I hope this isn't a stupid question...

[Krull]

I've got a 37" Mastercraft lathe (I know, I know) and it's been dormant for about a year while I've been away. I recently set it back up again and when I attached my nova chuck, I saw that when I turned the lathe on, there was a noticeable "wobble" with the chuck. I checked everything I could think of but found no obvious fault. When I set up an old bowl on the chuck, the wobble was extremely pronounced. Does anyone know of a way to fix this, or am I destined to buy another lathe? Thanks for taking the time to read this!

[hughie]

Hi Krull,
Do you have an insert to fit your Nova chuck to the lathe? I think your headstock size is 3/4" x 16 TPI, this would have an insert to adapt it to the chuck. Hopefully you do and this is what is causing the wobble. Failing that, try and see if you can detect any sign of wear or looseness in the bearings of the headstock. Grab the chuck when its in the lathe and try to move it side to side or up and down. This is the check for play in the headstock, hopefully you don't have any, as you will have to change the bearings.
Here are a couple of links of people in your neck of the woods who have some experience with your lathe

http://www.gbwg.ca/gallery_day.htm
http://www.canadianwoodworking.com/cgi-bin/chat/webbbs_config.pl?index
Anyway, you've gotta start somewhere, like you I bought at the bottom end of the market. But it gets my by and I am doing/done various mods to improve it.
hughie

[Cliff Rogers]

This story sounds very familiar.... did you (or your wife) lend your chuck to some one else? :rolleyes:

In the story I'm refering to, the chuck had been dropped & damaged. :eek:

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Firstly, check the chuck body for wobble. With the lathe stopped bring the toolrest up to just touch the body, then turn it by hand.

If there's no obvious deviation then the problem's with your jaws. They're individually numbered (unless you have a cheap, 3rd-party set of jaws) and bolt onto the appropriately numbered jaw mount. If they're out of order things tend to go out of whack.

If the body is wobbling then, as Hughie said, it's probably your thread insert. Remove it, clean it and all threads and remount. Make sure that it's screwed in all the way and the grub screw is tight.

Failing that, check your headstock bearings.

I'm the bloke who had the trouble Cliff mentioned and after mine failed all the above checks I had another look at the insert and chuck body only to discover a hairline crack. :( I'm the only bloke I know of who's ever had that particular problem and it was an old, old nova midi chuck, but it's something to keep in mind if nothing else seems to be to blame....

Oh... and there's also the possibilty that 'tis your headstock shaft that is bent. You can test for this by removing the chuck and performing the same test as for the body. ie. bring up the toolstock to touch and turn the shaft by hand. 'Tis unlikely, but...

[rsser]

Another thing to check is that the chuck/insert screws down firmly and squarely to the shaft shoulder. I have an older Vicmarc and the shaft thread doesn't run all the way down so a spacer was needed - kindly provided by a forum member.

[Krull]

Thanks for the ideas you guys! I'll try these out and report on my progress. cheers!