Easy centering 4 jaw chuck

[driftability]

piece of piss.

[stinkingdog101]

I millwrighted for years and I have never seen an alignment go this fast. Great vid and job

[tehsimo]

4 jaw just seems dumb for this reason.

[NIGHTWATCHERUK01]

how would you centre a HEX bar, then off set it by 16mm, I tried reversing jaws 1&3 so I had a larger surface area to act as a clamp, but I was told that this was bad practice ie:- all the jaws should be in the same oriantation

[dpug9750]

good tips in the video for model engineers i guess, but for production and none round materials it's not worth the agro. I do this stuff for a living and have found that leaving the clock well alone (not zeroing the dial) works well, just remember the figures and adjust at 180 degree intervals.

[BasementShopGuy]

Great tips. They work. Thanks man!

[dorplein62]

all that effort for a round workpiece, use a autocentering 3 claw man >.>

[Mesdriver]

@dorplein62

If you put a round workpiece in a four jaw chuck you will be able to centre it much more accurate than with the autocentering three claw where plus or minus 0.03mm is quite normal.

Or use the independed three claw.

I think the uplouder of this video is trying to show you that.

Bigmouth nobrainer.

[dorplein62]

@Mesdriver never said that it would be less accurate with the method in this video , just said it was easier in a autocentering 3claw ..

Do not call me a bigmouth nobrainer , since you were the one calling me an idiot in the first place.

[1979Spica]

Or you could just use the tailstock centre as an approximate guide. This chuck is already not too far off anyways. Try this after someone turned a rectangular part, and it would be a much longer video.

No disrespect, this tip is certainly handy once you get into precision range. I just wanted to help anyone who has a large amount of adjustment to do.

[Deathgaze27]

You're the man

[hydrogenix]

Awesome idea to make a small tool! Thank you very much!

[Dookiedolf]

Please dont flame me for a stupid question as Im not an engineer.

Why are the jaws independant ? Surely if the jaws were linked by gearing then the piece would self centre as the jaws close in unison. I cant see any benefit to independant jaws when working on symmeytrical pieces. I only see margin for error if the piece isnt centred true.

There must be an obvious reason, but I cant think of it, Im puzzled.

[gghouck]

@Dookiedolf They're independent so you can use the offset and for non-uniform outer diameters. Once you get good at it, it's faster to dial in on a 4-jaw chuck than it is to swap out the 4-jaw for a 3-jaw.

[Dookiedolf]

@gghouck Ah I see. It was one of those type of questions that I didnt think I'd easily find an answer to using Google.

Not something Id attempt by eye alone. I guess like most things, the impossible becomes easy after enough practice.

Many thanks for your reply =) , I knew there had to be a good reason.

[frackcha]

impressive....

[enzt2002]

only get u low reading & hi reading the and moved half to where u needed = center

[babasaabji]

bravo. excellent way to center quickly .keep posting other things

[rmcd555]

myford super 7 we use the same one in a workshop very worn out

[jarekk308]

An even easier way is to take a six jaw chuck and remove to of the jaws that would give u a self centering 4 jaw chuck

[sanity599]

Very cool idea!!

[joeygonzo]

Awesome!

[EarlRausch]

Nice video ! Thanks a bunch for sharing your knowledge,That looks to be a great way to center the piece.

Why in the hell do people say "I could do that in half the time" If you can do it in half the time then post a damm video !!!

Everybody is an expert.

I do feel better now.

Thanks again,

[chwuwd]

you turned an hour-long work into a 2 minutes video

[brenck]

Great explanation, but still you have to make sure that the back of your part its facing the entire chuck, a good thing to do when you are close to finish and tighten the jaws tight to start working is to hit the part with a rubber hammer or something a little bit to get the back of the part fully tuch the chuck, when you are setting up loosing and tightening jaws sometimes the part will hold kinda angaled, with soft materials that happens a lot.

[195mkr]

@brenck You can use a parallel set betwin the jaws to enshure proper lineup of the part!

[colt4667]

neat idea to make another chuck key.  why didn't i think of that?

[ztetnies]

Do you have to zero the guage? Because Ive leveled it without doing that.

[mdavidlem]

Well as you noticed I have a small lathe. Not a 42 inch chuck. So instead of telling me how it doesn't work on large pieces over 3lbs tell me what you would do on large workpieces

[kenndogg51]

@mdavidlem nice job on the video. having your dial indicator on center isn't completely necessary at all times but is a must when indicating eccentrics or tapers. good job

[powershop1903]

Did you indicate the front face? This method does not work for any work piece that weighs over 3lbs. Waste of time. Try using this method on a 42" chuck. Good luck

[BigAgitator]

I love 4-jaw chucks!

in addition to being able to do work on eccentric pieces & 4-sided material, they're immune to wear. The 3 jaw ones are fantastic but a lot of wear can cause some accuracy problems.

