Speedy Lathe Chuck Wrench

[gatz]

Had this Craftsman 'speed wrench' laying in a toolbox since the '60's. I don't think I ever used it once for the intended purpose......
so, I cut off (yikes) about 3" of the end that had the 3/8" drive to use in a cordless drill.



Worked great.

Later on, I made an adapter to use a cordless drill to spin the lathe chuck jaws in/out. Just a short piece of steel with a 3/8" hex on one end and a 7/16" square on the other to drive the key socket of the chuck. Saved a lot of time; especially when changing the set of jaws from Outside to Inside or vice-versa.

One day, much later, I happen to notice the remnants of the speed wrench in a box under the bench and decided to add the adapter to it. Cut the 3/8" hex off and drilled a hole to match the end of the speed wrench. Pinned it with a 1/8" roll pin.









Actually, this works out better because now I don't have to hunt down the cordless drill every time the lathe chuck jaws need some quick change in diameter.

[Altair]

Thanks gatz! We've added your Lathe Chuck Wrench to our Lathe Accessories category,
as well as to your builder page: gatz's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Lathe Chuck Wrench by gatz

tags: wrench, chuck, chuck key

[jimfols]

I'm digging mine out tomorrow. Thank you.

[wizard69]

I will need to keep an eye out for speed wrenches at garage sales, auctions and such. This idea could be applied to axis cranks on mills, lathes and the such.

[mklotz]

I will need to keep an eye out for speed wrenches at garage sales, auctions and such. This idea could be applied to axis cranks on mills, lathes and the such.

If you don't have a speeder wrench it's easy to turn your existing chuck wrench into a speed wrench...

Chuck speeder