What is a good starting chuck system for bowls?

[Tom Henry]

Ok...pens to canes to bowls...What is a good starting chuck system for bowl turning? What size? Need the info??? :D Vortex is very strong!!!

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Depending on the size of lathe you have and the size piece you want to turn, here are my suggestions.

Mini Lathe:

One Way Talon Chuck
Nova Precision Midi
Self Centering 4 Jaw Chuck at Woodcraft.

Full size Lathe:

Nova G3
One Way Stronghold Chuck
Or Other chucks designed to hold LARGE pieces of wood.

I own all of these except the Stronghold and they do a very good job.

Bruce

[George Clark]

People with far more experience than I recommend the Oneway Talon or Stronghold, epically for turning green wood, which most bowl turners do. The following link is to to an article by Russ Fairfield that I found very helpful when I asked the exact same question. I'm sure you will get many recommendations based on whatever brand the respondent happens to own, but I found Mr. Fairfield's recommendations were based more on experience than personal bias.

http://www.woodcentral.com/russ/russ7.shtml

George

[Alan Trout]

If it is a mini lathe The Nova Midi and Nova G3 are popular. The midi is a tommy bar chuck and the G3 is a key chuck. I own a G3 and love it. Also the Oneway Talon chuck is popular but a bit more expensive. Some people prefer the jaws on the Talon. However I have never had any problems with Nova jaws and I appreciate that almost all jaws work across the entire range of their chucks. One exception is the power grip jaws for the Titan Chuck only work on that chuck.

Also the midi is a direct threaded chuck so if you move to a larger lathe more than likely it cannot be used because a larger lathe will have a larger spindle. On the G3 you just have to change the insert which is what I did when I went to my larger lathe.

Good Luck

Alan

[Leo Van Der Loo]

You can't get better than a Oneway Talon chuck, but you can go cheaper.
And yes for real large pieces the Oneway Stronghold is unsurpassed , and yes again you can go cheaper.
This is speaking from personal experience.

[alex carey]

I have the stronghold and talon. Talon is more for your size lathe. I'd go with that if you have the money.

[David Walser]

Tom,

Which chuck is right for you depends on a number of factors: your budget, your lathe, the size of bowls (and other projects), etc. If you're looking for a top of the line chuck, you can't do better than the Vicmark chucks. The Vickmark chucks, with their dovetail jaws, excel at holding dry wood securely without crushing the wood fibers. (The Vicmark will give you an adequate hold on wet wood, too. As the wood drys, you may need to retighten the chuck.) The chucks are noted for their accuracy -- allowing you to remove your turning (for inspection or some other reason) and to remount it in the chuck and have it run true. Lesser quality clones of the Vickmark tend to be less accurate and durable. (Note the waffle word "tend". Some examples of, say the Grizzly clone, are excellent.) Teknatool makes a line of chucks that are similar in design to Vicmark and have a good reputation. Recently, Teknatool moved the manufacturing of their chucks to China. Some have reported quality issues with the new Chinese-made chucks. That may have been just an issue with the first run off the line.

The Oneway line of chucks, sush as the Stronghold, excel at holding wet wood. Nothing grips wet wood tighter than the Stronghold's or Talon's serrated jaws. The downside to this jaw design is that it crushes the wood fibers. Wood, particularly when it is wet, will not crush evenly. This makes it difficult to remount a bowl blank in a Oneway chuck and have it run true. This is NOT a fault of the Oneway's accuracy. The jaws of the Oneway accurately return to the same spot. It's simply a trade off in design. Stronger holding of wet wood equals less repeatability. That's NOT a problem if you're just roughing out a bowl because you'll seldom need to remove the blank from the chuck. Even if you do, you might not care too much if the blank doesn't run absolutely true when it's remounted. That's NOT the case when turning a box from dry wood. With a box, you want to be able to remount the blank and have it run absolutely true. That's possible with a Oneway type serrated jaw, but it's easier to do with the Vicmark.

PSI, Woodcraft, Craft Supplies USA, and other vendors have their own lines of inexpensive chucks. They can represent good value. However, with the exception of exceptional examples, these chucks are not as accurate nor as durable as the "name" brand chucks. For example, my PSI chuck no longer centers properly and is only good for use as a paper weight. (A large out-of balance bowl blank racked the internal gears.)

