Scroll Chuck Lubricant

[VicParticipant @vic]

I’ve forgotten, what do most manufacturers recommend for their Chucks, grease or oil?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Chuck Lubricant

Which is thick like grease

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Grease of any kind seems only to attract swarf and that requires a strip down and clean, I now use oil, it still attracts swarf, but requires less frequent cleaning. I use grease on the chuck interior, where swarf isn’t a problem.

I await the usual contradictory responses !!

Andrew.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

I think at that price its a sharing thing!

[mgnbukParticipant @mgnbuk]

I now use oil, it still attracts swarf, but requires less frequent cleaning. I use grease on the chuck interior, where swarf isn’t a problem.

Same here, for the same reasons.

Nigel B.

 

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

The Rotagrip product is really aimed at professional, heavy duty jobs. I agree with others that a clean followed by a sparing use of a light oil is quite sufficient for hobby use IMHO

Mike

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Several of my chucks have a flush oil point (brass with the shiny silver ball in the middle), not a protruding grease nipple. I take that as a hint.

[Dave WoottonParticipant @davewootton]

Used to use the Pratt Burnerd chuck lube where I used to work, it was good at not getting washed away by the floods of coolant used, but never seemed to be much different to the black moly grease we used previously.The grease was only used inside the chuck on the scroll and pinions, and sparingly at that. Chucks on the constantly used production machines were cleaned and serviced regularly, air operated ones particularly. It always surprised me the little wear on such heavily used items. I would agree with the above that for our lightly used chucks any decent grease or oil would be perfectly satisfactory, obviously some care needed not to overdo the oil or you will end up wearing it! I have got some of the PB lube liberated when the company shut down, but I certainly wouldn’t buy more if I live long enough to run out. Out of interest apart from a couple of damaged scrolls through ham fisted operators, the only real problems we had with chucks , both scroll and collet,were internal rusting caused by some of the horrible flood coolants used for copper machining, this seemed to wash any form of lubricant away and needed careful cleaning of the whole machine when a batch was finished.

Interestingly I dismantled a couple of brand new PB chucks and they didn’t appear to use their own grease, these had a light brown grease in rather than the black moly they supply.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I asked because my last lathe chuck purchase was lubricated with a heavy clear oil of some sort. A manufacturer of another similar chuck said to use a lithium grease.

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

Residue of soluble oil splashes from a hand spray seems to be all mine ever need.

Martin C

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

At that modest price, how could you go wrong ??

I doubt if it,s a great seller in the Home Workshop World.

[Kiwi BlokeParticipant @kiwibloke62605]

If you were trying to design a mechanism that was hopelessly inefficient, because of friction, at transmitting torque (on the chuck key) to clamping force, you’d be hard pressed to do better than a scroll chuck. Applying gorilla strength to the chuck key does nothing to improve the longevity, or accuracy of the chuck. Therefore lubrication is important. I came across some work showing the effectiveness of correct lubrication at increasing clamping force for a given key torque, but I’m afraid I can’t remember where…

Emco recommend Kluber Altemp QNB 50 for their chucks. It’s a tenacious whitish paste, doesn’t wash off easily, or get flung out of the chuck, and presumably has clever friction-reducing fillers. It’s expensive, but only tiny amount is required each time the chuck is serviced, and I expect my 80g tube will outlast me.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

To be fair, the mechanical advantage in a scroll chuck and handle is great enough with normal,wist strength, to bruise steel stock that doesn’t exactly map the radius of the chuck jaws. Even without lubricant.

I would suggest a dry MoS2 spray, as sold for open gears for use on the front when the jaws or scroll are removed from the chuck and a lithium grease for the reverse of the scroll/pinions.

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