Small vintage lathes

[Greybeard]

The dials on mine are simple brass discs engraved with graduations. The later design is much better. See picture.

[Greybeard]

I made a chuck key

[berger]

 the 3 jaw that came with my ML4 has had loads of use and abuse and needs the jaws grinding  so man with amazing skills is going to sort it for me. picture of chucky and man with amazing skills big brother looking down at his doggy

[RDfella]

W0uld be interested to know how he does that. Have tossed a few chucks over the years because they wouldn't hold within a couple of thou, which can be a pain. Holding internal usually remained fine, so the damage / wear was obviously on (one side of) the scroll. Meaning, of course, clamping a ring on the outside of the jaws to grind the inside of them would achieve nothing.

[RichardL]

big brother looking down at his doggy

Wish we could see the dog, but could that lathe be any nicer?

Richard L

[Greybeard]

Wish we could see the dog...

The dog appears in another of Bergs posts 👍. Or is that a Racoon?

[berger]

The dog appears in another of Bergs posts 👍. Or is that a Racoon?  that on the left is molly the barking burglar alarm

[RichardL]

She's a cutie. I wish your brother would learn how to take care of his machines.

Richard L.

[Greybeard]

The tailstock chuck I inherited with my lathe is knackered. I've had to return 2 eBay buys that were not good. I may have to bite the bullet and buy a new good quality chuck. Anyway, I found a keyless chuck in my box of bits. The chuck had come off a drill, It had no Morse taper, (MT1) shaft so I made one. Luckily I had a die of the correct thread, (1/2" NF 20 TPI)for the chuck.

I used a morse tapered, (MT2) chuck out of my pillar drill to grip a length of bar, the other end of which I clamped in my lathe chuck. I was then able to use the taper to set my top-slide angle. I put some ChromX bright steel bar, (thank you Alex) in the lathe and cut a taper onto it. When that was done I turned the shaft around and machined the end to a suitable diameter for the thread then using a die holder and machine in back gear I cut the thread for the chuck.
I'm happy with the result;  it works.

[Worty]

Nice!  I love engineering, unfortunately, I'm not very good at it (trial and error).  Having said that, no-one can do everything, so I go to the guys that can when I can't.

[Greybeard]

Nice!  I love engineering, unfortunately, I'm not very good at it (trial and error).  Having said that, no-one can do everything, so I go to the guys that can when I can't.

You mirror my own skill level. I'll have a go. Sometimes things go well, other times not so good.

[RDfella]

Trial and error is called experience, and that beats instruction / qualifications any day. You can tell somebody how to do something 50 times, but they won't really remember until they've actually done it themselves. As a long-departed chum of mine used to say "who are the experts - the guy with the qualifications or the guy that's done the job for 30 yrs?"

[Worty]

Trial and error is called experience, and that beats instruction / qualifications any day. You can tell somebody how to do something 50 times, but they won't really remember until they've actually done it themselves. As a long-departed chum of mine used to say "who are the experts - the guy with the qualifications or the guy that's done the job for 30 yrs?"

So true!

[BagONails]

The tailstock chuck I inherited with my lathe is knackered. I've had to return 2 eBay buys that were not good. I may have to bite the bullet and buy a new good quality chuck. Anyway, I found a keyless chuck in my box of bits. The chuck had come off a drill, It had no Morse taper, (MT1) shaft so I made one. Luckily I had a die of the correct thread, (1/2" NF 20 TPI)for the chuck.

I used a morse tapered, (MT2) chuck out of my pillar drill to grip a length of bar, the other end of which I clamped in my lathe chuck. I was then able to use the taper to set my top-slide angle. I put some ChromX bright steel bar, (thank you Alex) in the lathe and cut a taper onto it. When that was done I turned the shaft around and machined the end to a suitable diameter for the thread then using a die holder and machine in back gear I cut the thread for the chuck.
I'm happy with the result;  it works.

Good work there GB, always satisfying to get yourself out of trouble by your own nefarious wiles and inginuity.  One day tho' you might like to upgrade and Tracy Tools (no affiliation) sell these German Rohm chucks at a very good price 20 quid for the 1/2" and only 12 quid for the 3/8".  I can vouch for the quality of Rohm work holding equipment, they used to supply us special purpose chucks for our CNC production machines for gearbox internals so yeah highly accurate and durable.  Its worth acquiring a few morse taper drills and sleeve too if you can, then any bigger and you get your boring bars out. You should find a lot of this kind of thing for sale at boot sales and swap meets in the UK for not too much money if you keep your eyes open.

https://www.tracytools.com/keyless-chuck?keyword=chuck

[Greybeard]

Tracy Tools (no affiliation) sell these German Rohm chucks at a very good price 20 quid for the 1/2" and only 12 quid for the 3/8".

Thanks for that link. I've just ordered the 1/2" one. That price doesn't include VAT or delivery so total is £27.60, but that is still a good price for a quality chuck. 👌