So, for my type of turning, I'd buy the Vicmark unless my budget didn't allow it. Then, I'd buy the Grizzly clone. My reason: I use a chuck primarially for box making. Therefore, I place a premium on repeatability. I prefer using a face plate with a glue block for bowls, so the greater gripping power of a Oneway chuck is not an advantage for me.

Also note: If I were just starting out today, I'd not buy a chuck at all. I'd buy several faceplates. The advantage of a chuck is that it's quicker and it allows you to remove a blank from the late and remount it later. A face plate will do everything a chuck can do only it will do it better and for less money. If you have several faceplates, you can take one blank off the lathe and mount another without worrying about being able to recenter the first blank -- just spin its faceplate back onto the spindle and you're back in business. This makes faceplates more accurate than the best chuck -- your blank will always be centered as long as you don't take it off the faceplate. In addition, properly mounted, a faceplate provides a stronger hold than the best chuck.

That doens't mean I don't like my chuck. It just means I wished I learned how to use faceplates before I bought a chuck.

HTH!

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have the Vicmarc chuck and love it. I also found out later that the Grizzly clone for $99 is a good chuck and will accept all of the Vicmarc jaws. So I have 2 Vic's and 3 Grizzly's.

[charlie knighton]

i bought a stronghold chuck, it has increased in value about $100 in three years, and i have had to buy a new insert when i moved up in spindle size lathe

hopefully we will not continue this price spiril, but inflation should be roaring by next year

[Tom Hintz]

I also have been a longtime fan of the Oneway Talon and have done my best to wear it out, fatigue it or make it do something terrible through years of heavy use but to no avail. It works today like it did the first day. I use the Talon on my JET 1014 though have used it on up to 14" lathes with ease. I also have the Oneway Stronghold that I use on my Powermatic 3520B just because of the huge pieces of stock I occasoinally hang on that machine.
I have a full review of it at the link below if that would help.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/onwytlonrvu.html

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have to add something here, as I said you can't get better than the Oneway Chucks, reason is not only quality, but yes patented jaws that hold over a large range of sizes, unlike dovetail jaws the other chucks use, which hold good, but only at the exact size of a tenon and exact angle of the dovetail angle.
But for those that insist on using a dovetail jaws, Oneway does supply those if wanted also.
The Oneway chucks have also a much wider range of movement for their jaws, so you don't need all these extra jaw-sets to cover the same range as you would with the other chucks.
Like I said you can't do better than a Oneway chuck, distractors notwithstanding :-))

To disprove the so called crushing of the wood by a Oneway chuck, I did a turning of a rather large piece of wood that is held with just a Oneway chuck and will show that NO there isn't any crushing of the wood as distractors like to incorrectly state, I also don't have problems remounting pieces accurately, if I ever have to do this, the changing of the wood is sometimes a problem though, but I doubt a dovetail jaw would help much in that regard, so if you like the proof of the pudding, have a look, and have fun.

http://homepage.mac.com/l.vanderloo/PhotoAlbum26.html

[Randall Hodge]

Tom, I've had a Stronghold and a Talon for about 10 years now and have to say they have yet to give me any grief. Yes they may be a little pricier than some but you get what you pay for. I would also consider how much you plan to use it too, a little bit like a hobbiest, then go for economical. A lot like a professionl, then spend the money.

[Richard Bell CA]

+1 for the Oneway. I have used the original Oneway (bar version) for about 12 years, and my experience matches Leo's. One of the deciding factors for me was the availability of a 1"-8 LH/RH insert, which allowed use for both inboard and outboard turning. I recently upgraded to a larger lathe and was able to simply replace the insert to use it on the larger spindle. I also purchased a Stronghold for larger work, and am extremely happy with both.

Richard

[Don Carter]

Tom;
You have gotten a lot of information on chucks and it seems everyone has their favorite. These things are not cheap and you have to make up your mind as to how you will use it. Many people have more than one chuck. For me, I use the Supernova 2. So far, it has satisfied my needs. I am, however, open to using other brands just as soon as the LOML sees the need.:rolleyes:

All the best.

Don

[David Walser]

Leo,

Please forgive me. I appear to have struck a nerve. In my comment, below, I did not mean to denigrate the Oneway line of chucks. Indeed, I clearly stated that the chucks are well made, durable, and accurate. I said that the chucks have the strongest grip and are particularly good for wet wood.

