Burnerd 3 jaw chuck 1580-01005

[Helvetica]

I got this chuck with my union graduate lathe. I believe it's an engineering chuck can anyone confirm this? I'm into wood so I'll sell it to help fund an axminster evolution, would anyone have an idea of its value? It has inside & outside jaws and is in lovely condition.

 

[AES]

Yes, it's an "engineering" chuck (i.e. used on metal working lathes). Looks like it's a self-centring 3 jaw type (i.e. move the chuck key in one hole and all three jaws move at once, so automatically centering the work piece). Burnerd are/were a well-respected British manufacturer of quality chucks that were fitted as more or less standard on such well-known lathes as Myford (THE standard for model engineering).

To get the value you need to state the OD of the main body. With that I suggest you visit the For Sale column in the "Model Engineer" website (it's in the Reference section right at the top of this Forum section "Metalworking), but to save you looking it's:

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk

HTH
AES

 

[Helvetica]

Many thanks AES; OD = original date?

 

[thick_mike]

I assume he meant outside diameter...

 

[Helvetica]

Aha, forgive my ignorance!

 

[AES]

Sorry!!!

I guess it depends who/what you are/have learned.

For me (& I confess I thought all tradesmen & wood hobbyists) OD can only mean Outside Diameter (in an item like a tube - or a chuck! - which has more than one diameter) .

I apologise.

AES

 

[graduate_owner]

Hi Helvetica,
I use a 3 jaw chuck on my ML8 and I find it very useful. It's not great for holding wood because the jaws tend to crush the wood fibres and it's really easy to get the wood to slip out of the jaws. However I find it great for holding other things, such as drill bits (as big as you like - not restricted to 1/2" as in Jacobs type chucks), also home made pin chucks and screw chucks, in fact just about anything round (or hexagonal). So personally I would hang on to it. Bits for graduates are not cheap s/h and not so plentiful (I have a graduate so I've found that out) so this chuck may enable you to adapt perhaps other manufacturers' accessories which are more easily available (e.g. record).

If you do decide to sell, have a look at the back - there is probably a backplate bolted on which enables the chuck to fit the graduate. This can be changed to suit other lathes. I don't think the graduate thread is a common one for engineering lathes, so a metalworker looking to buy the chuck probably would not want the backplate. However you could use it as a small faceplate, perhaps for a jam chuck etc.

I bought the Axminster evolution chuck for my graduate bowl lathe, cost me £160 and that's £10 more than I paid for the lathe. Then there's the jaws to buy so not cheap overall. However it is a nice piece of engineering and I'm glad I bought it. I was told the type with serrated keys are not as good because the serrations wear on both chuck key and chuck jaws. Also it's not so easy to tighten them up so firmly. The evolution overcomes these issues.

Regarding the value of your chuck - have a look on fleabay, as always. A lot depends on the amount of wear, because metalworkers will want a high level of accuracy, whereas I'm sure most woodturners can manage with a lot less (no offence intended here !!).

K

 

[Helvetica]

Great info graduate-owner, sounds like I might just hang on to it after all. I'm new to turning and just realising the potential, and the ridiculous array of tools and accessories, so I might be grateful of the option in the future.

Thanks for all the info lads, v helpful as always

 

[ss03947]

Sure that's the same chuck I use on my Boxford AUD, as said previous, the back plate will probably not fit a metal lathe.

SS

 

[bellringer]

Have you got a pic of the back plate

 

[graduate_owner]

Helvetica,
I forgot to say, you could always sell it on at a later date if you find you are not making use of it. Of course it doesn't raise money to help with funding the hobby to start with, but I don't expect you'd get more than about £40 for it anyway. Whatever you decide, hang on to the backplate, then if you do sell and later regret it, you could always buy another chuck and re-use the backplate to use it on the graduate.

Happy turning,

K

 

[woodfarmer]

The chuck is also handy for making up a very simple big FACE plate (need not be round) for screwing odd shaped bits of wood to for turning or even mounting the wood at an odd angle. Just weld a bit of pipe for the jaws to hold onto plate steel.


EDIT, i used the word back plate instead of face plate. sorry if it caused any confusion. I often get my worms mixed up.. (Its an age thing )

 

[graduate_owner]

If you're not into welding (it's really handy and not as difficult as it sounds - I'm not talking making trailers, repairing cars or fabricating roofing beams here, just basic stuff that builds up your skills and doesn't matter too much if the weld breaks and has to be remade. I know welding is really a very skillful business when done by true professionals) then you could make up a large faceplate by using a bolt through a disk of ply or similar. Recess the head of the bolt and tighten up a nut on the opposite side to hold the ply. Just make sure the bolt is perpendicular to the ply so it runs true. Then you clamp the bolt in the jaws of the chuck (obviously !!). Of course this assumes you don't already have a faceplate that you could screw the ply onto.

The thing is, a 3 jaw chuck offers a whole load of possibilities outside of turning as well, e.g. holding a wire wheel / grinding wheel / buffing wheel / hard felt wheel etc. Just make sure you attend to the safety issues involved (e.g. your grinding wheel would be unguarded). I'm sure you get the idea - and the idea is KEEP IT.

K