Grayson lathe parts

[Nev WhitehurstParticipant @nevwhitehurst53938]

Hi all , I am after any tooling for a Grayson lathe from gears to chucks , I only have a 4 jaw chuck which came with the lathe and as being a raw beginner it takes me ages to adjust the 4 jaw chuck so the work piece runs true , I am based in Wolverhampton West Midlands if anyone could help me out I would greatly appreciate it . Thank you

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Details of headstock nose are here. It claims to be same tread as MLY/S7, but without the parallel register. A photo would help. No doubt someone out there has a drawing of the Myford setup

[Clive Brown 1Participant @clivebrown1]

The 3 1/2″ Grayson lathe can use gears from the Myford ML7 / S7, which are readily available. Myfords use a keyway system. For the Grayson, you will need to drill a 1/16″ dia. hole to suit the Grayson dowel pin system. Ignore the keyway.

By all means acquire a 3-jaw chuck, very convenient but you may have trouble sourcing a suitable backplate. The thread is similar to a Myford but the register diameter is smaller, 1 1/8″ vs. 1 1/4″ IIRC. It’s perfectly possible to machine one though, but as a fairly demanding exercise. Blanks are available commercially.

For your existing 4-jaw, a very useful accessory to help truing a workpiece is a second chuck key to be used in conjunction with the other one. Again a DIY exercise, of turning, drilling and filing. Mild steel is plenty good enough. Practice is also a great help.

PS. I wonder if a Myford backplate could be pressed into service with a spacer ring loctited into the over-large register diameter.

[Nev WhitehurstParticipant @nevwhitehurst53938]

Thank you for the information Duncan

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

A new chuck will be in 2 parts, the chuck itself and a back plate which is fastened to the chuck with screws.  The backplate needs to be threaded to fit on the nose of the lathe and this will incorporate a register for accurate co-axial fitting.  How old and what size is your Grayson?  I understand that the 3 1/2″ Grayson had the same nose fitting as the Myford ML7/ Super 7 so in that case finding a suitable back plate should not be difficult.

The Lathes archive has more information:

https://www.lathes.co.uk/grayson/index.html

Hope this helps,

Rod

 

[Nev WhitehurstParticipant @nevwhitehurst53938]

Thank you for the information Rod

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

The 4 jaw is preferable to a 3 jaw, IMO.

As most turning jobs will entail a reduction in diameter of the feedstock, absolute concentricity is not generally required.  If a job is removed from a 3 jaw and later replaced it will unlikely be concentric!  That is simply the way 3 jaw chucks are built – they nearly always have some run-out.

Of course, if an item needs to be removed and replaced, that is a where the 4 jaw would be needed anyway if concentricity is required.

The cutting tool is often quite adequate for setting up initially – no need for a dial gauge to be involved.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

I have fitted a “Myford” backplate to other chucks, by boring out the standard thread and inserting a bush suitable for the lathe in question (In one case a Myford ML4 with a 3/4 x 9 tpi thread, and in another a backplate suitable to match a modern 4 jaw chuck to a very much older lathe)

The backplates were fully machined to suit the chuck on the lathe for which the chuck is to be fitted, so as to maxmise concentricity. A 3 jaw is convenient for many purposes, but depending upon its quality / wear will not hold work concentric to much less than 0.005″.

For minimum eccentricity it is necessary to clock the work in the 4 jaw to a figure that is acceptable to you.

Howard

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

If buying changewheels that you see with a pin be aware that Drummonds use a thicker pin and are 14DP so not compatible but RandA are 20DP like Myford with a thinner pin but not sure of its dimensions.

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