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CNC Lathe Chucks: new vs used?

madbaby

Plastic
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Fellow machinists, I am trying to buy a new CNC lathe. Factory default chuck is Samchully 8" 3-Jaw with A2-5 mount. I live in an area where we have plenty of machine shop auctions / surplus, and I figured I may be able to find decent second hand chucks and save money. In your experience, is this worth doing? I am not sure how to tell if a used chuck's best days are behind it in the settings I get to see them sitting on a wooden pallet.
 
Who would sell a used chuck by itself ?

And why would you buy the brand new lathe without something to get started with ?

How can you "run off" the lathe and accept it, making final payment ?

Most every machine dealer would void warrantees because YOU put a unknown (to them) chuck on the new machine....:nutter:
 
Who would sell a used chuck by itself ?

I scrapped two Southbend Magnaturn pieces of crap having to pay to have them hauled away over a dozen years ago. I took the 6" Kitagawa chucks off and sold them on E-bay, they were in perfectly fine shape, auctioning them off I got about 15% of new price.
 
I scrapped two Southbend Magnaturn pieces of crap having to pay to have them hauled away over a dozen years ago. I took the 6" Kitagawa chucks off and sold them on E-bay, they were in perfectly fine shape, auctioning them off I got about 15% of new price.

But can the Op find such a deal, in time for the run off ?
and even so, will the OEM accept them, for any warranty/performance issues that may arise ?

Real easy for the OEM to point the finger at the Non OEM chuck, and place all blame on it.
 
New chuck it is then, not worth the risk. The lathe does come with a new chuck. OEM choices are limited to 3-jaw models, you can select diameter. I thought it would be handy to have other types (4 jaw, collet, etc). Which chuck type do you CNC lathe guys use most?
 
I scrapped two Southbend Magnaturn pieces of crap having to pay to have them hauled away over a dozen years ago. I took the 6" Kitagawa chucks off and sold them on E-bay, they were in perfectly fine shape, auctioning them off I got about 15% of new price.

But can the Op find such a deal, in time for the run off ?
and even so, will the OEM accept them, for any warranty/performance issues that may arise ?

Real easy for the OEM to point the finger at the Non OEM chuck, and place all blame on it.

My point was not everyone selling a used chuck is selling worn out garbage. Also as for an OEM chuck I am pretty sure most machine builders are slapping an off the shelf chuck on their machines and not manufacturing them themselves.
 
I've had great luck with used power chucks.

You get into 15" chuck territory and a new one is the same price as a new Kia.
 
90% of my turning is done with collets...At any given time I have several chucks sitting around not being used.

So on a prior machine I thought I'd save money by not buying the chuck and put change towards a new Collet chuck setup.
Nothing off the price of the machine and collet chuck was 3rd party, same price, no swapping

So new chuck it was.

And for that reason I say it is possible to buy a used chuck in great shape.

As to warranty issues...I had my machines installed with the collet chucks I purchased on my own. Never a problem...its not like your changing the motors or anything...the chuck, provided its properly rated is an interchangeable item...like tooling.
 
New chuck it is then, not worth the risk. The lathe does come with a new chuck. OEM choices are limited to 3-jaw models, you can select diameter. I thought it would be handy to have other types (4 jaw, collet, etc). Which chuck type do you CNC lathe guys use most?

Take a look at the Royal Quick Grip or Hardinge Flex-C collet chucks.
 
New chuck it is then, not worth the risk. The lathe does come with a new chuck. OEM choices are limited to 3-jaw models, you can select diameter. I thought it would be handy to have other types (4 jaw, collet, etc). Which chuck type do you CNC lathe guys use most?

The type of work holding you choose is entirely dependent on your type of work--not mine. What do you plan to do with the machine?
 
I like to use a Collet Chuck for huge Castings, and stuff that weighs over 1000#. I use 3 jaw Chuck for little bity parts like 4-40 screws.

R

These threads are just Harry using the right terminology to get information. PM is turning into the Hobby Lobby.
 
The type of work holding you choose is entirely dependent on your type of work--not mine. What do you plan to do with the machine?

Primarily parts for helicopter mechanics. Most used material is 7075, with occassional brass and freemachining stainless. Most part geometry stickout less than 2.5 diameters, and diameters are often above my collets. There are plenty of precision bores, various chamfers, tapers, fillets, channels (oil channels or ring retainers), and fine outside threads are commonly required. Typical tolerances +0.0005", negative zero. Secondary operations requiring another machine tool are common. The lathe does not have live tooling, dual spindles, etc. The part needs to be removed, milled (or other operations), and come back for lathe finishing, and not lose concentricity.
 
Fellow machinists, I am trying to buy a new CNC lathe. Factory default chuck is Samchully 8" 3-Jaw with A2-5 mount. I live in an area where we have plenty of machine shop auctions / surplus, and I figured I may be able to find decent second hand chucks and save money. In your experience, is this worth doing? I am not sure how to tell if a used chuck's best days are behind it in the settings I get to see them sitting on a wooden pallet.

How does a lathe chuck fit into the Samchully company. Best I can determine they are an energy company. Is this a part of an acquisition that will be spun off?

Tom
 
How does a lathe chuck fit into the Samchully company. Best I can determine they are an energy company. Is this a part of an acquisition that will be spun off?

Tom

Tom I meant Samchully Machinery Co Ltd (Samchully Machinery). IDK if they are spinoff from energy company with the same name. I always knew them for workholding products.
 
Please elaborate?

By being very vague about the "new" Lathe you're buying. Most of the major builders (AFAIK), provide the best possible Chuck for the application and Machine size. Then wanting to stick a second hand Chuck on a new Machine, in order to save money? When you're working on Flight parts. You sound like a greenhorn.
 
Flight parts go through a multi-stage research, design, development and certification process. There is a blue, red, and black phase for a flight critical part. It can take a decade to go blue-red-black. Blue parts are R&D prototypes and fly as a fully redundant system. What we learn from blue testing is applied towards developing the red-label. Red-label parts perform to CONOPS, but fly experimental (no passangers) for FAA to certify it (issue AWR). The AWR captures the design, machining, tooling - these are now your black-label parts. Once AWR is issued for a part it becomes federal law it gets manufactured to conform to AWR. Black-label production is where million dollar machine tools, robotic manufacturing cells, proporietary coatings, stress relief chambers, cyrogenics, ultrasonics, radiography, fluorescent penetrants - nothing held back. And it is all run by greenhorns. We do not know what we are doing but we are good at it :D

I am buying a HAAS TL-1. I am buying it for myself. I plan to do greenhorn stuff with it.
 








 
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