Pratt and Burnurd 4 Jaw - keep or sell

[Ben17484]

When I sold my old lathe, I kept the P&B 4 jaw chuck with the intention of putting it on my new lathe. My new lathe came with a 4 jaw chuck (of unknown quality) and now I’m wondering if I should sell the P&B and put the funds towards more tooling, or keep it and fit it to the new lathe.

So the question is - with the fact that runout on a 4 jaw presumably isn’t a worry as you dial it in, would keeping a good well known brand such as P&B worth it, or would the new 4 Jaw from Warco be good enough? I’m a beginner and a hobbyist, so precision is unlikely a problem for me.

The new 4 jaw is 125mm and the P&B is 150mm.


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[mmcmdl]

I would keep the P&B chuck . Great quality .

 

[Beckerkumm]

I would check both to see if the jaws are tight and not bell mouthed, inducing runout on the far end of the stock. I'd use the best one for inside jaws and keep the other but switch the jaws to outside. I don't like having to swap all four jaws and you aren't going to get a lot of money for the Warco. The old PB were a very high end chuck so hopefully the jaws are still good.

Dave

 

[projectnut]

If the P&B fits your lathe without interfering with the ways when it’s opened to larger capacity than the smaller one can hold I would keep both of them.

The smaller one should hold smaller diameter stock than the larger one, and the larger one should hold larger diameter stock than the smaller one. I have half a dozen chucks for each of my lathes. They range from 3” in diameter to 10” in diameter. Some are 3 jaw and others are 4 jaw. I use the one best fitted for the stock I’m working with at the time.

 

[woodchucker]

The PB is much higher quality than the Warco, but is it tight? The metallurgy on the PB would be far superior, the larger capacity nice if it fits.
Generally a 4 jaw can be larger than the 3 jaw on a lathe. Why? I don't have the answer, presumably because you can easily flip the jaws, but so can you a 3 jaw.

If you tell us the size of your Warco, it might help get you more OPINIONS.

 

[MrWhoopee]

If you tell us the size of your Warco, it might help get you more OPINIONS.

The Warco is 125mm, so roughly 5", which is pretty small. As others have said, if the P&B is not too big for your lathe, keep it. What is the swing of your lathe?

 

[Ben17484]

Thanks everyone for your input. My lathe is 280mm (11 inch) swing. It’s plenty big enough to take the P&B chuck. I think you’ve all convinced me to keep it. I have another P&B 3 jaw that I’ve kept so I can have one set up for inside jaws and one for outside, I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to do the same with the 4 jaws. The P&B 4 jaw is in good condition. I used it quite a lot on my Smart and Brown so I know it’s good.

How would I buy new jaws for a Chuck? Presumably they’d need to be specifically made for not just that brand but also the model of chuck? Or are there generic jaws that you just order by size?


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[woodchucker]

Thanks everyone for your input. My lathe is 280mm (11 inch) swing. It’s plenty big enough to take the P&B chuck. I think you’ve all convinced me to keep it. I have another P&B 3 jaw that I’ve kept so I can have one set up for inside jaws and one for outside, I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to do the same with the 4 jaws. The P&B 4 jaw is in good condition. I used it quite a lot on my Smart and Brown so I know it’s good.

How would I buy new jaws for a Chuck? Presumably they’d need to be specifically made for not just that brand but also the model of chuck? Or are there generic jaws that you just order by size?


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A 4 jaw like you have (not a scroll) is usually reversible. 3 jaws, though with a scroll are not. They are specific for that chuck, usually in a final grinding.

 

[MrWhoopee]

How would I buy new jaws for a Chuck? Presumably they’d need to be specifically made for not just that brand but also the model of chuck? Or are there generic jaws that you just order by size?

As a general rule, you're not going to find new jaws for an old chuck. Not to say it doesn't happen, but it is definitely the exception.

 

[Ben17484]

As a general rule, you're not going to find new jaws for an old chuck. Not to say it doesn't happen, but it is definitely the exception.

Do jaws generally wear out before the chuck would? I’d guess so. So the likely hood is that if the jaws wear out the chuck becomes useless?


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