Grant Erwin wrote:


First, take it off the lathe and take it over to the bench. Completely
disassemble it. Get the worm out in your hand. Clean it immaculately,
and clean in there behind it. Then put it back on, and take out your
feeler gages and check the clearance between the center of the worm and
the central boss. If there is more than .001" there you have wear which
can be taken up by carefully placing one shim so it goes all around the
central boss. Finally, clean the jaws immaculately, then reassemble and
test. Should get you to .003" or so -- that's what you get with a 3-jaw.
There are ways to make any 3-jaw into an "ajust-tru" but it's quite a
bit of work. Every 3-jaw needs tearing down every so often for a good
cleaning.


Thanks Grant
I thought it might be built up spoog or gungus crud or something, but I
really didn't want to tear the thing apart if it didn't need to. Tonight
I might see if I can get the thing apart and cleaned.

What would be a good lube when I reassemble the chuck?

Thanks
Greg