Lathe chuck carrier?

I think the thing you are referring to is called a "Sky Hook" and it mounts on a QC tool post. It's a J&L part number WLC-85025M and you can (maybe) see several different sizes of them on:

Hope this helps... Joel in Florida rust central

A lot of shops used a permanent davit which mounted on the floor and was attached to some part of the headstock, drip pan, etc. for stability. They had an arm that swiveled on the upright post and reached half way across the ways. Each chuck had a hole drilled and tapped in the outer periphery.

When you wanted to change chucks you used a wooden block that spanned the ways and had a half circle cut in the top to support the chuck you were removing. Then slide the wooden block and chuck down the ways until it was out of the way.

The second chuck which is suspended by a bolt to the davit is swing around to connect to the spindle and installed. Move the original chuck back under the davit arm, screw in the bolt until the chuck is suspended by the davit and push it out of the way, and Bob's your Uncle, as they say.

Bruce in Bangkok (brucepaigeATgmailDOTcom)

Enco had small hoist that fastened on or near the lathe bed at one time. Check with them and the other online suppliers. Wasn't for hoisting tons, but was meant for juggling large lathe tooling.

Stan

While not a good photo of it (I could of swore that I had one) here's a pic of mine on my Sidney. (third one down)

This old pic shows the one I got the idea from. Sorry for the bad pic but this is one of the first pics I ever posted to the web. I took them with a 35mm at night so it was hard to get a good exposure. Then to top it off the scans made by the company that developed the film where lousy.

I'll see if I can get a chance to take some more pics of the one I'm using now.

There it is, something like that. I think it needs 3 pivots to allow the chuck to be pulled from the camlock. I like the second one I don't want to try and suspend anything from the ceiling or cables, and have plenty of stock and worn Heim joints around

I saw your article is very good, I like it very much. I will continue to pay attention to your article, the following are the points I hope that I have similar concerns.

I must have a faulty memory chip. I thought you were replacing that old gal with a Leblond servo shift. Did the sale fall through or has my poor old brain completely cross wired?

I've got another lathe just like it, leblond 16x120, that I had to move to the barn. I couldn't bear to sell it but no longer had room for it. Its for sale but only to a good home. I get attached to my toys.

karl

I've looked at a number of lathes to replace it. I've just not found the right one at the right price yet (and right location).

I remember it. You offered it to me.

There is three pivots. One is the main for the arm. The other is the cross arm for the two chucks. The third is the pivoting of the chuck carriers themselves.

The second one is definitely nicer. But I threw the first one together in about 3 hours.

Here's a couple of pics of the crane I made from 1" steel tubing. The winch is the type used to pull small boats on to trailers and has 3/16" steel cable (wire rope). It swings to the side and has enough cable to reach the floor. The crane is removable, it sits in a tube socket bolted to the back of the carriage where a follow rest normally is attached.

"He who signs the paychecks" looked at my plan for a lathe-mounted swivel unit, and decided that he liked the rope-and-pulley system better, and we have plenty of C-track and bearings around to make it work. I guess that's how it will be. Thanks for the photos

Hi Wayne,

I took the liberty to mess around with your photos/images a bit. I uploaded them to my site as (1.3mb):

Take a look and if you like them use them in place of the current ones. I just changed the name on each one by adding "-1" to it (ie sidney-1.jpg).

If I had the original images I might be able to do a bit more with them. Assuming of course that they weren't the originals being used already on the web page.

The chuck davit you wanted to show is a bit easier to make out now.

Ok. I'll probably just leave them like they are but thanks for the offer.

Those particular pics have only been reduced 50% in size and compressed a bit more from the originals. The ones I was taking about where the ones that I posted to the dropbox a long time ago (I think that I was something like the third person to use the dropbox when it first started).

It is in that pic alright but there's still a lot of hidden parts.