Strange washers..are they justified?

Hi, from this forum I now know I have a circa 1921 Little Goliath small lathe. So I am currently cleaning and lubricating it up.

The chuck is held on a back plate with 3 3/16 BSW 1/2 long screws, 2 of which were missing. I have ordered 3 new alum heads as they will be a lot easier to attach. But also the existing original screw has this odd shaped washer to sit in the hole. it is not a spring washer so it just serves to get a tad more surface area than the screw head.

Do washers such as these have a name and would 3/16 spring washers suffice as an alternative?

Chris

I wouldn’t bother with any washers on that job if you have bought cap head screws (alum) allen heads?

i would use a touch of locktite on the threads

Hi Chris, Assuming that the chuck back plate is cast iron I would use some sort of washer to protect the cast iron .Drill out, if not big enough hole, some 4mm washers and use them. That what you have has any special name, I doubt it. Good luck. Noel. PS If using lock tite use a low strength type on slot heads.

Edited By noel shelley on 05/01/2020 13:58:41

The back-plate appears to have been "modified" to accept the screws/bolts. The proper fixing holes are the ones on the outside. I would guess that the back-plate was from a larger chuck originally. There is precious little metal left on the register wall which has been reduced a great deal. Are you sure about the length, 1/2" seems to be very short as the back-plate must be nearly that thickness. A cheese head bolt/screw would do but an allen headed cap screw better if you can find one with the right thread, also check the head diameter that it fits in the available space. No washer necessary and you could as suggested use a little retainer/thread lock if you are worried about the security of the screws.

John

Edit: Typo

Edited By Journeyman on 05/01/2020 14:07:37

It looks like a much smaller chuck was fitted as the original holes are there further out. I cannot believe that the manufacturers would have drilled so close to the spindle thread diameter, shop bodges vary greatly in in design and who knows what was going through the mind of the person who did it. I'm sure it will work well enough for a vintage machine which will now be used with more care than it received in the past.

Thanks for this, once you said it it was obvious I wondered if the plate served another use with the outer 3 holes, when I have more time i will look up the catalogue and see what's what.

Chris

Hi, looks like they may be a DIY job, i.e. they have just used plain flat washers and filed them to suit, the lager bit would help to hold it in a vice and why bother to file it away if it isn't fouling anything.

Regards Nick.