A lathe capable of facilitating maintenance of a chucking mechanism. A chuck operating apparatus includes a claw and a shifter to open and close a chuck provided on a spindle. The tilt claw provided outside the spindle has a first posture to bring the chuck into the opened state and a second posture to bring the chuck into the closed state. The shifter provided outside the spindle and movable in a spindle axis direction is brought in a first position to bring the claw into the first posture and in a second position to bring the claw into the second posture. A roller is mounted on the shifter in a contact position with the claw to roll in the spindle axis direction.

A chuck operating apparatus includes a claw, a shifter, and a shifter drive unit. The rotatable claw has a first posture to bring the chuck into the opened state and a second posture to bring the chuck into the closed state. The rotatable shifter is brought in a first position to bring the claw into the first posture and in a second position to bring the claw into the second posture. The shifter drive unit has a shifter lever having an insertion part provided with a shifter bearing capable of being brought into contact with a side surface of an outward groove of the shifter. A roller is provided on one of the claw and the shifter in a contact position with the other to roll in a spindle axis direction and a groove is formed on the other to receive the roller when the chuck is in the opened state.

A collet chuck with a chuck body, a collet, and a clamping nut in which the chuck body has a coupling section for coupling the collet chuck to the working spindle of a machine tool and has a collet holder embodied in the form of an inner cone and at least one thread groove for the screwing-on of the clamping nut; the collet has an outer cone, which is complementary to this inner cone, as well as a cylindrical tool holder; the collet chuck is embodied so that by tightening the clamping nut, the collet can be driven far enough into the collet holder that the tool shaft is held in a rotationally secured fashion; and the clamping nut has at least one thread groove; where rolling elements are inserted between the thread grooves of the chuck body and the clamping nut so that the clamping nut and the chuck body constitute a rolling element screw drive.