Need chuck

[jason lambert]

I have a vicmark 5" chuck and love it but don't want to buy more and more jaws I like the ones on tehre and use them alot so that I want to leave set up. Now I need a smaller chuck for smaller projects, or at least smaller jaws. The vicmarks are quite expensive by the time I get done with jaw set up's. Is there a cheaper good chuck out there that might come with several jaws?

[Mike Minto]

Penn State Industries has a line of chucks called 'Barracuda' that come with multiple jaw sets; Grizzly has some less inexpensive chucks; even the Nova G-3 is not too expensive, although only comes with one jaw set. Mike

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jason I have 3 grizzly's with Vicmarc jaws on them. The $99 grizzly is the clone of the Vicmarc VM100. I also have one of the Vicmarc VC 100's.

[Bill Mitchel]

I have the One Way Talon and it works great. Hartville tool has, as far as I know, the best price @ $142.

[Bill Bolen]

What Bernie said! The grizz chuck is very well made, runs true and strong. The grizz site only has 2 jaw sets but heck all the vicmarc jaws fit them...Bill..

[Tim Cleveland]

The Nova midi and G3 are both very well made chucks and fairly inexpensive. I've heard alot of good things about the Grizzly chucks too.

Tim

[Ryan Baker]

The Grizzly is the obvious choice in your case since they take the Vicmarc jaws. Then you will still be able to interchange jaws when you need to.

[jason lambert]

Not really I have the bigger Vicmark chuck thoes jaws do not fit the Grizzly so I am starting from scratch.

But it sound like the Grizzly or Talon is the way to go.

[Jeff Nicol]

I have the PSI barracudda II and it is a wonderful little chuck for the price and what you get in the kit. I plan on buying another body to have the #3 jaws and the #2 jaws ready to go all the time. I have a nova chuck also that uses the tommy bars to tighten and it is great also. My big chuck is a Oneway Stronghold and it is a monster! So buy what you like or like what you buy, but the money you can afford will tell the tale.

Jeff

[Scott Conners]

Another strong vote of support for the Barracuda 2! I am SO glad I started with this chuck, there's no way I could have afforded all the jaws I use every time I turn that came included with the Barracuda. Just like Jeff, I plan on buying another body or two as soon as funds are available, I change jaws pretty much every day and it gets old fast. The only downside is that when I move up in lathes, I'll need to have an adapter to put it on a larger spindle.

BTW, if you have a 1.25"x8tpi spindle, you're out of luck on PSI's offerings, the Barracuda 4 is only for 1.5"x8 spindles, according to their website, and the B2 only fits 1"x8 and 0.75"x8 spindles. Not sure why that is, when most larger popular lathes have a 1.25" spindle.

[Mark Norman]

BTW, if you have a 1.25"x8tpi spindle, you're out of luck on PSI's offerings, the Barracuda 4 is only for 1.5"x8 spindles, according to their website, and the B2 only fits 1"x8 and 0.75"x8 spindles. Not sure why that is, when most larger popular lathes have a 1.25" spindle.

Looks like an adapter is available for 1-1/4 - 8 threads


http://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCBARR4.html?mybuyscid=1541683377


Standard thread is 1-1/2" x 8tpi. Adapters available: #LABAR418 converts to 1" x 8tpi, #LABAR4114 converts to 1-1/4 x 8tpi, #LABARM33 converts to M33 x 3.5tpi

I'm real close to buying one myself. Looke like its just what the doctor ordered for my needs.

edit to fix the link...