Replacing a Lathe Chuck

Rick, I was thinking about doing exactly that with my ER40 and 5C chucks. I’ve already ordered back plates for them to machine to fit. I ordered Grizzly D1-4 backplates that have no features on the front. Should be a good blank canvas.

Since everything seems to be made on CNC machines now I wonder how much difference there is between the machining of mid priced tooling and the good stuff. I have one Bison chuck and it’s certainly a quality piece. Metallurgy is a separate matter. The need to clean all of the grit and trash out of the cheaper ones is a given.

I’m very tempted by the CME. If I’m going to spend big money I would go with one of the majors but most of my work is as a volunteer on the restoration of the battleship USS Texas. Since December 2023 I've bought an Index 645 mill and the Victor 1340GHE that needs a chuck and spent whatever was needed to get them into my home workshop and working well. I don’t make any money machining and other than gunsmithing I've probably made less than $300 from machining since I started. Point being, I'm spending a whole heap just to help preserve a Texas icon and maybe make a few parts for model airplanes for myself and friends. Everything is an out of pocket expense.

G-ManBart, I appreciate your real life experience. I'll very likely order a San Ou adjustable. When it's all said and done, I'll also have the backplate from the worn out chuck to play with. It might become a gunsmithing spider chuck for barrel work. I still have a couple of Brazilian Mausers that are badly neglected and good starts for sporting rifle builds.
 
ChazzC said:
I got excellent results from my Accusize 5" 3-Jaw, but just checked Amazon and the prices have gone up (my <$70 chuck is now $140 and their 6" for your lathe is $295)
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The Accusize chuck is interesting. It looks IDENTICAL to the one that came on the lathe. The three pairs of screws near the through hole are uncommon and somewhat distinctive. I’ve been very pleased with everything I’ve bought from Accusize so far. Just wondering if that chuck is just rebranded or if it’s their design or at least built to their specs.
 
David2011 said:
The Accusize chuck is interesting. It looks IDENTICAL to the one that came on the lathe. The three pairs of screws near the through hole are uncommon and somewhat distinctive. I’ve been very pleased with everything I’ve bought from Accusize so far. Just wondering if that chuck is just rebranded or if it’s their design or at least built to their specs.
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Mine has their maple leaf deeply etched into the face, so I assume it’s made specifically for them.

I, too, have been very pleased with my tooling from them; but then, I also like my Shars stuff.
 
CME seems to have a good following I will be ordering one soon.
 
David2011 said:
Rick, I was thinking about doing exactly that with my ER40 and 5C chucks. I’ve already ordered back plates for them to machine to fit. I ordered Grizzly D1-4 backplates that have no features on the front. Should be a good blank canvas.
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Keep us posted when you get to doing that, with photos, please.
 
Sure thing. The back plates should be delivered soon. It’s a high priority for me.
 
The D1-4 back plates from Grizzly arrived two days ago. They’re very thick and I think they are well suited to make the ER40 and 5C chucks adjustable. The bodies are 1.125” thick and at the spindle nose they’re a few thousandths shy of 1.6” thick. The holes for the mounting pins come within about 0.3“ of the front but the pins only protrude into the back plate about 0.9” so there’s right at 0.6” of cast iron in front of the plane defined by the ends of the pins. That’s far more than is needed to make the chucks adjustable.

Not much time was spent cleaning the machining residue from the pin and retainer screw holes. It took two separate shots of brake cleaner and blowing out with air to get the threads clean enough to screw the pins and retainers in with my fingers.
 
As happens, the back plates are still sitting untouched. I decided to thoroughly clean the lathe and paint it. Then some other distractions had to have attention. I've contacted CME twice. The first time I got a response within a day or two from Robert Wei. He told me that the back plate in the eBay listing might not be the right one and that he would get me the correct part number. Two weeks later I replied, asking if he had the part number. I'm still waiting for a response. I'm disappointed in the poor communication but will give a few more days before giving up on CME. In the mean time I'll look into other brands again.
 
After my last post I called CME. Doug answered the phone. He said Robert Wei is the owner and is in the Far East at some machinery expos. He also said that the don't import an extra thick D1-4 back plate for the adjustable 3 jaw chuck. L00, L0 and threaded back plates are available; just not D1s in the recommended 1-1/2" thickness. Doug said that some people just add an additional plate of steel to add the required thickness. guess I could do that; it's just extra time machining.
 
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