I am in the process of ugrading lathes. The spindle on my current lathe is 1". The new one will be 1-1/4". I would like to use my old 4 jaw chuck on the new lathe. Does anyone have andy good/bad experience using Spindle Adapters to use a 1" chuck on a 1-1/4" spindle - Thanks.
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Spindle Adapter Question
- Thread starter Pat McDermott
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Generally a bad idea.
Best solution for a chuck is to get the proper chuck adapter. Most chucks have a threaded inserts to fit the common spindles and the chuck inserts generally cost less than a well machined adaptor.
Spindle adapters add distance from the head stock and thus increased vibration. No adapter is perfectly centered so it will increase the run out of your chuck. For many turnings these are not significant.
However if you do large work or thin work the vibration and off center can be an issue.
For something like a demonstration, adapters work well. When we were teaching kids classes on 3/4x16 threaded carbatecs, we used a spindle adapter 3/4 to 1 1/4 so that the kids could keep their projects in the chuck and mount it on a woodfast to drill it. The carbatecs would blow their circuit breakers if you got a drill bit even close to to them.
I have a bunch of adapters one I use frequently for vacuum chucks on different threads.
Nothing gets perfectly centered in a vacuum chuck so being off a a hundredth of an inch is not a big deal.
Turn a thin stemmed goblet and an extra hundredth of an inch becomes a big deal and you will have to have a string steady rest every time and the stems will be a bit oval.
Al
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I agree with Al. If your current chucks are Oneway or Vicmarc then all that is required is to remove the existing insert and replace it with a new one of the proper size. I do not know if Nova has interchangeable inserts. I wouldn't normally want to use external adapters because they will some amount of misalignment that will cause vibration -- it might be insignificant or it might not be. If you are selling your old lathe then consider making the chucks part of the deal or just find someone else who would be interested in buying the chucks.
Steve Worcester
Admin Emeritus
If you can, switch the chucks to the new native thread. If not, the downside to an adapter is the probability of it creating an out of round situation, and the further away from the spindle nose, the more vibration and chatter you will have. The plus side is most good chucks have a descent resale value, so you could sell what you have and buy new shiny ones.