How i removed my stuck chuck

stupoty

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I have my new to me leblond nearly ready to rock and role.

the chuck was stuck on so tight i thought it would never come off.

tried everything (except power and wood, the motors away being rewound)

i had come to the conclusion that i was going to have to machine it off.

somone suggested to me slitting it, i had already thought of this so with a second suggestion of it i gave it a try.

I made some wedges and hardened them.

these were hammered into the slot i cut with a hacksaw , the slot went as deep as i could take it.

Then a little extra with a pry bar cracked the back plate enough to finally remove the back plate. Yay.

stuart

I
m having some issues getting the images uploaded will try again latter

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I don't think that's the factory approved method of removing a chuck. :lmao: Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do. That one must have been almost welded on, at least you saved the spindle.
 
I don't think that's the factory approved method of removing a chuck. :lmao: Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do. That one must have been almost welded on, at least you saved the spindle.

Yeah spindle not getting recked was the main factor in not being any rougher,

i managed to bend some 20mm diamitor steel bar in the chuck jaws when trying to unscrew it

made a pritty pattern of ridges on a piece of 25mm hex bar with an impact wrench (450 newton meters of torque)

i think their was a little paint that had been sucked into the thread when somone slaped paint on it earlyer in its life and some lurge chunks of brass swarf, their was one small area of corosion and some burs on the back plate s first thread.

i did try a gas torch also but i dont think i could get enough heat in fast enough to stop the spindle heating.

i left it in some penetrant for about 5 days

then tried some more heat

humm

hopefully i can hold the back plate togeter with the chuck to make up new a new back plate as i couldnt get any leeds on a 5tpi back plate for a leblond

stuart
 
All you had to do is run it in reverse and the chuck would have spun right off and landed in your lap, according to lots of people afraid of threaded chucks.

Just kidding, of course.

One way to work around the heat issue is to stuff the inside with wet rags. Keeps the temperature down. Or use some dry ice after heating the chuck. Dry ice and acetone come down to about -77° C and a slurry could have been poured in after warming the chuck. Naturally it would boil away rapidly within a warm spindle, but it would chill is significantly.

But, like Jim said.....sometimes ya gotta do what you gotta do. You got it off, that's the main thing.
 
All you had to do is run it in reverse and the chuck would have spun right off and landed in your lap, according to lots of people afraid of threaded chucks.

Just kidding, of course.

One way to work around the heat issue is to stuff the inside with wet rags. Keeps the temperature down. Or use some dry ice after heating the chuck. Dry ice and acetone come down to about -77° C and a slurry could have been poured in after warming the chuck. Naturally it would boil away rapidly within a warm spindle, but it would chill is significantly.

But, like Jim said.....sometimes ya gotta do what you gotta do. You got it off, that's the main thing.

Yeah now its lose it will probably be dropping on my toes every 5 minuits :)

I had been looking for some co2 to chill the spindle but it all seemed to be pointing at cutting it off somehow :)

If i every get it stuck though i will give the dry ice a go.


Glad i got it off though and the spindle is still fine as the lathe was harder to get into the basement than either the wicksteed hacksaw or the ward horizontal mill and they all weigh about the same

Now i can get the bolts made up for the hacksaws hydraulics sump and polish the cone pully for the mill Yay (ow hang on i still need the motor back ahhhhhh) :)

stuart
 
I have owned a 19" Regal Leblond for about 30 years and used it in a very active shop; I have never seen ANY lathe that the threaded on chuck could not be removed under power in reverse with a wood block between the chuck jaw and the rear bedway; sometimes it may take a few attempts ---- Well, there was one, that took more effort, it was a 36" swing Nebel lathe, had approx 24" 4 jaw on it, and I had to put the big faceplate on it for a particular job; after making kindling out of several 4X4 fir step blocks off the milling machines, I finally found a boring bar that was about 4" squareand held it diagonally through the chuck jaws, extending down between the bed ways. It had a 30 HP motor directly connected, and with the machine in the lowest speed, I bumped it several times in reverse and the chuck came off with no damage; as I remember it was threaded with an acme thread that was fairly coarse, like maybe 3 TPI; years of batter5ing on interrupted cuts set it up as if a giant impact wrench had been used.
 
I have owned a 19" Regal Leblond for about 30 years and used it in a very active shop; I have never seen ANY lathe that the threaded on chuck could not be removed under power in reverse with a wood block between the chuck jaw and the rear bedway; sometimes it may take a few attempts ---- Well, there was one, that took more effort, it was a 36" swing Nebel lathe, had approx 24" 4 jaw on it, and I had to put the big faceplate on it for a particular job; after making kindling out of several 4X4 fir step blocks off the milling machines, I finally found a boring bar that was about 4" squareand held it diagonally through the chuck jaws, extending down between the bed ways. It had a 30 HP motor directly connected, and with the machine in the lowest speed, I bumped it several times in reverse and the chuck came off with no damage; as I remember it was threaded with an acme thread that was fairly coarse, like maybe 3 TPI; years of batter5ing on interrupted cuts set it up as if a giant impact wrench had been used.

Ahh the motors at the rewinders, i had herd the regals have a ligtwaight gear box on the smller ones and was a bit hesitant to slam the wood :)

i did manage to bend some metal levering, when i moved up in metal sizit felt like the spindle was twitsting a little, so i stoped.

im going to get some backplate blanks cast i think and remake the backplates

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20mm mild steel

30 hp is a monster, :)

stuart

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