Ron Altier Posted September 29, 2018 Report Share Posted September 29, 2018 I am usually very thorough when I operate machinery and recheck my equipment. I make sure all is tight and guards are in place as it should be. I had turned a very thin finial and took it out of the chuck, removed the chuck and put another project between centers. After I finished, I returned the chuck and finial to the lathe for polishing. I got a phone call and they returned to polish the piece. I turned the lathe on, the chuck unthreaded in a micro second, fell on the lathe bed smashing my finial. I gave myself a compliment by saying loudly "You big dummy!" Cal, HARO50, Steve Krumanaker and 2 others 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lew Posted September 29, 2018 Report Share Posted September 29, 2018 I did something similar once. I partially threaded a chuck with bowl. The inertia caused the chuck to jam tight on the spindle. Ever since then I’ve always used a plastic spindle washer. HARO50, Cal, Steve Krumanaker and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Krumanaker Posted September 29, 2018 Report Share Posted September 29, 2018 Sorry about your finial but I would call this a very cheap lesson. Not too many happy endings with a chuck bouncing around the shop. For the record, have done it myself. Steve DuckSoup, Cal, lew and 2 others 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevin Beitz Posted January 2, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 I have a big metal lathe. I have both a 3 jaw and a 3 jaw chuck. My 4 jaw chuck weights a few hundred Lbs. So I don't like changing chucks. So when I need a 4 jaw I sometimes put a smaller 4 jaw chuck inside my larger 3 jaw chuck. Even the smaller 4 jaw chuck is heavy. Once when I did this the weight of the smaller chuck sat on only two of the three jaws of the 3 jaw chuck and tighten up. The third jaw was not touching the smaller chuck. I turned on the lathe and proceeded to do my work. The small 4 jaw chuck came unglued and landed on the floor at a good RPM. Sparks flying off the cement the chuck sat there spinning. It slowly started moving across the floor until it came to my drill press. Then one of the jaws caught on the base of the press and the chuck started bouncing off the walls. Time to leave the room. Nothing got broken that I could find. Someone was watching over me that day... lew, Gunny, Gene Howe and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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