Help to buy a new chuck

[Mauricio Ulloa]

Hi,

I'm new here and I'm new to bowl turning as well. I've been turning pens, bottle stoppers and small segmented bowls in my mini-lathes for about 2 years. I just bought a Jet 1442 lathe to start doing bigger bowls and hollow forms. I have my Barracuda-2 chuck system from Penn state and I think that I may need to get a bigger chuck to hold bigger bowls. I'm planning on turning bowls up to 10" to 12" now, but if everything goes well, I may end up buying a bigger lathe in about a year or two.

I was wondering if I need another bigger chuck or not. I want something that I can use in my new lathe and something that I could use in the future for bigger bowls. Can you help me make a decision?

Thanks,

Mauricio

[Mike Minto]

i've only been turning a couple of years, and just bought my second chuck - from the same manufacturer as my first chuck. i did this so that i might be able to share jaw sets among my chucks, and not have to worry about duplicates, therby increasing expense. i use Teknatool Nova chucks, the SN2 and now the G3. hope this helps, mike

[Bruce Stangeby]

I have used a Barracuda-2 chuck with the Jet 1442 for several years and never felt that I needed a bigger chuck. It seems capable of turning anything that would fit on the Jet.

[Gordon Seto]

Your current lathe has 1" X 8 tpi spindle, which is the largest lathe with that spindle size. If upgrade in even remotely in the future, please consider a chuck that can use larger inserts, such as 1-1/4" X 8 tpi threads. The spindle adapter is something you would want to avoid if you can.

[Bill Bolen]

I turn on the 1442 and us The Nova sn2 for my biggest turnings and a g3 for everything else and would not hesitate to put in a new insert and use them on a much bigger lathe. Having said that I also bought the Grizzly $99 3 3/4" chuck several months ago. I noticed that I reach for the Grizz chuck more often than the other 2. Jaw set from grizz are limited to just 2 sets but they are only $19 and vicMarc jaws will fit this chuck. The size is almost the same as the sn2...Bill..

[Nathan Hawkes]

hartville tool has both the OneWay Stronghold and Talon on sale until TODAY!!! (midnight, 4/30/09) and it includes a 4-disc taunton press DVD set. I got the stronghold chuck, which is a HUGE step up from the barracuda, which is also what I was using before. One thing that I am still getting used to is that the Stronghold chuck #3 jaws are quite a bit larger than the barracuda--it'll hold MUCh bigger bowls.

http://www.hartvilletool.com/category/1019


You'd be hard pressed to find a better chuck than either of the oneway chucks; the talon is likely plenty big for anything on a 14" lathe.

[Mauricio Ulloa]

Thanks for the advise!