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Hardinge 3-jaw chuck required

marcsO

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Mar 24, 2020
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Guys just recently taken delivery of a well looked after HLV, believed to be made in 52/53 going by its UK series number 0072.

The lathe is in lovely condition as far as I can make out, time will tell I guess. I'm looking for a proper 3 jaw chuck for it with the special taper quick fit back plate to go with the 4 jaw it has already. Appreciate these are quite rare but know they are out there, not interested in a 5c collet type however.

I'm in the Uk so anyone can help, or point me in the right direction I would be very appreciative.

Marc
 
Your choices are Hardinge, Possibly Rotagrip or, what I did, get a bit of cast iron or steel stock, hold it in the 4-jaw, bore the nose taper in it, using a 10ths DTI to set the top-slide over to the correct angle. Drill and tap for the drive pin, then fit it on the spindle and turn he rest of it into a blackplate. Then fit the Bison/TOS/Bernerd(griptro, if wanted) of your choice to it.

Takes a couple of hours, but that's not long.
 
A few years ago, a UK member here wrote that he got a Pratt Burnerd 6" Setrite 3-jaw for his HLV-H and bought the Hardinge 4 degree adapter plate from PB. He said the adapter had to be shipped from the American PB factory. It was rather expensive. I use 6" Setrite 3- and 6-jaw chucks and PB adapters on my old Hardinge lathes. I bought the chucks and adapters new decades ago. In my experience, the PB adapters are machined from steel and the Buck and Hardinge adapters are machined from cast iron. The Hardinge product is actually called a C25 taper fixture plate and has a plain 8-7/8 inch disc that has to be turned to fit the chuck and drilled and tapped. The disc is not really thick enough for mounting a Setrite chuck unless you fasten on a separate center spigot. The C24 taper fixture plate has a 5 inch disc. The Buck and PB adapters are ready to use after taking a thin skim cut on the mounting face.

ShopHardinge - 59A0008750 Current price of the C25 $1230, so probably not a practical choice.
ShopHardinge - 55A0008750 Current price of the C24 $630, still not a bargain.

In the 1950's, Hardinge only sold 5" chucks for their lathes and continued to sell them for many years after. I think the 6" chucks were offered some time after 1960 with the introduction of the HLV-H.

It seems very few options exist for buying new Hardinge 4 degree taper chuck adapters these days.

Larry
 
I'm looking for a proper 3 jaw chuck for it with the special taper quick fit back plate to go with the 4 jaw it has already. Appreciate these are quite rare but know they are out there, not interested in a 5c collet type however.

You can make your own adapter. Courtesy of another member here, I think it came from bobw.

tmp_24000-80mm taper mount533854468.jpg
 
Occasionally it's possible to obtain an old fixture plate meant for the taper spindle on the older Hardinge bench lathes.

As as has been said, it's also possible to turn a backplate using the lathe but it may be slow-going if you start with a full 6" diameter chunk of steel (no backgear).

There has also been some talk in the past, of modifying (strengthening) a step-collet closer which fits on the outside of the spindle, however I'm not sure how much metal is there to start with so that idea makes me a bit nervous personally.

There are a few worn-out chucks knocking about, there's a fair chance that one of those might give you a starting point for a backplate.

Jonathan
 
You can make your own adapter. Courtesy of another member here, I think it came from bobw.

View attachment 283379

That's my first attempt rons :-)

below is a four jaw I adapted by mounting a short adapter and boring both it and the chuck (to keep the stick-out of the chuck as short as possible.

I've also used the back half of a couple of knackered hardinge chucks as back plates for conventional screw mounted chucks (a PB set-true and a Cushman that I modified to make it adjustable like the set-true.
 

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That's my first attempt rons :-)

below is a four jaw I adapted by mounting a short adapter and boring both it and the chuck (to keep the stick-out of the chuck as short as possible.

I've also used the back half of a couple of knackered hardinge chucks as back plates for conventional screw mounted chucks (a PB set-true and a Cushman that I modified to make it adjustable like the set-true.

Sorry about the credit. I saved your picture for some day in the future.
 
Guys just recently taken delivery of a well looked after HLV, believed to be made in 52/53 going by its UK series number 0072.

The lathe is in lovely condition as far as I can make out, time will tell I guess. I'm looking for a proper 3 jaw chuck for it with the special taper quick fit back plate to go with the 4 jaw it has already. Appreciate these are quite rare but know they are out there, not interested in a 5c collet type however.

I'm in the Uk so anyone can help, or point me in the right direction I would be very appreciative.

Marc

Look for a used - not necessarily 3-J - chuck that already has the Hardinge taper-mount.

If the chuck is trashed, rob the plate.

Example - and I have NO idea if this chuck is any good - but one of the photos here shows how the backplate is attached:

5" 3-JAW HARDINGE CHUCK MODEL 30AHC, 4 DEGREE HARDINGE TAPER | eBay

IF.. the chuck is for but light work, even a Hardinge-taper dog drive plate might be made into a mount?

There are "just enough" of them around that don't fit other lathes, it should be faster and cheaper even if you scrap a worn-out chuck.

Failing that, I *think* I still have one around here that came off a UK-made - for Hardinge by P-B if not by UK-Hardinge - TWO-jaw chuck that had to be re-mounted to my D1-3 spindles.

Easier if you can find a similar source in Blighty, of course.

NB: "proper 3 jaw chuck" is an oxymoron. Just an abbreviation for "failed doorstop dreadfully unsuited to mooring watercraft". Whomever ran your Hardinge without one was quite likely a dab lathe hand. Not an apprentice hobbyist.

:D
 








 
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