Lantern Chuck

[Shelly142]

The Lantern Chuck shown is not my design. It was modeled after a Lantern Chuck from Model-Engineer in the UK which in turn may have originated from information gleaned from Tubal Cain’s Book, “Work holding in the Lathe”.

There were no drawings for this tool only two photos’ showing a general layout of the tool. I first started by preparing a CAD drawing to determine the general proportions and size of the chuck.

There are two differences in the originators version and the one that I completed. First mine has a 1” diameter shank on the arbor to mount it in a 5C collet, on the original the arbor is married which looks to be a 3C collet. I wanted a more positive method of driving the fasteners to be modified so I incorporated a ¼” hex socket which will accept most all driver bits, phillips, hex, torx, etc. The two main portions of the tool are machined from 1018 CRS Hex and Rod with brass being used for the nose bushings.
This tool is probably more useful for the model builder to more precisely modify screws than for the average hobby machinist. I guess one could continue to use a hacksaw, grinder and file to shorten and modify fasteners. This version will handle fasteners from #6 up to ¼” diameter. In the future I plan on making are larger version to manage fasteners of 5/16” and up but once again will have to start with a CAD drawing to determine the appropriate size for the tool.