zeeprogrammer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2009
- Messages
- 3,362
- Reaction score
- 13
Nice educational and detailed post. Thanks.
Making soft jaws for a lathe chuck
- Thread starter zeeprogrammer
- Start date
Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 3,285
- Reaction score
- 630
The first time I used soft jaws was on the lathe at school, where they milled the aluminum softjaws via CNC. Here's an image after the pocket was bored:
You need to clamp a round "slug" before boring to keep the jaws from moving. Here's the flywheel blank clamped in the pocket:
This morning I tooks advice and milled the angles on the soft jaw faces. The hard jaws had an angle less than 60 degrees, but I just used the 60 degree angle plate to set the jaws in the vise:
With all three jaws milled and remounted:
The faces of the soft jaws are now even with the faces of the lower hard jaw, making it easier to position the slug before boring.
You need to clamp a round "slug" before boring to keep the jaws from moving. Here's the flywheel blank clamped in the pocket:
This morning I tooks advice and milled the angles on the soft jaw faces. The hard jaws had an angle less than 60 degrees, but I just used the 60 degree angle plate to set the jaws in the vise:
With all three jaws milled and remounted:
The faces of the soft jaws are now even with the faces of the lower hard jaw, making it easier to position the slug before boring.
