Ordering a 6-jaw Chinese Chuck-

Thanks for the info guys! I have a 4 jaw and a collet chuck plus a pair of 3 jaws. I might consider turning down the recess of the back plate a little tighter to see if I can get it closer to running true, but perhaps I'll just dial in my 3 jaw instead. I guess I don't really have a NEED, just a curiosity.

I guess worst case I'll have something for if I ever do thin wall stuff.
 
Thanks for the info guys! I have a 4 jaw and a collet chuck plus a pair of 3 jaws. I might consider turning down the recess of the back plate a little tighter to see if I can get it closer to running true, but perhaps I'll just dial in my 3 jaw instead. I guess I don't really have a NEED, just a curiosity.

I guess worst case I'll have something for if I ever do thin wall stuff.

Sounds like you are covered for chucks with this new addition. I'm curious if that 6-jaw comes with a set of OD jaws, the listing doesn't say. OD jaws come in very handy on a 6-jaw. Mine has 2 pc jaws so I can just flip the top jaws.

I would make the backplate register fit tight with the new chuck, then check runout. If the runout is not acceptable, then proceed with making it a tap-tru if you feel the need to.

The very first 6-jaw I purchased was a China chuck, it didn't come with OD jaws but at the time I had no use for them on my mini lathe. I never ended up using that chuck though, literally right after I received it I found a used Bison 6-jaw Set-Tru for cheap. I fell in love with that chuck so when I got my current lathe I bought another Bison 6-jaw Set-Tru for it.

Sanou seems to be a newish chuck manufacturer, well at least the brand name. From what I seen they seem to better than most other China chuck manufacturers. I actually bought a couple of 3-jaw chucks by Sanou & they aren't too shabby. Can still tell they are China though. That didn't matter to me though, they are micro chucks, the kind that use tommy bars. What's interesting is that they did not come with OD jaws but the jaws can be used in reverse for OD due to the way they made the scroll teeth on the jaws. I'm curious if your chuck is like that too. But I've never seen larger chucks that can do this. I'm thinking that may just be a common feature of micro chucks, I'm not sure.
 
I'll take pictures when I take it apart I guess :) Unfortunately Set-Tru/etc stuff for an L1 taper is INCREDIBLY expensive and rarely comes up inexpensively. I thought that $200 for an 8" 6 jaw was pretty cheap and have a spare backing plate so I am going to give it a shot. Worst case I'll have something for when/if I ever do hollow tubing.
 
Higher end chucks will have removable jaws. My Pratt and Rohm chucks have them. Cheaper chucks tend to have jaws that can be reversed. Not that that's bad; it just means if the jaws are damaged then replacing them will be harder.
 
I'll take pictures when I take it apart I guess :) Unfortunately Set-Tru/etc stuff for an L1 taper is INCREDIBLY expensive and rarely comes up inexpensively. I thought that $200 for an 8" 6 jaw was pretty cheap and have a spare backing plate so I am going to give it a shot. Worst case I'll have something for when/if I ever do hollow tubing.

Best thing to do is to buy a plain back adjust-tru and make a back plate to fit it.
 
Best thing to do is to buy a plain back adjust-tru and make a back plate to fit it.
Even beat up ones in a useful 8-10" size seem to be worth more than I spent for my lathe :) The backing plates are actually quite challenging to make for my lathe between a taper, a threading, and a keyway. Perhaps I just need to buy a shaper first...
 
Higher end chucks will have removable jaws. My Pratt and Rohm chucks have them. Cheaper chucks tend to have jaws that can be reversed. Not that that's bad; it just means if the jaws are damaged then replacing them will be harder.

Oh, so they do have larger pinion type scroll chucks where the one piece jaws can be reversed? All the China chucks that I've had in the past with one piece jaws couldn't, they came with a set of OD jaws. I've always wondered about this. With my limited experience I've only seen this on those micro chucks I got.
 
Oh, so they do have larger pinion type scroll chucks where the one piece jaws can be reversed? All the China chucks that I've had in the past with one piece jaws couldn't, they came with a set of OD jaws. I've always wondered about this. With my limited experience I've only seen this on those micro chucks I got.

I have two Rohm chucks with reversible jaws so yeah, they make them. It takes careful machining to make it work. I sold my Samchully chuck and it also had reversible jaws.
 
Even beat up ones in a useful 8-10" size seem to be worth more than I spent for my lathe :) The backing plates are actually quite challenging to make for my lathe between a taper, a threading, and a keyway. Perhaps I just need to buy a shaper first...

Yup, adjust-tru chucks are big bucks and the 6 jaw variety is even more so. Here is one that you could adapt a back plate to that is in nice shape but there is no denying that they're expensive.
 
I have two Rohm chucks with reversible jaws so yeah, they make them. It takes careful machining to make it work. I sold my Samchully chuck and it also had reversible jaws.

Thanks Mike for fullfilling my curiosity! Ah, so is that how another Mike owns a wonderful Samchully chuck? You are the only person I have ever heard of owning one. I drooled over them for a whille.
 
Back
Top