Hey Guys,
I've been out at the formula SAE shop a lot lately and I have become the unnoficial Lathe bitch. The problem with our lathe is that its a total piece of ****. I works I suppose but it doesnt even spin striaight, no matter how well you line something up in the jaws it still wobbles.

My question is how much would it be to get a new one and who do you guys recommend buying them from? I'm the business manager so I would be in charge of raising money for one but we will have to see how much they are. Thanks a lot guys, Matt

 

Fixing the wobble may only be a matter of getting a new chuck or even just the jaws. There sholud be a supplier in you area that can come around and have a look at you machine and recommend options, if it's an older lathe it may just need some TLC to work as good as new. OT, at the place where i work we have a milling machine that used to manufacture Merlin engines during WWII and it is still accurate to +/- .0002" at full table travel.

 

hmm I will have to look into that then, it would obviously be more efficient to get it recalibrated than get a new one, thanks man!

 

Have you tried indicating the part on a 4 jaw chuck? The 3 jaw on our lathe(1920's South Bend) does not center so we do everything on the 4 jaw, it just takes a little longer to set up.

 

we actually don't have a four jaw set up, how is it different setting up a part on a 4 jaw rather than a 3 jaw?

 

A 3 jaw works like a jacobs chuck on a drill, you just tighten it up in one place and all jaws move in or out. Various parts wear and eventually one jaw moves more than others and the part is no longer centered when tight. With a 4 jaw, all of the jaws are adjusted independently. So you get it pretty close and then set up your indicator and adjust each jaw until the part is perfectly centered. You should have a 4 jaw regardless, that's how you turn parts that are not round or need to be offset.