A question for the turners around here.

[ichbinmuede]

On a lathe with an eight inch swing is it safe to mount a 6 inch chuck? Safe for the lathe and for me of course. Since it's a wood lathe we're talking about here would all I have to worry about be perhaps extra wear on the drive belt from the added weight?

 

[acme]

As a general statement, there is nothing wrong with putting a big chuck on a small lathe.

There are two potential problems.

First, because the chuck weighs a lot, any inbalence in the chuck will be magnified. The faster you spin the lathe, the greater the effect. The negative result is vibration.

Second, the smaller the lathe, usually, the smaller diameter of the spindle. Thus increasing the likelyhood of vibration.

You didn't say what kind of a lathe it was, but a robust lathe, even with a small swing, will handle the problems better than a rinky-dink one.
anthony

 

[smokindawg]

If it's not built out of tin foil, a 6" chuck should work just fine on the lathe with no ill effects. And I don'e see that it would cause any more belt wear than a smaller chuck. Of course there are some crappy machines out there so take this with a grain of salt. (Not saying your tools are crappy either )
What are you planning on turning? If briar is your wood, I'll tell you that I use a 4" scrolling wood chuck with jaws I made myself. I use them on a Jet 9x20 metal lathe and it has worked fine with every block that I have drilled.

 

[ichbinmuede]

Well briar is definitely one of the woods that I plan to chuck in there and one that I'd really like to try my hand at.

The lathe that it'd go on is nothing fancy just a Mastercraft branded 12" deal (I wish I could afford one of those sweet Jet machines) that I got on sale for $100 at Canadian Tire.

So even if you did think my tool was crappy I wouldn't take it as a personal insult. It's not like I made it or anything. :lol:
The drive spindle is 1" x 8 tpi so rinky-dink or not hopefully it'll do the job. So far after a few turnings on pine, oak, walnut, and maple it turns true and runs quite stable. if I was going to nitpick the thing there are a few things that could be better but for $100 I'm not disappointed.

 

[winton]

I would be extremely surprised if the chuck was not practically perfectally balanced. Thus, you should be OK. Both my Jet lathes use a 1"x8 tpi drive. It sounds like you have a decent machine. I heard some advice a long time ago. If either the lathe or you are shaking, the speed is too fast.
Winton

 

[ichbinmuede]

Thanks for the words of wisdom and affirming my thoughts on this. I'll definitely be picking up that chuck now.
Winton: I hadn't even considered that but I'll definitely be keeping that in mind from now on. A good piece of advice!

 

[acme]

In woodturning, speed is your friend. With some notable exceptions; applying finishes, drilling, sanding, chasing threads, all aspects of turning are easier the faster the material spins.
Winton is correct, that if the lathe starts vibrating, you have to slow down - or buy a heavier lathe. IF it can be done, the latter is the correcty choice.
anthony

 

[smokindawg]

1" x 8 isn't rinky dink........ In fact it's a pretty standard thread on a lot of lathes. A 4" wood scroll chuck would work great and jaws are easy enough to make for one. It's what I'm using and I made the jaws from aluminum and they work great. Probably stronger than the chuck and it's strong and holding up well to my abuses.

 

[ichbinmuede]

Oh if I only had a milling machine. I would have walls dressed with custom tools and parts but alas! :lol:

Well I suppose I may be able to make some jaws for the thing without one but with machines I don't think I could trust my accuracy. I'd hate to have the thing heavy on one side.

 

[smokindawg]

Yea, luckily I traded an extra lathe I had a while back for a mini mill....... it's big enough to make the jaws I use and other doo dads. (Tools handy for making pipes)