D. E. Whiton 3-Jaw Chuck Disassembly

[Blue]

Has anyone ever disassembled a D. E. Whiton 3-Jaw Chuck? Most chucks appear to have a few screws underneath the back plate to allow easy removal of the tapered pinion gears, followed by the retainer and scroll. This little guy appears to have a press-fit ring in the center of the back and it does not want to move much. I have gently tapped on the scroll, and it does indeed move a little, but not much. Of concern is the is the removable(?) ring contains half of the 3 threaded holes. Any minor misalignment would be a disaster. Mine is currently soaking in PB Blaster to see if this ring will move a bit easier, but I am now wondering if this particular chuck should never be disassembled, rather just flush the innards with kerosene or similar to get the crud out. Based on the exterior condition coupled with the not-so-super-smooth movement of the scroll, the inside definitely needs a good clean.

Since mine is soaking and linking this image is easier, this is the back-side of the same chuck from an eBay photo:

My Chuck:

The distinct middle ring is what appears to be what should come out when the scroll is tapped from the front side. Notice how the outer line of the ring goes dead center through the threaded holes. Also, mine does not have a heavy scribed line (yet), indicating that it may have never been disassembled. - Update: Mine did have a faint scribe on it that I of course can see in the photo after I added the heavy scribe to the center

Edit: Made the eBay pic a little more permanent & added a picture my chuck

 

[Firstram]

Tapping on the scroll would bottom it out on the pinions, what holds them in place? Definitely following this!

 

[Blue]

Time for an update... and to answer my original question.

After a lot of searching, there was a note that DE Whiton had several patents on their Chucks. The patent for mine appears to be U.S. Patent 294,296 from Feb 26, 1884. The patent indicates that there is a split line for a "plug" of sorts in the center of the chuck. Indeed, tapping on the scroll will bottom it out on the pinions. Not great.

There is certainly hope to open this chuck "easily" since the patent clearly states:

...The object of our invention is to secure the greatest strength, durability, and accuracy in and to completely inclose all the actuating parts, to give easy access to the same when desired, and to provide means to secure the back plate to the shell at the same time the chuck is secured to the chuck-plate. We accomplish this by the mechanism substantially as hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings...

A little more searching uncovered the 1896 Whiton Lathe and Drill Chucks catalog. My chuck is called the "1884 Patent Geared Scroll Chuck for Regular Work". Clever. This is the sketch of the chuck:

Based on the literature, the center should clearly come out for cleaning.

 

[Firstram]

Drill and tap a safe spot in in the center section for a grease zerk. Pumping it full of grease "MIGHT" press the back off. If it doesn't at least it will make a huge mess for years to come. You could tap for 2 pull studs near the bore where it's the thickest.

 

[ErichKeane]

What about 'dropping' it on its back a few times? It seems that the rear 'face' is below the outer register/etc. You might have luck just dropping it onto a wood table from a few inches a few times and inertia might take it out. Once you do that, you SHOULD be able to tap it out with a brass rod through the center I would expect.

 

[Blue]

Erich - that is what I ended up doing.

For better or worse, here is how I approached this. And all appears to be good so far. First, I soaked the bottom half in penetrating oil to make sure it was lubricated as best it could be. This, in and of itself, washed out a lot of metal debris from the inside.

I started by tapping on the scroll just enough to to get the center to start moving -

Then, used a couple of sacrificial blocks as a "bang ring" to forcibly "drop" the assembly onto the blocks, striking it only on the outer ring, which effectively hammers out the center ring to a point. The side blocks are needed because the center ring must to protrude pretty far past the side height to get it out

Once I had it this far, a brass drift can be used in the gap to gently tap it out the rest of the way.

(Before you ask, that is not a brass drift... Yeah, I know)

From here, the center drops out easily

Now, the pinions come out easily from the inside

Done (and cleaned up a little)

Next is to clean and polish these parts and the jaws a bit more and re-assemble with a touch of 20W oil. The biggest challenge I see from here is correctly aligning the center piece when putting it back in. Currently thinking of putting a dowel pin in each hole to ensure alignment when putting it in. Worst case if it is not aligned, knock it out and try again.

 

[Blue]

Finally done with this. The chuck has been de-rusted, polished and re-assembled. Putting the inner back plate on was not as bad as originally expected. I put a light bit of 20W on the outer edge of the inner piece to help it move in a bit smoother, lined it up carefully to the 3 holes and the alignment scratch line, then tapped it gently around with a rubber mallet to evenly move it in. Got it on the first try with all 3 bolt holes aligned correctly!

The jaws now move much, much better than before.

The stamped nameplate cleaned up nicely:

And as a bonus - I cleaned up the chuck key and discovered that it appears to actually be the original key!

 

[matthewsx]

Nice work, just realize 3 jaw chucks are first operation tooling. Meaning, if you can do everything you need on the first chucking of your workpiece you are good. If you need something past that you will need to mount it into a 4 jaw and indicate it true to do further work.

Apologies if you already know this but I didn't when I started and it's not really obvious either. When you start working it will become apparent in a more inconvenient way....

Love old iron, keep it up

John

 

[Blue]

Thanks John, Good to know. I never really gave that much thought, but it makes sense.

Feel free to assume that I know nothing about lathes, nor how to work them. At the moment, it is a pretty good assumption

 

[mattthemuppet2]

super cool, looks like you did a lovely job! It's pretty satisfying when you take something that doesn't work and make it work I need to finish up an 8" 3 jaw that has taken about 6 months to come apart..