Two Part Soft Jaws

These are some new soft jaws I made for my lathe. My previous soft jaws worked very well, but they required quite a lot of time to make and they are starting to look a bit tired after quite a lot of work:

I decided it was time to make some new jaws. I found an internet supplier that would sell soft jaws for my chuck. However, they were only available as one-part soft jaws. I didn't want to buy some relatively expensive new jaws for the lathe and quickly turn them into something that looked as messy as the old brass jaws.

I cut the jaws in half. I then drilled four holes in the face; two are reamed for dowel pins and two are tapped M6. After tightening the half-jaws in the chuck, I faced them on the lathe such that they were about 0.1 mm proud of the face of the chuck.

The other half of the jaws were drilled and counterbored so they could be attached (in two different positions). As these parts are simple cuboids with some holes in, it'll be very quick to make new pieces if they get machined a lot.

I also made some more brass jaws (two sets of three). Unlike my previous soft jaws, I can use all six corners of these (the previous ones needed tapped holes in three corners, so only three corners were available), so with two sets I have 12 corners to use before I need to make any more. They're very quick to make as they're just slices of hex bar with a counterbored hole in the middle.

I also 3D-printed some simple jaw storage pieces that loop over the front of the lathe (either side of my hex key holder. These hold the soft jaws as well as both sets of hard jaws for the chuck.

This website is free, but costs me money to run. If you'd like to support this site, please consider making a small donation or sending me a message to let me know what you liked or found useful.