Lathe Chuck Spacers

[Nigel Taylor]

How many times do you use lathe chuck spacers? How do you keep all of the spacers in place whilst aligning the workpiece in the chuck? I had this problem recently with a small flywheel that I was holding in external jaws. I needed to space the chuck away from the plain of the jaws so that I could machine the corner, the flywheel was only 9mm thick.

I used Mini-Hold - a tacky wax designed to hold miniature furniture in place.

I think this tacky wax for lathe chuck spacers is quite cool.

 

[TRITON]

Do you need the spacers to be there the whole time ?.

Was watching a vid the other day and the engineer placed a flat bar across the chuck, placed in the billet for turning,tightened up, then slid the bar out. The jaws support the workpiece not the spacers.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

Do you need the spacers to be there the whole time ?.

Was watching a vid the other day and the engineer placed a flat bar across the chuck, placed in the billet for turning,tightened up, then slid the bar out. The jaws support the workpiece not the spacers.

You don't need them there the whole time, plus if you're working at high speed they can come out rather fast.

A bar on the chuck face does work and I often do this as well. Ground tool blanks are superb to just space and then remove once the part is tight.

However, there are times when the back face of the object is not totally flat and you want to pick up on the rim, then you need at least 3 points.

 

[Phill05]

I use a piece of ground rod say 4mm dia and bend it into a V you then have 3 points for the 3 jaws, it is easy to pull out when tightened then it hangs on the lathe ready for next time.

 

[Fergie 307]

Same as Phil really, I use a length of cupro nickel brake pipe bent into a triangle or square depending on If it's for three or four jaws. Won't fly out and light enough not to unbalance anything.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

There are lots of different methods, would be quite nice to share them and give everyone some ideas if they are stuck