Hi all.

I have been trying to teach myself to turn metal on a 12 X 36 lathe. One of
the projects in the Bedside reader is for a simple depth gage. I have
sucsessfully turned the body from a piece of scrap steel (heritage unknown)
and set the piece up in the 4 jaw to "mill" the sides flat. The first side
is no problem. When I turn it over to do the opposite side, I can't figure
out a way to make sure both sides are parallel. I don't have any gage
blocks, and there is little room between the jaws in any event. How do you
guys do it?

Thanks for the help.

On Sat, 24 Dec 2005 12:18:23 -0800, "Kelly Jones"
wrote:

Hi all.

I have been trying to teach myself to turn metal on a 12 X 36 lathe. One of
the projects in the Bedside reader is for a simple depth gage. I have
sucsessfully turned the body from a piece of scrap steel (heritage unknown)
and set the piece up in the 4 jaw to "mill" the sides flat. The first side
is no problem. When I turn it over to do the opposite side, I can't figure
out a way to make sure both sides are parallel. I don't have any gage
blocks, and there is little room between the jaws in any event. How do you
guys do it?

Thanks for the help.


Either unscrew completely and reverse the chuck jaws or unbolt and
reverse them depending on the type of chuck that you have. This will
alow you to grip on the outside of a cylinder or disk and you will
have a surface on each jaw making a "stop" so your part will fit into
the jaws the same distance when tapped lightly into them. If your part
is too thin to extend beyond the jaws you'll have to space them with
equal shims like four lathe bit blanks of equal size, etc. or use a
dial indicator to set the distance equally at each jaw. Don't forget
to remove the "shims" beforer turning on the spindle or they'll fly.
HTH
Randy
--
Randy Replogle

http://www.chem.purdue.edu/machine