Woodfast Superchuck

[Ozkaban]

Hi,

One of the goodies I got with my recent lathe purchase was an nice pile of shiny silver bits. My brother played with them and the attached image is what came out of the pile.

I think I understand the Woodfast Superchuck. Drill an appropriate sized hole in a bit of wood (something like 70mm or 40mm diam/6mm deep), jam it onto the chuck and twist. This tightens the chuck and any catch or the like causes the chuck to tighten further. Not much movement in the chuck but enough if you get the hole the right size.

The two bottom bits have confused me a bit. I've guessed what they are but I'm not sure. They screw onto the mounting plate with the same 1/2" (or so) screw that is shown in the pick. The look like a Tap and Die set only for wood.

This reminded me of a earlier thread by rsser (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/beall-spindle-tap-102201/index2.html) about taps that match the spindle on the lathe with the idea of mounting the wood directly onto the spindle.

These taps seem to match the M30x3.5 of the lathe (fairly closely anyway - I haven't tried one on a bit of wood yet) and was wondering if that was their intended purpose? The other possibility I thought of was to use as a sort of oversized woodscrew - you drill a 30mm hole in a bit of wood about 30mm or so deep and just screw it onto this thing and it's mounted on the lathe. The die being the opposite - you turn a 30mm spigot in the wood. Does that seems secure enough or would it snap off the first time you touched it with a chisel?

I like the look of these bits and will use them, but I want to be sure before I end up swallowing a 300mm bowl blank...

Cheers,
Dave

PS sorry the pic isn't great. I emailed it to myself from home last night and the photo software resized it too much...

[rsser]

Ah ... the female version of the don't really know is a cup chuck I think.

Size a tenon and screw it in?

For a neat outline of chuck types, & pro & con click me (www.woodturners.org/tech_tips/misc-pages/chuck_type.pdf)

[wheelinround]

Two Don't knows are male and female Spigot chucks Dave

see halfway down http://www.woodfast.com.au/index.php?p=1_8

[Ozkaban]

Ah ... the female version of the don't really know is a cup chuck I think.

Size a tenon and screw it in?

Sounds fair. Would use it on long grain for short spindle turnings?

[rsser]

Yes.

[Ozkaban]

Yes.

cool. I was only thinking of it in terms of bowl turnings and couldn't see how a 30mm tenon would be anywhere near strong enough to hold :doh:

Thanks Ern.

[Ozkaban]

Two Don't knows are male and female Spigot chucks Dave

see halfway down Woodfast Machinery Co. (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. - (http://www.woodfast.com.au/index.php?p=1_8)

:doh: I looked at that page and completely missed them - I was looking for the super chuck part :B

[hughie]

Dave have a look at this

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/keyless-self-tightening-chuck-36662/

[Ozkaban]

Thanks Hughie. It is very similar. I think I read somewhere that Bruce Leadbeater designed the woodfast one too, but that may just be crossed wires somewhere.

I do wish I had the hole drilling bit though. The tollerances on this chuck don't lend themselves to being a couple of mm out on a recess...

Cheers,
Dave

[Ed Reiss]

Dave ...looking at the pic, something missing; should be a spring around the jaws to hold them together.
Almost identical to the expansion chuck that Delta made years ago.

[ozhunter]

Dave

One of the chappies on one of the dvd's I have watched in the last few days used the female "dunno" as part of turning a box I think. He greased the spigot and got to work. Seems to work ok for him.

[hughie]

It is very similar. I think I read somewhere that Bruce Leadbeater designed the woodfast one too, but that may just be crossed wires somewhere.
I do wish I had the hole drilling bit though. The tolerances on this chuck don't lend themselves to being a couple of mm out on a recess...

Dave

It looks darn near identical and as Ed says you need a perimeter srping to hold it all together. If you put the three jaws together and measure the dia thats the size you need for the chuck.

Everything you have in the pic is what you can see at Bruce workshop here in Sydney and purchase if you wish

The don't knows are male and female screw chucks as Ray has menetioned

[joe greiner]

Excellent detective work, Dave.:2tsup:

I reckon a rubber O-ring of the right size could substitute for the "perimeter spring."

Cheers,
Joe

[rodent]

Dave ...looking at the pic, something missing; should be a spring around the jaws to hold them together.
Almost identical to the expansion chuck that Delta made years ago.
I have the old woodfast set use a rubber band to hold them together the large postal type .:D

[Ed Reiss]

Excellent detective work, Dave.:2tsup:

I reckon a rubber O-ring of the right size could substitute for the "perimeter spring."

Cheers,
Joe


I have the old woodfast set use a rubber band to hold them together the large postal type .:D

The above mentioned items certainly would hold the segments together, however the spring not only holds the segments together, but has the additional job of applying the correct amount of tension so that the three segments expand at the same rate.

