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Making soft jaws for a lathe chuck

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Bernd:
Nice one Kirk. Would have never thought of using aluminum.  :thumbup:

Bernd

kvom:
The first time I used soft jaws was on the lathe at school, where they milled the aluminum softjaws via CNC.  Here's an image after the pocket was bored:



As John mentioned, you need to clamp a round "slug" before boring to keep the jaws from moving.  Here's the flywheel blank clamped in the pocket:



This morning I tooks advice and milled the angles on the soft jaw faces.  The hard jaws had an angle less than 60 degrees, but I just used the 60 degree angle plate to set the jaws in the vise:



With all three jaws milled and remounted:



The faces of the soft jaws are now even with the faces of the lower hard jaw, making it easier to position the slug before boring.

bogstandard:
Kirk,

I had forgotten you had the remnants of the original jaws in there, with which you could hold the setting slug.
But even so, by putting the angles on, it has allowed you access to the smaller part of the jaws.

You should now find, armed with those, your concentric turning of parts now becomes a breeze, very well done.

When I am using jawed chucks, I find I use soft jaws about 90% of the time.


Bogs

Brass_Machine:
Wow Kirk, you are just cooking along.  :clap: :clap:

Eric

kvom:
Now that the rotab vise is done, I will make another set for the 10" chuck I got that fits the lathe.  I probably have less than 5 hours total in the entire job.

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