I also pointed out a design difference (not a flaw, just a different choice that provides a different set of advantages). Oneway's serrated jaws are designed to grip a straight-sided tennon. Unless you crank the jaws tight enough to "compress" the wood, what's to keep the blank in the chuck? (I hope the word "compress" is better than "crush".) That's not a big problem. Usually you'll turn the tennon down anyway. However, if you want to pull the blank out of the chuck, it can be difficult to get it remounted exactly as it was before. At least that's been my experiance (and the experiance of a lot of other turners across the world -- if we are to believe the annecdotal reports and reivews written and published in a number of forums). Side grain "compresses" more easily than end grain. This cause the tennon to become slightly oval when it's squeezed in the jaws of a chuck. (The same problem can occur with Vicmark's dovetail jaws. It's just not as apt to happen with properly sized and shaped tennon.)

Does any of this make a Vicmark a better chuck than a Oneway? No. They're just different and have different strengths. For my style of turning, I prefer the Vicmark. I don't have any trouble turning a dovetail tennon and I seldom use a chuck for roughing out a wet bowl. If I turned more projects of a type for which I find the Oneway more suitable, I'd prefer it to the Vicmark. Kind of like saying I prefer brand X lathe without saying anything but my brand is crap.

YMMV.

[Skip Spaulding]

I have 2 Super Nova2s and a Barracuda 2, I use all three. Being able to swap chucks without changing jaws is a real time saver. If I could have only 1 chuck it would be my Super Nova2, with the proper jaws it will go from bottle stopper to 29" bowl on my Nova 1624.
With my old Craftsman twin tube I started on, the Barracuda 2 was more than enough chuck. Even with the Nova it will handle 90% of what I do.
Bernie might have the right idea with Vicmarc and the Grizzly combo. Sounds like a good combo for the investment.

[Alan Trout]

Don't let anyone tell you different a Super Nova 2 and with the spigot or power grip jaws you can rip a bowl off of a tenon before the tenon comes loose in the chuck. I know cause I have done this. Proper jaw selection for a given job is key. I have used talons on other people lathes and they work fine no complaints out of me but I did not find them any better or worse than my SN2 or G3. If I were going to consider another brand of chuck it would probably be the Vermec because they will accept either Vicmarc, vermec or Nova jaws which will give you the widest selections of jaws available. The only problem you have to order them from overseas.

Good Luck

Alan

[Burt Alcantara]

I started off with the Nova G3. It's a good chuck but I couldn't wrap my feeble brain around the fact that it's backwards (tightens counter-clockwise) so I bought a Talon. Like it. Bought another.

Recently, I bought a Stronghold. Now, that is one strong chuck. Since using the Stronghold, I have yet to have a UFO. Will probably get another in the near future.

I've heard nothing but great things about Vicmarc. May buy one, one day.

Since bowls have large bottoms, it makes sense to me to have a chuck with wide jaws. Holds much better.

Burt

[Steve Schlumpf]

Another vote for the Talon. Lots of luck figuring out which chuck meets your needs! As you can tell by the responses - any of the higher end chucks will work great!

[Hilel Salomon]

I think that you wanted a "starter chuck." I have a bunch of Supernovas, Oneway strongholds and vicmarc 120's. The latter two are very expensive and getting more expensive by the minute. The advantage of the SN chucks is that the jaws are interchangeable with almost the entire line of teknatool chucks, as well as some of the Grizzly stuff, and the smaller vicmarcs. Also you can get very cheap aftermarket adapters (woodcraft sells them for about $5.) They are quite good. Oneway strongholds and talons have proprietary jaws and are not mutually interchangeable, though each holds tenons very well. I have found though that for repeatability and very tight jaws, the vicmarcs are superb. They are exceptionally heavy and for larger bowls I prefer them (vicmarcs). One last consideration is that Oneways are made (I think still) in N. America and they have had consistently superb customer relations and technical support.
You won't really go wrong starting with any of these.
Good luck, Hilel.

[Reed Gray]

I use the Vicmark exclusively, and they are the only chucks I have used. I don't think Oneway was out when I got my first one. No problem holding large or small bowls. I do prefer the dove tailed jaws, and have no problems forming a recess with exact angles to match the jaws. I never use face plates any more because a chuck is faster, and I do production work. A keyed chuck is better than a tommy bar chuck, mostly easier to operate, but you can get used to it. At least there aren't as many chucks to choose from as there are gouges. Well, I don't think there are.
robo hippy

[Dick Sowa]

Skip hinted at it. A "starter" chuck is really just your "first" chuck. I have one, a Talon, and wish I had several more. Be prepared for that :)