Chuck faceplate Clarke for lathes

Hello, does anyone know of a supplier of an off the shelf chuck adaptor faceplate to fit the Clarke cl430/500 lathes? Clark’s own 4 jaw chuck is stupidly overpriced (in my opinion) but its oddly sized at 130mm diameter with a 100mm mounting recess so slightly different to the common Chinese chucks which are all 5mm smaller on both. I’ve searched all the popular home workshop supplier websites but haven’t found anything’s so any advice appreciated, thank you.

For some reason chuck backplates have become stupidly expensive of late, even cast blanks. Bite the bullet and make your own from a slice of cast iron round. Maybe practice first making a threaded hole or two in an aluminium and then iron bar about 2 in dia. If you mess up on the bigger plate you can glue and screw in a bit of bar and try again.

edit - also to relax a bit it is the register rather than the thread that is important for fit so make a go/nogo gauge for that.

Edited By Bazyle on 04/11/2020 00:46:03

I'm not sure what Bazyle means by a screw thread, but I imagine you need a simple round with opposing male and female registers, and three peripheral through holes for the mounting studs. I've never seen such a thing, but it would be straightforward to make for someone with precision skills. I managed to find a four jaw on ebay, so you may get lucky.

Somewhat bewildered [not only by Clarke’s price for the chuck]

The documentation shows three holes on the spindle nose plate ... but the four-jaw has four fixings

... do they include an adapter plate, or is this just artistic license ‘for clarity’ ?

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Personally, I would be tempted to reduce the register diameter, to enable fitment of an alternative four-jaw, and then make a spacer ring [ like a circular-saw blade ‘reducer’ ] for the existing three-jaw.

MichaelG.

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P.S. ___ in my search for enlightenment, I found this video which you might find useful some time:

**LINK** https://youtu.be/XPpLGtzaErM

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/11/2020 09:40:07

The Clarke four jaw has three mounting studs in the back face..

The Clarke four jaw has three mounting studs in the back face of a mounting disc, the front of which has a 75mm male register to engage the chuck body. The front screws hold the body to the mounting disc. As I suggested, this may be the best way of adapting to a different four jaw. For completeness, the Clarke four jaw currently advertised has the four mounting screws on a much larger pcd than mine

Edited By john halfpenny on 04/11/2020 10:01:06

Thanks for the clarification, John

Published photos made it appear [to my innocent eyes] to be front-fixing, with an [unspecified] adapter plate

https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/product/4-jaw-independent-chuck-for-cl500-430-2/

... I would still advocate modifying the nose.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/11/2020 09:48:03

Thanks for all your replies and alternative solutions. I think Clarke must keep theirs vague to stop others copying it!

The documentation shows three holes on the spindle nose plate ... but the four-jaw has four fixings

Three bolts secure the chuck backplate to the lathe spindle (on its spigot). When the spigot (for the chuck) has been cut, it will be perfectly central for the 4 jaw to be fitted over and the four holes for the chuck bolts drilled and threaded. All parts suitably marked for future assembly in their rightful positions should ensure concentric chuck running, if ever removed (only for balanced running with a 4 jaw, of course). Done it 25 years, or so, ago.

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Yes, I do understand now

... Water under the bridge, as you will see from my previous post

MichaelG.

Hi Guys,

This is the third attempt at posting this so if it come up three times I apologise.

I have a CL500 M lathe and want to replace the 3 and 4 jaw chucks with a collet chuck. does anyone know if Clarke do one? or can anyone tell me the PCD of the boltholes that hold the chucks to the spindle flange?

Also doe anyone know if Clarke do a QCTP for the said lathe? I bought an online one for a mini lathe completely the wrong one AND it was 'Ali' so soft a clart.

Regards. Any info appreciated, especially if MG has a more detailed diagram of item to in the head stock exploded view

Check out my recent post on Colin Martin 2's thread "mini lathe upgrade", it is easy to modify the four jaw independent type of chuck. The mini lathes have holes for three jaw and four jaw chucks in the spindle flange, one hole being shared. It would not be hard to drill some extra holes in your spindle.

Edited By old mart on 29/11/2020 21:37:20

I have a CL500M, Clarke dont have a collet chuck but there is a taper in the spindle nose so I bought an ER collet chuck with the same taper but there is a limitation, you have to make a draw bar which means short jobs.

Martin P

Edited By martin perman on 29/11/2020 21:59:29

The Clarke spindle taper is Morse. No Clarke QCTP, but a chinese one fits -marked 250-100

Edited By john halfpenny on 29/11/2020 22:11:31

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Sorry to disappoint you, John

My clip of the diagram came from here: **LINK**

https://www.clarkeservice.co.uk/technical_information/metalworking/cl430-500m_tech.pdf

... and that’s pretty-much all I know about them

MichaelG.

If you want to pass longer material through an ER collet chuck, ER chuck on a backplate are available. I bought an ER32 from Warco. It might need an extra adaptor backplate to fit it to your CL500M

The Warco backplate seemed to be hardened, may not be possible to drill to match the flange on the CL500M, hence the adaptor suggestion.

Howard..

I have remembered that Clarke do sell a collet chuck with Morse taper. It comes with a set of metric spring collets which look like ER, but are not. It's intended for the mill/drill, but would of course fit the chuck spindle taper - probably with the mill-drill drawbar

I think my idea will also require an MT3/MT2 sleeve

An ER collet chuck, which will limit the length of material that can be held, will be available from suppliers other than Machine Mart. It is possible that it will be almost the same item, but possibly cheaper.

Search Arc Euro, Warco, Chester, Axminster, RDG, for a start. All these offer ER chucks for either Lathes or Milling machines..There will be other suppliers as well, without a doubt. Look at their websites.

Howard

Can I add Chronos to Howard's list please. All my ER32 items came from.them. I have one for the WM180 lathe, one for the Mini Lathe and also a morse taper one for the mill along with all my collets. They seem to have quite a selection. Usual disclaimer other than satisfied customer.

As regards backing/adaptor plates for lathe chucks it might be worth studying Warco's website. I needed an adaptor for another joband they did a range of cast iron part machined items. These you can then finish accurately to your particular machine. Mark up its position on the mandrel, don't remove the chuck from it and it will be as accurate as the machine can make it.