Hello Clive, John and Thor.
I bought my Emco Compact 7 lathe in 1982 and never opened the chuck since.
Today, after disassembling the chuck I saw that she had grease, in addition to lubrication that I put there in the volute and the jaws, in places I could not reach. So I think the chuck was lubricated at the factory with a black grease.
I found that the bevel gear has teeth slightly marked by use. The other parts of the chuck are in very good condition.
Since I have no graphite grease or dry graphite in the workshop, I used Molykote. I may have abused a little in the volute but, as access to it is easy, I will easily remove the excess grease soon.
To Clive: I couldn't found the stick trays in the supermarket. Thank you for your kind offer. It is a shame that we are so far apart...
I usually put the cutters in a plastic box having compartments after I warp them in kitchen paper towel soaked in oil. Some of them I keep in their original boxes when they have it. The last set of milling cutters I bought from Arceurotrade came in very well made boxes which are perfectly suitable for storage. It's a pity Arceurotrade doesn't sell just the boxes…
Especially for Thor: I made a mistake when I started to mount the chuck that scared me. I screwed too tight the pinion's pins and when I tried to fit the jaws, I could not do it. After correcting the blunder, apparently everything was working well in the chuck.
Today I mounted in the Emco Compact 8, for the first time, a 125mm chuck I bought from Emcomachinetools awhile ago. It's a nice Bison chuck but its size strange appears too strange…
One of these days I'll check its concentricity.
Thank you all for your help
Dias Costa