What's better : Three Jaw or Four Jaw chucks for a CueMan Deluxe Lathe

T

tg_vegas

Well-known member
Before I get flamed, I did search for this topic, assuming that it certainly must have come up 1000 times, but no results.

Two of my three jaw chucks are getting sticky. I disassembled them, ran them through my ultrasonic cleaner, and things are a little better.

My four jaw chuck has always been smoother.

Any advantages or disadvantages to either? Runout, etc.?

I'm going to probably replace the one three-jaw chuck that has one very tight jaw. I might as well make sure I'm buying the best version.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
If the piece inserted into the chuck is round, a 4 jaw is hard to beat.
If it's not 100% round but close, a 3 jaw with the tru-set ability is hard to beat. (or read the first line again)
Sometimes depending on the piece inserted no matter what chuck you use, close is going to have to be good enough.
 
im not a cuemaker nor have I used a cue lathe.

but general to lathes , the 3 jaw tries to center the object and can and should be very close to center. It's never perfect as perfect is infinite.

because a 4 jaw is adjustable it can be dialed in accurately to center.. so the 4 jaw is considered more accurate basically because a 3 jaw is not adjustable.

if something is turned and the chuck is off center it still turns the object round, the problem will surface though, if it is taken out and re clamped, or in machining other parts sometimes you would like to reverse the part and chuck the other end.. that is a test of setup as any run-out is then doubled and shows..

in general a 4 jaw is better for square things, a 3 jaw is faster to setup and go if you aren't particular about it actually running on center. I have both on my big lathe at work and use the 3 jaw a lot more often since I'm not making rocket parts but different kinds of repair work on metal not wood. the thing is heavy its about 100 lbs so I'd only swap it when needed.

an option that can sometimes be valid is to mount the 4 jaw in the 3 jaw. or you could try the reverse but that may not work well at all on a cue lathe setup.

i think the main principle does apply, the 4 jaw is considered more accurate because it can be "dialed in" to center whereas a 3 jaw is basically fixed and near- to center.

a cue lathe has to be long, not that powerful or as rigid and heavy as a machinist lathe the center must be adjusted quite far to make the taper. a machinist lathe usually has some ability to adjust the center of the tailstock but movement is usually quite limited. It can turn tapers by offsetting the cross slide on the apron , the part that holds the toolpost, but them movement of the cutter axially is quite limited in distance, maybe a few inches..
it works best for shorter tapers.. I do that to reform the crown on a pulley when it gets worn flat. commonly a 6" wide belt sander has crowned pulleys to keep the paper running on center of the pulleys. so I sometimes recondition them as they wear flat and make belt tracking difficult.

"stepping over" can be difficult to do accurately. the purpose is different and so is the design.

how or weather this affects the operations of cue turning , well I'm no expert on that at all in any way. I'm interested in learning more about them just out of curiosity mainly. some principles are transferable but not all.
 
snookered_again said:
im not a cuemaker nor have I used a cue lathe.

but general to lathes , the 3 jaw tries to center the object and can and should be very close to center. It's never perfect as perfect is infinite.

because a 4 jaw is adjustable it can be dialed in accurately to center.. so the 4 jaw is considered more accurate basically because a 3 jaw is not adjustable.

if something is turned and the chuck is off center it still turns the object round, the problem will surface though, if it is taken out and re clamped, or in machining other parts sometimes you would like to reverse the part and chuck the other end.. that is a test of setup as any run-out is then doubled and shows..

in general a 4 jaw is better for square things, a 3 jaw is faster to setup and go if you aren't particular about it actually running on center. I have both on my big lathe at work and use the 3 jaw a lot more often since I'm not making rocket parts but different kinds of repair work on metal not wood. the thing is heavy its about 100 lbs so I'd only swap it when needed.

an option that can sometimes be valid is to mount the 4 jaw in the 3 jaw. or you could try the reverse but that may not work well at all on a cue lathe setup.

i think the main principle does apply, the 4 jaw is considered more accurate because it can be "dialed in" to center whereas a 3 jaw is basically fixed and near- to center.

a cue lathe has to be long, not that powerful or as rigid and heavy as a machinist lathe the center must be adjusted quite far to make the taper. a machinist lathe usually has some ability to adjust the center of the tailstock but movement is usually quite limited. It can turn tapers by offsetting the cross slide on the apron , the part that holds the toolpost, but them movement of the cutter axially is quite limited in distance, maybe a few inches..
it works best for shorter tapers.. I do that to reform the crown on a pulley when it gets worn flat. commonly a 6" wide belt sander has crowned pulleys to keep the paper running on center of the pulleys. so I sometimes recondition them as they wear flat and make belt tracking difficult.

"stepping over" can be difficult to do accurately. the purpose is different and so is the design.

how or weather this affects the operations of cue turning , well I'm no expert on that at all in any way. I'm interested in learning more about them just out of curiosity mainly. some principles are transferable but not all.
Click to expand...

Maybe just stop after the first sentence. This is the cuemaker section, we all know what a cue lathe is and have all used one.
 
tg_vegas said:
Any advantages or disadvantages to either? Runout, etc.?
Click to expand...
I read in the past something that made some sense. Said that having a 4th jaw on a scrolling chuck expects more accuracy than a scroll chuck is going to give you, that you'll potentially have one jaw that hits last so is maybe not as securely on the work as the other 3. I have the 4 as it comes on the headstock and steady I bought but if I had a choice I'd get the 3.
 
Just a word of caution for anyone who may be new to cue work and is picking a chuck, the 4 jaw is great for versatility and once you have become proficient at dialing things in the extra time becomes negligible. The only word of caution I would have is, that with a four jaw you can put too much pressure on the cue. With a three jaw the force you are putting on the chuck key is distributed between 3 jaws. So when you are first using the four jaw you have to be mindful of loosening the opposite jaw adequality before tightening the high side. The last thing you want to do is leave marks on someone's cue. The collet used to compensate for the taper won't protect the cue from overtightening.
 
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