Mini lathe chuck change out

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dabear3428

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i have a lathe with a 3 jaw chuck and would like to add a 4 jaw independent chuck to it, where do i start to find any standard to buy an adaptor plate or even better yet a 4 jaw that will fit on my stock spindle (3 bolt).
 
Finding an adapter plate can be difficult because lots of vendors have their own specs to boost their selling. You have to measure the spindle pretty accurate to predict an adapter plate will fit. As an alternative, you could make (drill and turn) your adapter plate. If you don't change the chuck very often (like me) making out of (a thick piece) aluminum will do fine. An adapter plate, made on the lathe it is used for, will run absolutely true. I have made several aluminum adapter plates for my mini lathe and even after 10 years the still are in mint condition.
If you make the fit for the chuck with a bit of play, you can use this play to reduce the runout of the chuck. I have done this on all my adapter plates, even those that came with my bigger lathe.
 
Huub Buis said:
Finding an adapter plate can be difficult because lots of vendors have their own specs to boost their selling. You have to measure the spindle pretty accurate to predict an adapter plate will fit. As an alternative, you could make (drill and turn) your adapter plate. If you don't change the chuck very often (like me) making out of (a thick piece) aluminum will do fine. An adapter plate, made on the lathe it is used for, will run absolutely true. I have made several aluminum adapter plates for my mini lathe and even after 10 years the still are in mint condition.
If you make the fit for the chuck with a bit of play, you can use this play to reduce the runout of the chuck. I have done this on all my adapter plates, even those that came with my bigger lathe.
Click to expand...
so a K11-??? is not a standard?
same for K12/72 etc?
i have noted that K11s are never 4 jaw.

and this seller just gives dumb looks when i ask about a chuck (and telling me they do not sell replacement parts).
 
dabear3428 said:
i have a lathe with a 3 jaw chuck and would like to add a 4 jaw independent chuck to it, where do i start to find any standard to buy an adaptor plate or even better yet a 4 jaw that will fit on my stock spindle (3 bolt).
Click to expand...
Per dabear3428 where to buy

Size of 4 jaw chuck
A good rule is buy a 4 jaw one or two sizes bigger than 3 jaw.
This so have great chucking capacity too.

Now after getting the chuck you back plate to fit the lathe and chuck LMS is good place.

I just purchased a new lathe from Walmart and 4 jaw. Then purchased back plate from LMS
20231224_105918.jpg

Dave
 
Seems finding anything that fits these mini lathes is a crap shoot
My lathe the manufacture had a 4 jaw available with correct backing plate for $280 plus shipping
I already had a Bison 4 jaw for free so did not make sense.
I could not find a 5” blank that fit my lathes bolt pattern and everything had to big of a center hole leaving no material for the 4 bolts for the chuck mounting.

You might luck out and find a plate that fits your bolt pattern and registration boss. < im not sure if thats the proper name?
Or at least have enough material to machine to fit.
Im very new to all this and so far the backing plate was my most challenging project so far.
I only had a chunk of aluminum at the time and it was a good trial run.
Post pictures of your machine and dimensions of the spindle and bolt hole patterns.
 
Figure out what type of mounting system your lathe uses. Then use that to find a back plate. Find a chuck separately. If they are the same OD, you can probably machine the back plate to work with the chuck.

For size, I can confidently say that a 6" chuck is too big for a 9x20 lathe.
 
dabear3428 said:
so a K11-??? is not a standard?
same for K12/72 etc?
i have noted that K11s are never 4 jaw.

and this seller just gives dumb looks when i ask about a chuck (and telling me they do not sell replacement parts).
Click to expand...
I think K11 are chucks originally made by SANOU. Their 4 jaw chucks are K12-xx. A lot of vendors just rebrand the chucks they buy.
Only the top quality (chuck) brands sell spare parts for their chucks.
 
durableoreo said:
Figure out what type of mounting system your lathe uses. Then use that to find a back plate. Find a chuck separately. If they are the same OD, you can probably machine the back plate to work with the chuck.

For size, I can confidently say that a 6" chuck is too big for a 9x20 lathe.
Click to expand...
so stick with a 5" ok
 
Huub Buis said:
I think K11 are chucks originally made by SANOU. Their 4 jaw chucks are K12-xx. A lot of vendors just rebrand the chucks they buy.
Only the top quality (chuck) brands sell spare parts for their chucks.
Click to expand...
that response was from the lathe vendor, but that response was not unexpected. This is all part of the low price point and i'm ok with that. I'm not opposed to making my own but before i do that i'm doing my research as to what is available. is there a resource to find specs for the k11/k12 chucks so that i can verify the chuck on my lathe meets that spec? if i find that i can then look for specific adapter plates or make my own, i know i can make my own by just buying a 4 jaw and measuring it but would love some tech documentation on the various standards (if they exist).

anyway i'm doing research before buying parts or stock to make the parts.
 
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