I'm impressed with your chuck key method-that tiny chuck key. I'll have to make one of those!

[deepgrooved]

 Thanks so much. I have a small outdated, machinex 5, lathe that is impossible to find tooling for, still can't find anything. The only thing I have that is at all accurate is an old craftsmen 4 jaw adapted to the Machinex. It would drive me nuts going back and forth trying to center something, even using other tried and true methods. This method has made using this machine so much easier. Thanks again.

[mdavidlem]

@deepgrooved Glad to share the knowledge

[KevinMillard68]

thats alot of run out for a 3 jaw me thinks it time for a new one, i do agree however that a 4 jaw is alot more accurate the a 3 jaw no argumnet there,

[ytmachx]

This is a very quick and effective method. I like very much!

Thanks for posting!

[TheSacred1010]

can u make tutorial on how to center the work piece without that stuff ( water pressure like)

[CropDuster33]

honestly i could z a peice in a 4 jaw chuck the nomral way faster.

[mdavidlem]

@CropDuster33

Then by all means do so. Whatever works for you

[ardvarkkkkk1]

@CropDuster33

Same here.

[newcomer9747]

Hi, I have been using the same method since watching your video and have since love using 4 jaws over 3 jaws. The only gripe is it's a tad difficult to tighten all 4 clamps without upsetting the dial indicator a little. How do you tighten all the jaws without upsetting the dial?

[riltjd]

great video! and btw are you dutch?

[kickinthegob]

Thanks for that video. I will copy your method. I have always used the three jaw simply because it has been faster and I have not needed great accuracy but I could do with practicing this!!

[KevinMillard68]

thi s does seem to be alot eaiser to do , but id just like to add that if you are not turnning stuff off center then the best chuck to have is a 3 or 4 jw scroll chuck , independent chucks are only good for hold some really odd stuff that a 4 jaw scroll wont and are also only usfull really when doing off center turnning operations, so really you need all 3 styles in order to do just about everything, you can think of..

[TheOpinionationer]

@KevinMillard68 Probably you are using newer/better scroll chucks than what i am, because in my experience it's tough to get better than .005". Usually it's worse (especially when changing diameters) With some of them it has been tough to maintain center even when removing and replacing the same part (in the same orientation). with a four jaw, you are not at the mercy of a worn out scroll gear.  though there are some tricks to getting good center alignment from a scroll chuck.

[dargonz350]

@KevinMillard68

With our old 3 jaw scroll chuck at work its generally runs out about .0015" (.04mm) with the old hard jaws, so you have to either shim the work, use soft jaws (which we do most of the time) or use the 4 jaw chuck.

The 4 jaw is an under used piece of equipment and can be fast and simple to set up compared to screwing around with shims or turning non concentric.

[Surfacesofie]

What an inspiration! I copied your 2 tools (more or less) and can't believe the time you save using this method. Nice and simple centering operation now. Thank you, Dave.

[mdavidlem]

@Surfacesofie

That's exactly how I felt when I first tried it. It so quick that I often skip the three jaw chuck.

[Lopin33]

My skill is better :-) I'll show you someday....

[metaling1]

This is very easily the best video demonstration on a four jaw chuck alignment on the internet. Thanks for this post, it made a world of difference when I first viewed it.

[PhantomMigKiller]

This is an excellent idea-!

Far greater accuracy is easily attainable with an independent 4-jaw chuck than is possible with a 3-jaw chuck or a self-centering 4-jaw chuck.

The "self-centering" chucks are subject to wear and subsequent deterioration of accuracy.

[jaydenfre2413]

Easier and faster way,For a part with a Hole in the center like the one shown.Just use a center on the tail stock to hold the part center on the chuck face and clamp the jaws down on the outside.

[spandit]

"...for a first try that's pretty good" - it looked like you were within 0.001" (or whatever the smallest graduation is on your DTI) - I'd say that's pretty good regardless! I've been using a similar technique but using 2 keys looks much easier and makes sense

[BlastDaNoise]

or just buy a self-centering 4 jaw.

for round material, you can also use a 3-jaw, but I'm sure you knew that ;)

[Brandon308]

Excellent ive just started my apprenticeship and a 4 jaw always pissed me off. This is one of those why didnt I think of that videos. Now could you show us doing a 6 jaw please? Thanks for the help.

[makedoandmend2]

This technique sounds pretty good I will give it a try . It seems the best method to avoid chasing that final last bit of adjustment around the chuck with only one key which can be very tricky for those not use to centering lathe chucks every day . Good advice have you any more tips?

[aalv2003]

Thank you very much for a real instructional video. No more knowledge needed!! Ill try the method right now!... mmmm... really in the first place Ill clone the chucky!!!