This projects goal is to expand the capabilities of the Kube OpenLathe by allowing much larger tube to be held within the chuck. Its planetary arm design allows for much larger work holding than other commercially availible stepper powered 4th axis. Primary design goals are the ability to make the chuck without need for CNC tools or expensive equipment. Our design goals were reached by using primarily off the shelf components as the basis of the chuck.
All designs have step by step instructions on how to fabricate and locate each part that is not off the shelf. Layout is to be preformed using only a compass, straightedge, and protractor. (dychem layout fluid optional)
This chuck can be used in both an asynchronous and synchronous modes depending on if you have need for offset work holding.
-
Three Drill Bits(5mm,6mm,13mm) will be required if you are making this for anything other than an OpenLathe with a k11 or k12 sanau chuck. If you are adapting to the k11-12 series SANAU chuck with pillow block and stepper motor drive you will also need a 14mm drill bit.
-
If you have no access to any sort of lathe to cut the inside diameter of the throat opening, a 1/2" bearing with 1/4" inner diameter may be inserted into the center hole and a hole saw can be used with the arbor in the bearing to cut the center opening.
-
If you do not have access to any sort of grinding equipment like a dremel, mill, or router an additional 12mm Drill bit will be used to fabricate the worm gear holders, note it is not necessary to completely square off the back end of the cavity made in the holder just remove enough material that the worm spins freely.
-
The design of the swing arms is completely arbitrary and was made in this shape purely for asthetic reasons, substituting a simple bar with 60mm between the centers of the holes will suffice if you do not have access to any kind of grinding equipment like a belt sander.
Note that if you are using a belt sander predrill the holes and use them to pin the three pieces together to get all three to have the same profile when you grind them.
-
Light machine oil should be used on the worm gear regularly and sparingly to ensure no premature wear occurs on the brass gear.
-
The timing belt can be affixed in any manner including but not limited to sewing with strong thread, gt2 belt clips for 3d printers, etc The best cheap option is to cut a small piece of belt and use superglue or contact cement between the faces while interdigitating the teeth.
-
If you plan on Only using the Chuck as a synchronous planetary you only need to make one worm holder and can replace the other two worm apparatus with a spacer (https://www.mcmaster.com/94669A349/) this saves some money but makes you unable to use the offset workholding feature.
Click Here To Download Plans
Click here for Build of Materials
Click Here for OpenChucks Google Drive