Flexible Coupling Guidance Needed!

I am looking for a coupling to use in a work-holding system on a CNC router 4th (rotary) axis: there must be no backlash or lateral movement, but it would be highly advantageous if either the whole coupling could be easily secured/removed to/from the drive shaft via a split end and clamping screws, or if the coupling halves could remain on the drive shaft and face plate respectively and be simply inserted into each other to place the work-piece in position.

At the driven end is a 1.625" dia keyed output shaft from a gear reduction drive, with a conventional lathe tailstock and live center at the outboard end. The live center may drive straight into the wooden blank or into a faceplate screwed to the blank; I'm undecided about that at this point.

The size and weight of the blanks and the need to set them in place one end at a time makes this sort of system necessary - at least that's my present thinking!

Advice would be appreciated, thank you.

Looks like I have answered my own question: Lovejoy CJ/GS coupling with green or red spider.

We'll see how the spiders stand up to repeated assembly and disassembly. The edges of the jaws look like they could stand a bit of smoothing first so the spiders don't get shaved on insertion.

If you want the least backlash and maximum ability to withstand alignment problems, I would use a bellows coupling - like this:

Lovejoy Bellows Shaft Coupling: Inch, Aluminum - Gamut

Not so easy to remove as the spider type tho...

Thanks, I looked at bellows couplings, but the ease of assembly and disassembly isn't there as you say. I guess what I need ideally is something like a Lovejoy with three or four tapered prongs on either side which do not bottom out but mesh tightly and consistently when pushed together by the tailstock taking up the slack. The "flexible" spider isn't really needed, metal to metal would be fine if the locating was accurate and consistent.

I have an R+W coupling between the spindle motor and spindle on my Enshu mill, it too has a urethane spider between the "jaws". The "jaws" are machined and all corners and edges are radiused so I doubt there would be much wear on the spider from repeated assembly. The spideres are cheap if you want to buy more. R+W probably isn't the cheapest but the quality of design and manufacturing is f#@%ing STELLAR!!! I ordered direct and found them very helpful with technical questions. The most expensive part was machining the bores to the sizes I needed. I think the parts were $70 4 years ago, spiders were maybe $16. When you order your coupling you can specify which spider you want, they make them with different levels of hardness.

Thanks, I like what I see on their website. They definitely have features and models Lovejoy does not.

With spiders at $80 plus for about a 3" dia. I think Lovejoy is milking it a bit too hard: for the price of two of their polyurethane spiders you can buy a polyurethane bushing kit for a 4x4 - yes, the mold was more complicated and expensive, but probably they covered that cost a long, long time ago.