[Ozkaban]

Dave ...looking at the pic, something missing; should be a spring around the jaws to hold them together.
Almost identical to the expansion chuck that Delta made years ago.


Dave

It looks darn near identical and as Ed says you need a perimeter srping to hold it all together. If you put the three jaws together and measure the dia thats the size you need for the chuck.

Everything you have in the pic is what you can see at Bruce workshop here in Sydney and purchase if you wish

The don't knows are male and female screw chucks as Ray has menetioned

The springs are there - you just cant see them due to the photo compression. They work quite well. I'm impressed with the design - meant to do exactly one thing and do it well.

Cheers,
Dave

[colhu]

Hi all

we had Bruce Leadbeater as a demonstrator at the Hornsby group a few years ago and he showed his expansion chuck then. As I recall it was designed for use in schools - as you say, Dave, to do one thing well. I seem to remember he had a special cutter - like a short, wide spade bit - that he used to cut the recess for the chuck. A Forstner bit the right size in your pedestal drill would also work.

cheers, Colin

[powderpost]

There are a number of things missing from the chuck. As has been mentioned there were two "spade" bits supplied to cut a hole 8mm deep to accommodate the different jaws. The hole as mentioned needs to be very accurate, the big one was 3" and the small one was 2". The screw chuck is also missing. It had a 1/2" thread one side to fit into the face plate and the other end had a coarse thread the fitted into a 1/4" hole bored into the to of a bowl blank. There is also missing a box spanner that fitted both the screw chuck and the threaded connecting stud.
The connecting stud has an allen key recess in one end. The major problem with this system was caused by the taking too heavy a cut or getting a dig in. That caused the chuck jaws to over tighten, and break out the side of the recess in the bottom of the bowl. When this happenned, it was bluudy hard to get the chuck apart. That is what the allen key recess in the connecting stud was for.
The last two are screw chucks. The male chuck was used to screw into larger bowl blanks and the female version was used for spindle turning for goblets, egg cups etc.
Hope this clears it up for you.
Jim

[Ozkaban]

There are a number of things missing from the chuck. As has been mentioned there were two "spade" bits supplied to cut a hole 8mm deep to accommodate the different jaws. The hole as mentioned needs to be very accurate, the big one was 3" and the small one was 2". The screw chuck is also missing. It had a 1/2" thread one side to fit into the face plate and the other end had a coarse thread the fitted into a 1/4" hole bored into the to of a bowl blank. There is also missing a box spanner that fitted both the screw chuck and the threaded connecting stud.
The connecting stud has an allen key recess in one end. The major problem with this system was caused by the taking too heavy a cut or getting a dig in. That caused the chuck jaws to over tighten, and break out the side of the recess in the bottom of the bowl. When this happenned, it was bluudy hard to get the chuck apart. That is what the allen key recess in the connecting stud was for.
The last two are screw chucks. The male chuck was used to screw into larger bowl blanks and the female version was used for spindle turning for goblets, egg cups etc.
Hope this clears it up for you.
Jim

Thanks Jim - very informative. I do have a box of unidentified bits that I haven't gone through yet so there may very well be the allen key and screw chuck in there somewhere.

I did wonder what would happen if it over tightened - you can only push wood so far. I guess the design allowing for that situation shows the answer!

I'll dig through and see what's in there.

Cheers,
Dave

[Ozkaban]

Hi all

we had Bruce Leadbeater as a demonstrator at the Hornsby group a few years ago and he showed his expansion chuck then. As I recall it was designed for use in schools - as you say, Dave, to do one thing well. I seem to remember he had a special cutter - like a short, wide spade bit - that he used to cut the recess for the chuck. A Forstner bit the right size in your pedestal drill would also work.

cheers, Colin

Hi Colin,

I reckon I've got a fortner to fit the small on but not the large. I don't think it will be a huge deal though.

Cheers,
Dave

[orraloon]

Call Bruce. The cutter wont be more than a few bucks.

[Ozkaban]

You guys are brilliant...

a quick hunt around the little box full of unidentifiable shiny goodies has revealled the following which now move from being NFIs to Very Useful Gizmos...

Superchuck set is now officially complete. Thanks for all of the expert help out there :2tsup:
Cheers,
Dave

[Ozkaban]

I used the superchuck last night to turn up the first half of a clock I am making. Works really well! I was making it out of some light brown burl (looks like brown mallee, but unsure), and the spade bit wasn't sharp... Swapped to a Forstner bit about 1mm bigger and it worked fine.

It is very quick to put on the lathe and take off again. Very smooth, no wobble at all :2tsup:

Will post a pic once I've finished the clock...

Jim - I found the wood screw as well, so it is complete now :cool:

EDIT: Forgot to add - the size of the recess for the chuck is different from the recess required in the superchuck, so when I turn the clock around and finish the back I'll have to swap to the nova chuck with std jaws. So I guess this one project highlights the ease of use of this chuck and the inflexibility!

Cheers,
Dave