1 of 8

Using a chuck with the

rotary attachment

2 of 8

Motivation

  • Some items are hard/impossible to use with the rollers on the rotary attachment.
    • Light items
    • Tapered items
    • Unbalanced items
  • Using the rollers makes it hard to get accurate/reproducible results.
  • Things that have been turned on the wood lathe may already have a mortise/tenon for securing them on a chuck.

3 of 8

Prepare the rotary attachment

  • Remove the two screws and washers from one end of the support rails and remove the end plate (circled red).
  • Slide the support tower (circled blue) off the rails.
  • Slide the rails out from the main body of the rotary attachment.
  • Slide the tower back onto the rails and screw the endplate back on so the parts do not get lost.
  • Use the brass adjustment screws to move the rollers as far apart as possible.

4 of 8

Prepare the chuck assembly

  • Remove the two wing nuts from the lower rods
  • Hold the chuck in one hand and twist the knob on the other end of the drive shaft with your other hand. Unscrew the two halves of the drive shaft from each other.

5 of 8

Fit the chuck to the rotary attachment

  • Install the chuck side first, slide the threaded rods through the holes in the side of the rotary attachment.
  • Then install the other side, sliding the plate onto the threaded rods and lining up the two halves of the drive shaft.
  • Hold the chuck in one hand and twist the knob with the other to screw the two halves of the drive shaft on to each other.
  • Put the wing nuts on the lower rods and tighten the whole thing finger-tight.

6 of 8

Adjust the drive wheel pressure

  • Use the adjustment screws on the rotary attachment to move the rollers closer together so that one of them comes into contact with the drive wheel. You should adjust both screws so that the rollers remain parallel.
  • Adjust the pressure on the drive wheel so it provides a good contact and doesn’t slip.
  • You are now ready to install the unit into the laser cutter, follow the normal instructions for the rotary attachment.

7 of 8

Align the axis with the laser

  • Add weights to the body of the rotary tool.
  • Line up the groove in the white section at the top of one side of the chuck assembly with the laser dot.
  • Move the laser head to the other end of the drive shaft and then rotate the unit until the laser dot lines up with the groove.
  • You may need to repeat this procedure a few times to get it fully aligned.

9.19

8 of 8

Tips/Info/Notes

  • The laser software doesn’t support angle but I’ve found that a distance of 175mm in the software maps to 360 degrees on the chuck.
  • When engraving large diameter items you should use a smaller “scan gap” to make up for the larger circumference.
  • When working with larger item’s you may need to use the special “dropped bed” (photo below) to accommodate the item. See the normal rotary attachment instructions for more info.