Rotary Table Chucks

It is important to consider the length of the chuck. A rotary table and chuck can occupy a lot of the available head room especially on smaller milling machines.

It is also worth considering direction of rotation whilst milling if using a chuck that is threaded onto a spindle. This is unlikely to be an issue for the OP but could be of interest to others.

Mine has a straight bore,so I made a fitting with a threaded nose for my myford.I found that the chuck was not supported enough as it did not sit on the table,I overcame this with a circular ring just a thou, or two above the end of the register of the adaptor and this made for a ridgid set up.I put a centre dot in the adaptor whilst being machined and this helps when centreing the RT.

Frank

The Vertex is a good chuck and not in the very expensive class like the others.

Earlier this month, in this thread, I asked the forum for opinions on Zither lathe chucks.

I had no specific replies but nevertheless decided to take the plunge and buy one from Arc.

I chose the 80mm, 4jaw, self centering chuck which Arc currently have on offer at £73.

Have to say I'm pleased with the purchase.

A few grumbles when it came out of the box, sharp corners which need minor fettling and careless number punching around the jaws slots but otherwise initial impressions were good.

I turned the register on the backplate to a precise fit in the chuck recess, drilled and tapped for the front mounting bolts, assembled the two and screwed it back onto the spindle nose.

With a short length of 5/8" silver held in the chuck I was ready for the real test of this chuck. For me to be happy, with the lathe running the bar would have to appear, APPEAR, to be running true. Well it most certainly did visually run true.

I then clocked it with a D.T.I. and it ran out by less than 1/2 thou which for a £70 chuck I would say is very good. Tested it with other diameters with the same result.

Overall at least an 8/10 chuck especially at the price and a big thumbs up for arc again, I have never been disappointed with any purchase from them.

geoff

Having three slots in the RT makes it a piece of cake to mount a three jaw chuck to it directly with tee nuts. Just look at the rear mount holes, and you will see that they can be drilled through to make front mounts. Several of my chucks are modified to front mount, there is often room for 6 holes for specific purposes.