Hi Alan, I am currently rebuilding my Boxford model A. I am looking for two gears for the quick-change gearbox. Boxford don't stock them any longer. Would you perhaps have any idea where I may try? I am in South Africa but has a friend in the UK who is coming to visit and he will bring any gears I can locate. Hope you can help. Thanks again for your most valuable videos. Hein Vosloo

What a wealth of knowledge! Thanks for sharing and best wishes for 2025.

Great tips! Thanks Alan

This is certainly at a good price, and having a cast iron base. But I agree with Andrew, difficult to adjust with no fine feed. I always find this a problem with digital callipers. Great review though Alan. Cheers Nobby

Useful and interesting 👍

Hi Alan. I have a similar model bought from a UK supplier a few years ago. I found it to be very frustrating for two reasons. Firstly I find it very hard to set it to a particular measure to scribe with as there is no fine adjustment. Very finicky. Also it appears to be suitable for left handed use and not right handed due to the orientation of the screen. Very frustrating. I ended up replacing it with a secondhand precision gauge which has fine feed and the screen is orientated for right handed use. I was fortunate to find it on eBay for a steal. The original gauge though is now used by me as the perfect lathe tool height gauge, set at 3 1/2” for my Myford. 👍😀

What's a blind hole? and why can't you drill thicker than 3/8?

Mine is overheating and cutting off. i dont know what to do

Nice tutorial!!!

You’ve had a busy year Alan. Looking forward to seeing what you make in 2025. ATB take care. Nobby

A busy year!

Thanks for sharing 👍

Brilliant, thanks for posting

Hi, I need to get a claw plate like yours, where can I get it? Thank you very much 🙏

Too much stick-out on the carbide insert parting tool. Try shortening it up.

I own a 5" Pratt independend lathe chuck no. 54. Two or three years ago one square cap broke. There are no more spare parts for this model available. Unfortunately I can't cut a suitable thread with my metric Norton box. In the meantime, I bought a Chinese independent lathe chuck, but it is of poor quality. I can only centre a workpiece directly at the jaws, towards the tailstock it deviates considerably. In another video I saw how you made such a screw. Now I am looking for someone who might be able to make me such a part. Greetings from Germany

Love Allan’s stuff.

Pratt chucks are the best make, we used them in Coventry. I watched your video on making new screws, i bought a pratt chuck from a carboot sale very cheap but i knew it needed the screws so watching your video i made 6 screws 2 spare ones, yes the hexagon was a bit tough going, i broached on the lathe, thank you very much, happy ness to you & family & merry xmas from Coventry 👍.

Why would a manufacturer number a jaw on a non centering chuck? There’s no point to that. Also, why would you say that the hex cap screws for the backplate are the same as the square holes in the jaw screws?

Thanks for sharing 👍 and Merry Christmas to you and your family 😊

Interesting video Alan. I have the slimline version of this chuck on my Myford. Crazy that a replacement screw would be so expensive. You could buy a complete used chuck for almost the same amount. Merry Christmas. Cheers Nobby

Hallo Alan, vielen Dank für diesen Beitrag. Wünsche besinnliche Weihnachtstage. Holger aus Cologne Deutschland.

Thank you 🎉

I been looking for #4 positioning 10:30 screw for my 6" craftsman Chuck hard to find

Very nice video. Good work sir

That is one very helpful demonstration, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

It’s possible to make one from a standard chuck. Robin Renzetti and others have shown how to do it.

Thank you for showing how these interesting chucks work. Now to find one 🫣🤔

I did wonder what the adjustment screws did. Thanks for the demo Alan. I’d love to have one for my Myford lathe, but I guess they are fairly rare. Cheers Nobby

I always wondered how those chucks worked. Thanks for the info!

I found that really interesting. Thanks 👍👍

Interesting design. Thanks for showing us the details. I have a Chinese clone of I think a Bison Adjust-Tru. The backplate has a boss which is slightly smaller than the ID in the chuck. Adjustment screws on the outside of the chuck work against the boss. Then I tighten locking screws on the face of the chuck. This works, as does your Burnerd design.

That was really neat! Thank you for walking through that.

Interesting video. I have been exploring problems with cut off for years. That doesn't mean I have all the answers but I have discovered how to successfully cut-off the first time every time on fairly small lathes where rigidity is usually an issue. The first thing I noticed in the video was the enormous overhang on the chuck (distance from the spindle bearing to the work being cut). If the lathe has less than a 2" (50mm) spindle this will likely cause problems. Reducing overhang is often overlooked and always helpful when minimized. The very biggest issue with cutoff on any lathe is the tool grabbing and being pulled deeper into the stock. This is because the "Point Of Flex" (tool post, compound or gibs) is below the centerline of the stock. Things that help are tightening the gips on the compound, centering the tool over the top of the compound, eliminating the compound or eliminating the tool post. I made a very simple direct mount blade holder that worked perfectly but I didn't like the fact that I had to remove the tool post. The other side of the equation is to minimize the load with tool grind, or switching from carbide HSS. HSS will usually be much better. The OTHER OPTION: Change the "Point Of Flex". This was done back in the 1930s (approximate date) by both Armstrong and Williams. They made a tool that was somewhat flexible above the centerline of the stock so that when the tool tried to grab instead of diving into the stock it pulled away. This was for the old lantern style tool post. I made one of these "spring cut-off tools" for a quick change tool post, AXA and BXA. In fact I have made several versions and perfected it. I now cut-off at the calculated speed for HSS at the largest diameter with a feed rate of .002" (.05mm) pre revolution. Sometimes I slow things down just to avoid slinging oil. Cutting a 50mm bar at 200 RPM with auto-feed is never a problem. The only requirements are a good supply of oil. Let me know if you want to know more.

Great stuff again…and he’s using my Baty indicator what I love! Chuffed

Very nice video. Nice work. Very interesting

Pretty damned good for a 50 year old Boxford. Have you owned the machine from new?

Thanks for sharing Alan. A very interesting test. Much less complicated than others I’ve seen. ATB Nobby

Hi Alan. Are you sure that the taper in your headstock is No2? It’s no3 in mine. No2 for the tailstock is correct. Also, it may be worth noting that one more step would be necessary. The tip of the tail stock dead center may be aligned however the bore/quill may not.

And here in Australia it's 36 degrees. 😊

Since you have a runout on both the chuck and the spindle, you can put everything together "minimum to maximum". Usually, two identical runouts can be fully compensated.

I nicley done Enots

You left out the part of you struggling for ages to put it all back together. In my opinion, that would be what most people would want to see. Apart from that, it’s a good video..

A caution about digital measurements as made by the digital caliper in the video. If you work in metric you will have to do your calculations, but in the inch system the usual digital caliper indicates to .0005" as the last displayed digit. Note that the last digit is zero or five, there are no intermediate digits. This means that the caliper cannot resolve a given dimension any closer than +/-.00025 inches. Know the limitations of any measuring tools you use. 99.9% of the time there won't be a problem, but be able to recognize situations where some other method of measurement is needed.

Thanks for sharing Alan. I have an old set of imperial slip gauges. Such a useful tool in the workshop. Cheers Nobby

One of the better “how to” videos. Ideally should be red rubber brake grease on the slider pins rather than copper grease (doesn’t react with the rubber boots) but that’s nit picking.

Thanks very much for this informative video Alan. I am about to purchase a set of slip gauges and this is most helpful.

Interesting from a novice thanks for the practical explanation 👍

Great job! What's the designation of the tool that allowed you to get closer to the chuck?

4:11, I don't know why, but that little girl on the back makes me chuckle, it's like she take's her role so seriously.