Help identifying a chuck

MCampbell

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Hi everyone, I'm new to the site and excited about the wealth of knowledge I've found so far.

The short version of a long story is I've taken possession of a large amount of tools and tooling that was once owned by my great grandfather. He passed away about 13 years ago and was unable to use the tools for sometime before that. So now I'm going through everything and cleaning/restoring everything I can. I'm not a machinist by any stretch, but I know enough to get myself into trouble. I'll learn what I can and take classes where needed, but right now getting everything cleaned and running is priority.

Here is an overview of what I know I have so far. A Burke #4 mill, which needs work. An Atlas/Craftsman 12x36 lathe with the QC GB that is operational. A dozen or more chucks and collets. Hundreds of cutters and bits, and still more stuff I haven't figured out yet.

Now for the question. I have a chuck that is from Cushman. It's stamped with the number 18 and is a 2 jaw chuck with 4 rollers that appears to be for knurling. Once again I'm not a machinist and don't know a whole lot, but I want to know. Does anyone know anything about it?

Thanks for any information you guys and gals may have.

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A very interesting chuck. This will be so much better to use for knurling than a knurling tool on a tool post. The chuck design will not put any load on the cross slide screw/nut.

I may be seeing set screws under the knurling wheels. Check if the knurling wheels can be removed. Different wheels have different numbers of teeth to get coarse vs fine knurling pattern.

The top two wheels have the teeth at the same angle. The bottom two may have the teeth the opposite angle to create the typical cross hatch knurling pattern.


I have not seen one of these before. You have some nice tooling passed down from the great grandfather.
 
Back in the old days you were able to buy custom made goods from almost anybody. I remember when buying a new vehicle, you had to go thru the specs in order to get the vehicle's options that you wanted or not. This was true with any good company, and Cushman was no exception. This was probably done for a large quantity order of, I would think, an odd shaped part that was probably held in a fixture attached to the cross slide, and needed a knurl on it to be a press fit into another.
 
A very interesting chuck. This will be so much better to use for knurling than a knurling tool on a tool post. The chuck design will not put any load on the cross slide screw/nut.

I may be seeing set screws under the knurling wheels. Check if the knurling wheels can be removed. Different wheels have different numbers of teeth to get coarse vs fine knurling pattern.

The top two wheels have the teeth at the same angle. The bottom two may have the teeth the opposite angle to create the typical cross hatch knurling pattern.


I have not seen one of these before. You have some nice tooling passed down from the great grandfather.

Dave, you are correct the knurling wheels can be removed, I had to do it already as one was froze up and wouldn't turn. The chuck was in very sad shape when I got, but after a little work I think it's actually functional again.

As for being passed down, well I wish it had been that easy. All the tools/tooling was days from a garage sale, I just happen to show the right amount of interest in saving it all and keeping it in the family
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4ssss, that would be pretty neat if it was a custom type chuck. Wish I could figure out the history on it, especially since every Google search I've tried has found nothing on it, but either way I'm just happy to have it.
 
Thanks for the "before" picture. You did a good job of cleaning/restoring the chuck.

I have restored a number of vintage hand bench planes which were in worse shape than your chuck. Rust can be easy to remove, but parts may not be easy to remove, especially hardware.

I would be happy to have the chuck in my shop even if not finding out much history. It is a good find.
 
A Very cool and unusual chuck indeed. Good on you for keeping it in the family.
 
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