soft jaws VS hard jaws

Most of what I turn is bar stock. Either short peices or bars cut to

48" so they stay in the head stock. I find hard jaws work very well, other than the problem I stated in my last post. I could use short soft jaws and solve my problem, but.... do most of you use soft jaws in your lathes?

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

Reply to
Randy333
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Randy, For bar work I use a collet chuck which generally eliminates clearance problems like you've described.

When I run cut pieces I tend to use pie jaws rather than a conventional looking jaw. My cut blank work generally has a thru hole and I find that the conventional jaws will give me a 3 lobed bore no matter how low the chuck pressure is.

Best, Steve

Reply to
Garlicdude

Steve, I run a 5C collet for under 1" work, no tool interference problems with this setup. My Hyundai has a 2.5" bar capacity thru the draw tube, so for 2.5" stuff chuck jaws sticking out past the chuck start to be a poblem.

I have never used a set of pie jaws, might be something I will need if I get to thin walled stuff. There is no finesse on tighting the jaws like on a manual lathe.

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

Reply to
Randy333

Randy, If you don't already know about US Shop Tools for lathe jaws here is a link:

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They offer hard, soft, and pie jaws in lots of sizes.

This guy on ebay makes a nicer soft jaw than US Shop Tools, especially his pie jaws:

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I also like his 6" Kurt soft jaws. If you don't see what you need give him a call and he more than likely makes it. Super nice guy, super quality.

Best, Steve

Reply to
Garlicdude

Bought from USshoptolls already. I'll check the other guy, thanks.

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

Reply to
Randy333

Randy

Here is a company that sells jaws located very near you.

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I have bought from them several times and the soft jaws that I bought worked fine.

John

Reply to
john

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