Thread: Lathe Chuck Internal Lubrication

Hi John,
I read somewhere graphite powder was the go. I don't like using oil of any sort as it seem to just get flung all over the place.
Be interesting to hear what others use.

Cheers,
Ew

I was about to suggest Graphite and then I read Ueee's post.

Simon

I use high temperature bearing grease for two reasons. Firstly, it stays all sticky and attached to the bits inside, even if the chuck is getting a bit on the warm side. Secondly, thats the grease I have, so unless theres a great reason to be buying other grease, I tend not to bother!

I never have problems with it flicking off and I tend to do a lot of higher rpm work, but then I dont go too overboard with the greasing too. The chuck is a bison bial 3204-160 for what its worth.

I fly the other way and prefer to use oil although I do plan to give graphite a try next time I strip them down.
I don't use grease because I do a lot of work with cast iron which by it's nature produces heaps of tiny gritty chips when machined and these have the ability to get into all sorts of places including the chuck.
Combined with grease they form a paste that sticks like s#!t to a blanket making the job of cleaning a chuck much harder than it needs to be and the resemblance to valve lapping compound is too close for comfort.
Of course if you happen to use emery cloth and some of that grit gets in then lapping paste is exactly what you have.
True with oil you get a bit slung off when the chuck spins up after application but this is easily contained by covering the chuck with a piece of newspaper for the first 30 seconds and the flushing action seems to help keep the chuck scroll cleaner.
Cheers,
Greg.

I've never seen a new chuck with grease in it.

Some chucks actually have an oil ball/nipple in the face, which must tell you something.

Thanks guys, a wide range of experiences provided.
I have done some searching here, and on Practical Machinist, and it is obvious that there are many answers to the question.

Most recommendations are for a grease of some kind.
I suspect the original manufacture was a lithium grease because of its superior water repellant aspects, important for a high duty industrial application.
This is not so important to me because the chuck is used in a low duty hobby application with minimal use of water based coolant.
I have some Castrol LMM grease, a heavy duty moly grease, so that is what I will use.

A comment for others dismantling a chuck for cleaning.
My chuck had burrs on the mating edges of the chuck body to the backplate, presumably because the assembled chuck was machined after assembly to improve its appearance.
I have cleaned the burrs off and will check if there is any adjustment of the body/backplate relative positions before final assembly.

The scroll will be lubricated with EP gearbox oil.

John.

Originally Posted by nearnexus

I've never seen a new chuck with grease in it.

Some chucks actually have an oil ball/nipple in the face, which must tell you something.

My Bison did, white sticky stuff. The sell it on its own too. Mine also has a oilling ball on its face, but I cant say ill be ever jamming oil in it.

Grease is great at trapping swarf/grit etc.

Oil won't do that, and it allows you to easily whip off the back and blow out the innards with compressed air when the chuck feels notchy.

If you over oil a chuck you can expect to get a spray, but that's up to the user applying the stuff.

During final cleaning I discovered some areas with tiny bits of tightly adhering white/cream powder like substance, possibly remnants of the original grease soap component, that had to be removed with a scraper.

On reviewing closely the assembly of the bits I elected to go with the LMM grease lubrication of only the bevel gear and pinions.
Just wetted every surface and a couple of extra dabs for luck.

The scroll support spigot has an edge exposed to the jaws so that was lubricated with the EP oil.

The chuck adjustment is now completely free of any binding.
Ran it up to 1100 RPM for a couple of minutes and collected a minor shower of oil on some plain white paper.
No sign of any grease.

John.

I wouldn't expect to see any grease fly out.

But yes, a light oil spray is always on the cards after a lube job.

Jack620 posted a link to a Pratt Burnerd chuck brochure in a brief discussion regarding chuck lubrication a few years back - Attached is the brochure.

I still use wheel bearing grease in all of my 3 jaw chucks and if I'm turning cast iron I opt for an easy to clean 4 jaw. I use Vactra II way oil in the 4 jaws. A vacuum cleaner and a magnetic pick are both handy for removing swarf from the scroll and jaws.

Thinking I probably should move on from the Timken grease I had a look for sources of molybdenum disulphide paste. Found an interesting discussion here - http://shootingaustralia.net/forum/a...055-moly-paste.

This is looking promising - http://rotagriponline.com/index.php?...mart&Itemid=29

BT

PS I might be one of the few grease adherents but if the stuff is recommended by the chuck manufacturer then I'll stick with it. Found this - http://www.itwpf.com.au/molybond_lub...x?productid=53

PPS Pratt Burnerd recommended Molykote D Paste. I found some in Birmingham - http://www.silmid.com/products/molyk...50gm-tube.aspx then I found this Molykote GN paste on eBay - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dow-Corning-...item339c74be38 Sounds like a pretty handy lubricant. - http://www.dowcorning.com/content/pu...c88023f09d.pdf