3 Jaw Chuck Service

The amount of greas should be minimal, a thin layer should suffice. I normally get a glob on my finger then massage it into the teeth, then wipe off the excess. If you have too much, it will churn and squish out, so a film is preferred.

After the gear/scroll plate is mounted, gently test the movement to make sure that it is moving smoothly and not binding.

@Bernie Weishapl wrote:

Chris when I first got these chucks they were pretty much as you described. Brass wire brush is your friend. On mine I used a white lithium grease. Saves on a lot of bad words being said while trying to use them. 😆 😳

Bernie my brother, as a point of interest, we had a lubrication course a while back, I think it was put on by shell or esso, they said that the white lithium grease has a tendency to dry up under pressure and the lithium soap, the whitener, plus the other additives tend to separate, leaving what looks like dried paint chips.
While I was cleaning this chuck, after I removed the muck, there were, what I thought to be dried and compressed sawdust, I figured it had been used for wood. When my wire wheel hit it, it was obviously dried lithium white.
Then the bolt of lightening hit the memory circuits and I remembered the lube course 😆

It must have been buried deep in my consciousness because I avoid using white lith. What I have been using is a synthetic blend that contains no coloring agents, it’s a clear EP grease and contains lith but offers a high sheer level and anti drying agents. I used this on the mill also. Maybe something to plant in memory for future use..

As those old timers in the machine shop used to say, bad words can always be purged by rinsing the mouth with cheap whiskey, you apparently use the cheap stuff to prevent swallowing 😆
Maybe that’s why some of those mining guys swore to make the devil blush

😆 😆

Bernie, most of those machinist that were in our shop, back in the 70’s, when they were in their late 50s touching 60, they would have a flask with … something to nip inside. It was accepted as normal practice. I even saw the managers taking a social nip with them and that was in a big steelworkers union mine 😆

Keep us informed about the grease buddy, I’ll be curious to hear how it worked out, if you noticed a difference etc..

OK I thought I’d forgotten something 🙄

So after the grease job we reinstall the inner retaining/dust cover. This is a precise machined fit and can easily go in crooked so attention has to be kept.
Ive used a 2000 grit emery cloth to slightly improve the contact areas on the inner and outer areas, then I use a very light film of machine oil/grease, just to help it slide in and for protection against corrosion, in my location humidity levels are always high so I’m constantly wiping tools down with an oily rag to combat rust.

Next we can apply a little grease to the mesh gears. I’ve also taken the liberty of deburring the outer area where is rotates in the housing. Dirt and particles had, over time, caused some scoring of the surface which could be felt whilst turning the key. Also a light lube film that also acts as a barrier layer to stop dust from entering.

The narrow tip at the end which acts as a bearing point, which fits into a blind hole, I like to over grease, simply because its a blind hole and a snug fit that never gets any of lube from the gear, that is spread around inside during use, so what you give it now is it, until next time. The old grease inside those holes had to be chiseled out because it had turned to cement..

I use the key to insert, while twisting, the part into mesh, do not force it, coax it. Once in mesh and with the over grease on the pivot point, it will cause a hydraulic effect and push the piece back out, simply keep turning until the grease finds its position and VIOLA..

Don’t forget to install the three retaining screws that hold these parts in place. A smear of oil on them is a good practice..

The next service project, as soon as time permits, will be on the rotary table, only the gods know what it’s like inside 🙄 but i’ll be curious to do this as this is the first time for an RT..

Cheers Daryn and thanks for reminding me about that. It’s true that the older I get, the dafter I get 😆

Hey Doug,

thank you for your nice comments…

Years ago, in the late 70’s, the company I worked for suffered with much downtime due to bearing failures. It was before the popular advent of HP/synthetic greases, and obviously before preventative maintenance programs 🙄

They purchased cases of tubes of the white grease, thousands of cases, and also the green, black types. I don’t want to go into the details of each grease, but most of these were wrongly used to pack bearings during rebuild. Whenever a bearing failed, the grease was always like dry sludge or like flat chips, so the lube had failed the application, or vice versa.
As we know, bearing create a rolling squeezing pressure, much like our chucks as the gear teeth mesh together and squeeze the grease, eventually packing it, thus reducing the clearances between the teeth as more and more is compressed together. This, and the breakdown separation of the lubricating ingredients, is what eventually cause failure. In the case of a chuck, it will become stiff.

So with this in mind, we have a sliding, squeezing, pressure situation in our chucks, much like in a roller bearing just not as high a RPM.

We want a lubrication that will remain in it’s semi liquid/paste form in a sealed environment. We want it to not separate when pressure is applied. If possible, we want it to stick to our gear teeth and not to simply clog up the works..
With this in mind, I choose a good high pressure synthetic grease that contains lithium, but is NONE colored, so a clear grease.

I use this same grease on winding gear arbors and many other areas of a watch that have the same conditions as our chuck but in micro form.
I’ve had positive results from using it on mainsprings because, unlike oil, it doesn’t migrate and run into the movement, but it does spread around the barrel.
I recently checked a watch after two years, is was still moist with grease.

Doug, think of the scroll plate as a lathe bed or a milling table, forgive me for stating the obvious, but it is a lapped and hardened surface that requires, unfortunately, regular cleaning and fresh lubrication.
I have a little brass tube that I made, I hook it to my shop vac to suck out any chips, then I use a brush to apply a thin coat of hydraulic fluid to the scroll area. You can even pop out the jaws easily which make it easier..
The worst thing is that people spray WD40 into the scroll plate, which then runs into the little gear box area and destroys the grease. WD40 is not an oil and has no lubrication properties per se. For me, WD is a cleaner, nothing more.

Graphite is good for locks,catches etc, but the powder has a tendency to get rubbed off. I’ve known people who add graphite powder to Vaseline, but really, I don’t see any point as there are tons of great greases available..

I’m not sure what the white coloring is Doug, it could be a byproduct of the lithium distilling process, or a dye??
I’ve checked MSDS sheets in the past and nothing is mentioned about what the color of any grease is, be it white, red, green or black. The MSDS will list the actual chemical ingredients in percentage, but they most often use “proprietary ingredients” 1-5% that really says nothing. I assume that these ingredients are non-toxic/non-health hazardous so they don’t have to be listed on the MSDS.

Still, if a person has the interest, it’s fun to test different lubes on watches. I’ve never really followed the “you must use” rule as there are always many equivalents available. The rules for application remain the same, as long as the selected lube meets or exceeds the machine requirements, then size should not matter.
If we enlarge a pocket watch to the size of a truck, the conditions, mechanical principles, remain the same :ugeek: