Running a Scroll Chuck in Reverse

To run a scroll chuck in reverse, there has to be a means of locking the chuck onto the lathe's spindle, else the chuck is likely to unscrew from the spindle at start-up and wreak havoc.

I had need of reverse operation yesterday for sharpening the stylus of an electric engraver, and came up with a quick-and-dirty way to secure my lathe's chuck. I'm not sure the lathe police would approve, but it did work with a 1,000 rpm spindle speed.

The hub of my lathe's spindle is the same diameter as the hub of the chuck's back plate, as you can see in the following photo.

('Sorry about the dreadful lighting. Some things can be incredibly difficult to light properly.) I installed two identical hose clamps with their heads opposite one another, and tightened them very securely, like so. It got the job done. (If you'd care to see that, it's 'Addendum II' to this post -- scroll way down.)

I took the hose clamps off this morning, and there was no evidence of the chuck having loosened at all.

That said, I really should look into a sounder method of securing the chuck for reverse operation.

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