dial indacator reading there could of been a burr or slight bump on the back side causing that,not a worry. if you get a old chuck or need to "square one up" I had to do that with one of mine,I used a good known chuck running true and a hardened bar(I think it was 1.5" but not sure) and tightened each chuck on the bar then trued upp the back of the chuck,you can also resize the register that way. witch i think is what I did ,it was out to far..for my likeing.so I squared it up.or you can add a face plate and rework the back side of it.. you can also change depths of the register or add another one to fit another face plate for another lathe and have a duel pattern chuck for uses on either lathe,( witch comes in handy when a new face plate for that old lathe isant feazable, but you need to put this chuck on it). I have the name brand china chucks and the no name chucks....there is a differance, but not a lot. let your work decide on witch you get. some places show and say it's the name brand then send a non brand....if it does not have the name stamped on it or a id tag...it's not the real deal. ( I got 1 free chuck that way, as shipping it back to china wasent a good $$ idea) keep them chips a flying!! and remember most things ( tooling addaptors etc)you can make so why buy them!!!!

[The Aussie Shed]

Thanks Mark, Great well worded post there. Lots of great info. Cheers Mate.