My 'new' lathe came with self-centering 4 jaw of unknown make and vintage but "No 8" stamped on the front.. Taking it apart for cleaning I find instead of a scroll retaining plate held on with screws it seems to be pressed on. I can't see a thread for ti to be screwed on and it appear to have been fitted, assembled, drilled for the tail end of the gears, then split and the gears fitted. The flats needed for clearance for the gears look like a spanner potential and scuffing looks like someone tried that once but I can't see any trace of screw thread.

So how does this come apart?

BTW the 'obvious' ring is not the joint just a ledge in the central column and the actual join is 1/8 further out.

Edited By Bazyle on 29/03/2015 17:54:27

HMmmm, yes, I was hopig someone would have experience before I tried the brute force approach. I will have to look into a design change to make service easier. I guess it has never been cleaned fully though a 4 jaw scroll probably never got used much.