5" 5C collet chuck recommendation

[pacifica]

I tried taking a closer look at the 5C chuck today, trying a feeler gauge between the chuck itself and the backplate. Smallest feeler gauge I had was 0.0015" and that would not pass through the two faces. So it doesn't appear to be something simple like grit between the backplate and the chuck. Just for giggles I took a look at the face junction between the spindle and the backplate of the chuck, and there I saw daylight. I could fit a 0.004" feeler gauge easily, but the 0.005" was a NO-GO. I tried retightening the camlocks, and even removed the chuck and removed the camlock lugs on the backplate and raised and lowered them one turn, which just made the camlocks themselves not really lock up.

I took a look at the video I did again, and I was seeing just a hair under 0.001" at the edge of the backplate. I dunno, would 0.001" runout at the backplate equate to 0.0065" at the nose of the chuck? Looking again at the video, the runout gets progressively worse as I check along the length of the chuck. Is this the problem? The chuck backplate is just not registering against the surface of the spindle face causing the excessive runout?

Unless I misinterpreted your video-I was surprised to see more runout in the nose than on the outer rim. I have never had that happen to me-especially such a big difference.

 

[Tired&Retired]

Unless I misinterpreted your video-I was surprised to see more runout in the nose than on the outer rim. I have never had that happen to me-especially such a big difference.

I don't know how I should have done it any differently, as that just seemed to be logical to me. I just wanted to show the readings from the spindle face first, and then gradually work my way towards the nose. I would guess the chuck being cocked at an angle in relation to the spindle face would produce that sort of effect. Even in a nearly perfectly aligned chuck, I would expect a nearly perfectly straight and rigid work piece to have at least some slight increase in wobble the closer you get to the far end of the work compared to being right next to the chuck jaws. In the case of this chuck, the nose end is the runout that REALLY counts.

Well anyway, the seller is offering me a replacement of a unit with the baseplate semi-finished to machine for a better fit of the actual chuck. So he is trying to work with me to resolve the problem and not just blowing me off. I already can return the chuck for a full refund, so this is an OPTION B, if I want it. At least Ebay is pretty good in that regard. So I just have to make up my mind what I want to do.

 

[Larry$]

Check with PM to see if they are still selling the Run-Tru 5C chuck.

 

[Tired&Retired]

I didn't see any such chuck on PM's website.

Anyway, I dropped off the chuck at a local shipping depot store today, so it is on it's way back to the seller. When I asked the seller about some details on that plain back 5C chuck and a semi-finished backplate, he never bothered to respond to me about it. Oh well. I ordered another chuck from someone else, so I will see how that one turns out. I still have the two 5C collet sets, that if the new chuck works out fine, I will keep, but if not, they go back to the original seller too when I return the second chuck. I guess I can just keep on ordering and returning a new chuck till I get a decent one. As long as I can get free return shipping via Ebay, what the heck...