Nick,

Given the requirements that you mention, I agree that a [good quality] small chuck would be nice to work with.

The price of a good one, in D1-3 fitting might be surprisingly high though.

MichaelG.

Hi Nick,

Have you thought of a collet chuck? You should get better repeatability than from a 3-jaw, which will most likely suffer in the region of 3 thou run – out. An ER 25 or 32 collet chuck is available from the usual suppliers. I would get a D1-3 backplate from Roatagrip.

An example of a collet chuck is here:**LINK**

A backplate is here:**LINK**

John

If you go for a collet chuck I would suggest you opt for an ER40 as it gives you a larger range of sizes from 3mm to 30mm. If working on round bar up to 30mm, I almost always use my ER40 chuck, I also have another ER40 chuck on the milling machine so I only need one set of collets. Although you do not need to buy a set of collets I would suggest you do as sods law says if you don't the one you want you'll not have.

They are available here **LINK** amongst others, standard accuracy 15 Micron accuracy up to 10.0mm, 20 Micron accuracy up to 26.0mm and they also do zero Micron accuracy but expensive see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRjlhAllEGk

Bob

Edited By Bob Brown 1 on 01/08/2014 08:30:42

As someone with both ER collets and a big and small 3-jaw, in your position I'd go for the 3-jaw. ER collets are not the best solution for things like holding a casting by a chucking piece or anything else other than round bar. Try holding a flywheel on the inside of its rim using an ER collet… Plus an 80mm chuck will let you hold items up to 80mm which is far more useful for general work like the stuart engines. I'm assuming that the frequency you need round work set concentrically is rare enough for using the 4-jaw to be acceptable.

Neil

Hi,

Nick – your right of course! For some reason I was sure it was 26mm… I just checked the website and the spec 35mm. Oh well… Sorry for the misinformation. I don't think I have had stock bigger than an inch down the spindle myself.

I suppose its simply about the scale of what you do and the run out you want. I found I use collets more and more and the 3 jaw chucks more and more rarely. When I don't use collets most of the time its the 4 jaw. The other nice thing about 5C is the hex and square collets.

As you get older smaller and lighter become desirable attributes. Consider your other equipment eg rotary table and dividing head and what you make and perhaps a small screwed chuck on an arbor with adaptors for the other tools would be better for 80% of your actual jobs. This is the route I am going down at the moment.

headstock taper is 4 1/2 morse. The specs as per my post. I don't know if this is a common choice but its basically big enough to fit 5C collets down it (with an adapter bush) and a MT3 reducing bush for between centers work.

google tells me that a few other lathes have used the 4 1/2 morse headstock taper, but it does not appear to be overly common. Over in the USA you can buy the reducing bush to MT3 from ebay.com amongst over suppliers.

John – was there a specific reason you went with 4C instead of 5C?

Nick,

I thought you were set on a 3-Jaw, but if you are interested in collets …

The Burnered MultiSize is a lovely system, especially in D1-3 fitting.

Get a set and you could always mount 3-Jaw and 4-Jaw chucks on spigots if you wanted.

MichaelG.

.

Bazyle,

I didn't mean to imply that they were alternatives … it's simply that Nick is facing a paricular purchasing decision at this time … and John had questioned the practicality of fitting a small chuck to the D1-3.

The possibility of collets having already been raised … I would personally prefer to buy the the MultiSize collet chuck first; mounting other [small] workholding devices on spigots that fit a [large] collet, as-and-when appropriate.

MichaelG.

I would imagine it is. But I imagine said system with it being Bernerd is a 'lovely' handsome price also.!

.

Regrettably true, at list prices … but they do come up seconhand, and they were built to last.

MichaelG.

???

What rubber inserts, Neil?

Burnerd MultiSize is not to be confused with RubberFlex.

MichaelG.