This weekend I was able to squeeze in a couple of lathe improvements
First I was able to get my 4 Jaw chuck up and mounted. Earlier in the year, I managed to pick up two items relatively cheap on e-bay.
The first was an old B-42 Collet Closer with an L-00 backplate. Due to the high cost and limited range of B-42 collets the closer will be of limited use for now. But I have plans to convert it to use ER-40 Collets that should be much cheaper and easier to get. But the price I paid for the whole setup was less than a new backplate, so I got the closer for free :)
 |
| Front of Collet Closer |
 |
| Rear of collet closer |
A little later, I found a nice 8" Horton 4-Jaw chuck. Appearently, nobody else did, and I got a nice solid 4-jaw for about $75 shipped. I think my mail person now hates me, since this little beauty came packed in a medium flat rate box. I guess if it fits, it does ship :)
 |
| Back of 4 Jaw |
 |
| Front of 4 Jaw |
In order to mount the chuck to the backplate, a few modificatons were needed. First off, the original mounting screws were 7/16" Filister head screws that went through the old backplate and had heavy hex nuts on them. I decided to replace them with 3/8"-18 Sochet head cap screws. This meant that the counterbores in the chuck needed to be a little deeper to deal with the heads.
 |
| Chuck with Jaws removed clamped to the mill |
I removed the Jaws and clamped the chuck to the table on the mill. In order to protect the screws from cast iron filings, I filled the slots with shop rags.
 |
| Inidicating in the old hole - Counter bore tool also shown |
Next I indicated in each of the counterbores and ran a 3/8" counterbore tool to ~3/8" depth.
Earlier, I mounted the backplate and re-faced the flange to minimize the runout on my lathe. I also turned down the outside diameter to fit the recess in the 4 jaw. The bolt pattern for the collet closer is still intact, so this backplate can be used for either application . The backplate was clamped on the mill and I indicated off of the boss to find the center. I then Drilled and tapped 4 3/8-18 holes to match the chuck.
 |
| Backing plate on mill with holes drilled and tapped |
Here is the backing plate mounted to the chuck:
 |
| Backing plate mounted to chuck |
And here is the chuck mounted to the lathe:
 |
| Chuck mounted on the lathe |
|
The only thing left at this point is to make a replacement chuck key for the 4-Jaw. The 3 Jaw is a 1/2 square, while the 4-jaw is a 7/16.
The second job this weekend was to improve the legs on the lathe. When I first setup the lathe, I just mounted adjustable feet from McMaster to some 1/2 screws. Unfortunately the mounting tabs on the lathe are not very thick, so the feet always looked a bit precarious.
 |
| Old Foot Setup |
I picked up some thick walled 2x2 tubing and drilled some oversize holes in the ends. After that, I painted them to match the rest of the lathe.
 |
| 2x2 tubes after painting |
These tubes were then mounted underneath the existing mounts to make the feet a little more stable. I made some 0.2" thick washers to help support the weight of the machine better.
 |
| Detail of New Foot setup |
 |
| New Foot under lathe. |
