Windy Miller
Semi-Professional Potterer!
- Messages
- 3,672
- Location
- North Kent, UK
I went to use my 4 jaw today to grip a 100mm square chunk of 15mm steel, and it just wouldn’t fit. No matter which way I round I put the jaws, they either wouldn’t close up enough to grip, or they wouldn’t open enough to get it in! Is this a common scenario?
It‘s not your ‘normal’ 4 jaw chuck - it comes as a standard accessory with the 920 mini lathe, and it’s a very ‘budget’ type of thing. It resembles a faceplate with 4 surface mounted sliding jaws (with very limited travel). Like this:
Anyhow, my question is this:
Is it bad practice to add packers to take up the slack? If I were to pop a bit of 12mm square bar in between each jaw and the workpiece it would grip fine, but I’m wondering if this is a (dangerous) bodge, not to mention being a faff to set up?
It‘s not your ‘normal’ 4 jaw chuck - it comes as a standard accessory with the 920 mini lathe, and it’s a very ‘budget’ type of thing. It resembles a faceplate with 4 surface mounted sliding jaws (with very limited travel). Like this:
Anyhow, my question is this:
Is it bad practice to add packers to take up the slack? If I were to pop a bit of 12mm square bar in between each jaw and the workpiece it would grip fine, but I’m wondering if this is a (dangerous) bodge, not to mention being a faff to set up?