Chuck Attatchment Question

[Mark Beattie]

Pardon the 'newb' lathe question here, but how would the chuck, in the link below, attatch to the spindle? Is there even a spindle? How do you spell spindle? The reason I ask is that I'm trying to determine how much tooling I could adapt from my wood lathe setup and how much would I have to purchase.

http://www.busybeetools.com/products/LA ... AFTEX.html

Thanks,

Mark

[RadDavis]

Chucks on metal lathes are usually bolted onto a backing plate which is threaded to fit the spindle.

Rad

[KurtHuhn]

While it is possible to use a wood lathe chuck on a metal lathe through the use of a thread adapter, it is not the most accurate tool for the job. I also prevents you from using the generous 1" spindle bore on that lathe, since the thread adapter will be a hard stop at the rear of the chuck.

That said, Penn State industries sells the thread adapters you will want to do this:
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/spindle-adapters.html

The description does not say what the spindle thread of that lathe is however, so it's worth a call to the manufacturer or retailer to find out before deciding you want this particular lathe. Typical thread size for 1" spindle bore seems to be 1.75"x8, which is a huge thread, and sort of oddball. But I suppose once you have the lathe, there isn't a whole lot stopping you from making your own thread adapter.

It's worth noting that I DO, from time to time, use a wood lathe chuck on my metal lathe. However, I strongly caution against using this due to the frustration that can result when cutting cylindrical stuff like rod stock. Wood lathe chucks are pretty far from precision tools. For cutting rod stock and tenons, I almost exclusively use a collet chuck. Best purchase evar.

But....

[Mark Beattie]

Thanks for the replies.

Update:

I visited the shop today and brought some of my existing tooling to match up to this particular lathe:

http://www.busybeetools.com/products/LA ... AFTEX.html



It's in my price range at this point in time. Almost all of my existing tooling will work, in some way or another, on this unit. Pairing my existing Oneway to this particular machine though, seems daunting to me so, I might simply have a set of custom jaws made for this chuck
and possibly sell the Oneway set.

I'm excited at the prospect of finally purchasing a metal lathe for production but would really appreciate some feedback in regards to this particular lathe and a set of custom jaws as they would apply to pipe making.

Thanks for your time,

Mark

[caskwith]

Using your oneway on the new lathe will be simple. Once you get the new lathe chuck up a piece of steel and cut a thread on it that matches the spindle of your wood lathe, screw the oneway chuck on to it and check it runs true. if it does then you know have a mandrel that can be chucked up in the 3 jaw of the metal lathe. This is essentially how it works if you buy a lamb drilling chuck and would be what I was doing if my custom chuck wasn't designed to thread onto my spindle.